VINTAGE HONDAS

[suhawk305]

I love seeing vintage motorcycles, particularly BSAs. I had a 1996 Lightning that I made into a café racer. Probably spent three times as much on fiberglass and racing parts as I did for the bike. In the late 70s I restored a 1971 BSA Lightning that had been altered into a quasi chopper.

I am a neat freak, so I seldom keep anything that I don't use. But for some strange reason I have kept a book "The Story of BSA Motorcycles" paid for in British pounds. The book has cutaway diagrams of various BSA engines. I also held onto to a 1967 BSA brochure.

Now that you posted this BSA advertisement Nortoon, it renewed a decades old question from my teenage years during the 1960's. Back then, I used to read every word in my CYCLE magazine subscription and would marvel at these BSA ads. There were no BSA dealers near me and I only saw and heard one in the wild back then. I was planning on getting one when I was able.
When I compared the Lightning to the to the Spitfire Mark III it was obvious that the gas tanks were different. In my teenage mind, I thought why would anyone pass on that beautiful Chrome and Red tank for just a painted one? So the burning question is: Did the Spitfire have different mechanical specifications (engine performance, etc.) over the Lightning?