1972

Thanks to my mate Pete for this preview of 1972…
BSA’s MERGER WITH NORTON Villiers was started in late 1972 and for a brief time a Norton 500 single was built with BSA B50-based unit-single engine, but few if any were sold. The 500cc B50 enjoyed radical improvement in the hands of the CCM motorcycle company allowing the basic BSA design to continue in a competitive form all over Europe. With BSA facing bankruptcy its motorcycle businesses were merged as part of a government-initiated rescue plan with the Manganese Bronze company. Norton-Villiers became Norton-Villiers-Triumph with the intention of producing and marketing Norton and Triumph motorcycles at home and abroad. In exchange for its motorcycle businesses Manganese Bronze received BSA Group’s non-motorcycle-related divisions—namely, Carbodies. Although the BSA name was left out of the new company’s name, a few products continued to be made. The final range was just four models: 500 Gold Star, 650 Thunderbolt/Lightning and the 750 Rocket Three. However, the plan involved the axing of some bands, large redundancies and consolidation of production at two sites . This scheme to rescue and combine Norton, BSA and Triumph failed in the face of worker resistance. Norton’s and BSA’s factories were eventually shut down, while Triumph staggered on to fail four years later.