BSA (motorcycle)

BSA Company Limited is the motorcycle manufacturer which purchased the rights to its BSA name from Birmingham Small Arms Company's successor, Dennis Poore's Manganese Bronze on the liquidation of Norton Villiers Triumph.

In October 2016, India's Mahindra Group purchased BSA Co. Ltd. for 3.4 million pounds in an effort to reintroduce motorcycles bearing the famous BSA name. Mahindra group makes small capacity motorcycles and scooters in India through its subsidiary Mahindra Two Wheelers. It also owns majority stake in France's Peugeot Motorcycles and also have plans to reintroduce JAWA motorcycles in India.

When NVT Motorcycles Limited was liquidated in 1978, its management, then under William Colquhoun, formed a new company - BSA Company and bought from NVT the rights to the BSA Motorcycle brand.

BSA Company produced military motorcycles (with Rotax engines) and motorcycles for developing countries (with Yamaha engines) under the BSA name. In the latter case the old "Bushman" name was recalled to duty;– it had previously been used on high ground clearance Bantams sold for the likes of Australian sheep farmers. Having moved from Small Heath to Coventry in 1973, Colquhoun moved it again in 1986 to Blockley in Gloucestershire, where production continued on its military and off road motorcycles - mostly then exported to African states.

In 1991 BSA Company was merged with another buy out company, Mike Jackson's Andover Norton International Ltd., to form a new BSA Group. BSA purchased the Norton Spares business from Norton Motors and this change to the cash starved spares business prompted a rapid and continuing growth in the sale of genuine parts. MZ (GB) Ltd was acquired and BSA Group became heavily involved with the renowned Norton F1 designers Seymour Powell in developing and launching the MuZ Skorpion, later to win the 1994 BBC Design Award. In December 1994 Colquhoun and Jackson's BSA Group was taken over by a newly formed BSA Regal Group and the company moved again, this time to Southampton.

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