Classic Dirt Bike — Autumn 2017

masscarved away in an attemptto reducethe

all up massof the bike. Despitethis, Greeves

were not too keen on Smith’sattemptsand

he eventuallyleft to go to Montesa who were

moreappreciative of his talents.Miller too

had alreadyrealisedatwo-strokewas the way

forward and had been contracted by Bultaco

to herald anew era in trials riding.Asfor

GordonJacksonand JohnnyBrittain, both lads

had arrived at the end of their careersbythis

time and were soon bothtoretire fromtop

line riding.

Certainlythe two-strokewas the coming

thing and the Britishmanufacturinggiant BSA

oughtto have been in apositionto capitalise

on thisastheyhad the Bantamin theirrange.

Adesign originatingin Germanyand taken up

by BSA in the Forties –any numberof young

ridersbegan their motorcycling on such a

machine.BSA even producedacompetition

version whichdiffered slightly from the

roadsterinthe mostminorofdetails,in fact

theyhad four versionsof it availablein their

1954 catalogue. Still it wasseen as only

somethingto encouragenewriderstotry the

dirtyside of life before moving up to aproper–

read ‘four-stroke’ –machine.

It wasagreatshametheydidn’ttreat the

conceptwithalittle moreseriousness as

Francis-Barnett had almost managed afull

SSDTwin at that timeontheir Villiers-engined

trials bike. Notthattheydidn’t keep producing

trials Bantams, butmore the ones they

did were to win capacityclassesand were

generallyworks specials, hand-built to do a

job. Sadly,for two-strokeenthusiastsand there

were agrowingnumberof trialsriders at least

who realisedthebenefits of an inherently light

motorcycle,tomakethe projectviableBSA

wouldhave to had manufactured manymore

machinesthan there wasdemandfor.

Even lateroninthe lifeofthe Bantam,

when Dave Rowlands, Mick Bowersand Alan

Morewoodrode atrio of superblyprepared

175 Bantamsin the 1967SSDTand Rowlands

had comewithinawhisker of winning the

trial, beatenonly by SammyMiller and his

Bultaco,BSA were not prepared to sanction a

productionrun of replicas.

Speakingto Don Morley for Don’s book

ClassicBritish Two-StrokeTrials Bikes, BSA’s

compboss Brian Martin told how hardhe

workedtopersuade the company to be

involvedin the trials scene.Knowing his

employerswould look at costsfirs thetackled

the problemusingas manyoff-the-shelf parts

as possible.Takingthe BantamBushmanasa

starting point,he dumpedthe standardforks

and put thosefromaC15Ton,fittedwheels

from the works C15Ts which were basically

Unlikeafour-strokethetwo-strokeengine

is alreadysmallandlightandhasan

advantagefromthestart becauseofthis.

Airfilterhoseis well grippedwithJubilee

clipsandthesepreventairleakswhich

causeerraticrunning.

Thereisnodenyingthe

DraytonBantamisa

goodlookingmotorcycle.

Justbecauseyourbikeis pre-65doesn’tmeanall

ofthekit onit hastobeold,anynumberofkick-

startscanbefitted.ThisisaGasGasone.

Drayton

Bantam

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