Now in paperback! The BSA Bantam is one of the definitive postwar
British bikes, perhaps THE definitive British lightweight built
after World War II. It was certainly the most popular, with over
400,000 built over a 23-year production run - in the first four
years, production broke all records. Yet it would die a lingering
death, production fizzling out in the early 1970s as a neglected
model of a manufacturer more concerned with building big, fast
road-burning bikes. The Bantam might never have happened without
World War II. The prewar DKW RT125 was offered to the Allies as
reparations, taken up and produced in the USA, USSR, even Japan! In
East Germany it was revived as the MZ, and in Britain it surfaced
publicly in 1948 as the BSA Bantam, a very simple little 123cc
two-stroke, with rudimentary electrics, no rear suspension and a
lot of charm.The little bike became part of Britain's social
history. Thousands of people learnt to ride on a Bantam, or had
their first pillion experience on one, or rode one delivering
telegrams for what was the GPO. Although many of those learners
progressed to bigger, faster bikes, then gave up two wheels for
family life, they won't have forgotten the Bantam, which explains
why there's such a thriving Bantam community to this day - the
club, the racing club, the spares specialists, and restorers,
owners and riders all over the country. This might not be Britain's
most glamorous motorcycle, its fastest or most flamboyant, but the
Bantam is probably the most loved.
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