My Dad's Gold Star

In 1861, the Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) Company was formed by a group of gunsmiths. In 1880, the company found that the tooling for firearms was adaptable to making bicycles and bicycle parts. In November of 1919, the company premiered their first motorcycle, a 770cc side-valve vee-twin, Model E motorcycle. As the years passed, the other arms of the business did not prove as profitable as their motorcycles. Today, the BSA name is synonymous with quality motorcycles.

The Brooklands Circuit was well known 2.75-mile racing circuit in Surrey, England. The track had a tradition that any rider that could lap the circuit at over 100 mph would receive a gold star pin. In 1937, Wal Handley achieved this whilst riding a BSA Empire Star, this was the inspiration for BSA to develop their Gold Star model motorcycle. The BSA Gold Star debuted in 1938 and was a stalwart of the BSA stable until its final model in 1963. Those that owned a Gold Star, loved them, this is the story of one man’s enduring passion for his Gold Star.

My Dad grew up loving all things mechanical and dreamed of becoming a mechanical engineer, sadly he couldn’t afford to go to university, so his life took him on a different path. But he still loved everything about cars and motorbikes. His first motorbike was a 1957 BSA Road Rocket, and then he bought a BSA big valve Super Rocket. He put 40,000 miles on that bike in 3 years including a 7,500-mile round trip across Australia on his own. He ended up selling that one to his brother.

In 1966, Dad saw an ad for a 1958 BSA Gold Start for sale. The bike had been imported to Australia in pieces and the owner had passed away. Dad jumped at the chance to buy such an iconic motorcycle; however, he was working away a lot so he put it in Grandma’s chook shed until he could work on it and get it running.

Now there is a saying about the “best-laid plans of mice and men…” well a couple of months after buying that motorbike Dad went to a nurse’s dance and met a young woman. A couple of years later they were married and started a family. They had two kids, my sister and I, so Dad ended up putting whatever spare money he had into buying a house, paying for school, making sure his family had everything they needed. That Gold Star just sat in the chook shed, gathering dust and Dad didn’t really get a chance to think about it. He would sometimes talk about getting it and starting work on it, but he had a favorite saying over those years:

“If I have the time, I don’t have the money. If I have the money, I don’t have the time.”

We get to 1990, and my Grandma was moving into a nursing home. She rang Dad up and told him to either come and get the Gold Star or it would be getting sold with the house. With my sister and I out of the house, it was his chance to finally devote the time and money he needed to restore it. In late 1996, 30 years after he had bought it, the Gold Star was complete. Around that time was my Grandma’s 80th birthday, I remember Dad taking her for a ride on his bike and her returning with a beaming smile from ear to ear.

Even though the Gold Star was a classic, that didn’t stop Dad riding it everywhere. He’d take the Goldie for rides around town, or if the restored motorcycle club was going away to a rally, he’d ride the Gold Star all the way, unlike others who would put it in a trailer. Dad firmly believed that motorbikes were meant to be ridden. He also believed that looking pretty wasn’t a sign of reliability, his other favorite saying was “Chrome won’t get you home”.

As he got on in years, he still loved to get on the bikes, three years ago he was out on a ride and came off. They called for an ambulance and dispatch informed the paramedics “70-year-old motorcyclist”, they assumed it was a miscommunication and they meant it was a 17-year-old rider. Upon arrival, they said, “Oh it was a 70-year-old…” my Dad’s response was, “I’m 75!”. They wanted him to go to the hospital for scans, but he refused and even though he was feeling a bit sore he got dropped home. The next morning, he woke up in excruciating pain unable to breathe properly, and after finally having that ride in the ambulance they discovered he had broken three ribs and collapsed a lung. That didn’t slow him down and within three weeks he’d fixed the damage to the bike and was back riding.

My Dad had always been an introvert, and there are lots of people who were friends of mine that may have heard him speak a handful of times. But, if you wanted to talk to Dad about his motorbike, he could talk for hours. He could talk about the gear ratio or the latest problem with the big end. It was how I finally learned to bond with Dad, talking bikes and cars. It proved a great way to build a connection between Father and son.

So, three weeks ago, Dad went for a quick ride (80 miles) with the other members of the Restored Motorcycle Club, he took the Goldie. They had just stopped at the halfway point for coffee and were on their way back. About half a mile into the return trip, Dad suffered a massive heart attack, he left the road and crashed. He was pronounced dead at the scene. As sad as it is, there is no other way that Dad would have wanted to go.

I have done some hard things in my life, but the greatest challenge for me was going to pick up my Dad’s crashed Gold Star from the police impound. I took it home and put it in his shed, right now I don’t know what we will do with it, but I know it needs to get back on the road and be ridden some more.

For his funeral, 40 members of the Restored Motorcycle Club escorted him being carried to and from the church on a sidecar. At the funeral, one of his mates spoke about him receiving an award for the Gold Star as the longest restoration project. Dad and his Goldie were well known and will be missed.