It’s a motorcycle racer from the 60s up against a criminal lawyer, and there’s clearly no doubt in whose favour the scales are tipping. One might argue that the criminal lawyer’s got all the tricks up his sleeve and the go-faster bits, but a motorcycle racer after all is a motorcycle racer. I’ve probably ruined the ending to what was a meticulously put together shoot, but emotions were running high and I just had to say it out loud.
So let me introduce you to the two machines and men astride them, so we can get on with the rest of the story. In one corner we have a Dominator 500SS, a Norton of 1964 vintage that’s owned by Bhomi Boyce – the 60s racer I mentioned earlier. And in the other is the famous BSA Shooting Star A7, a 1958 model that has just been restored for Ashwin Naik, a criminal lawyer by profession. This Shooting Star adds to Naik’s vintage collection of a 1962 Honda CA77, a 1920 Sunbeam, a 1960 Mercedes 180D and a 1961 Opel of some sort. The Shooting Star was weaned from its first owner who imported the machine to race it back in 1976 – so along with the motorcycle came an engine that was tuned to race spec. As for the Dommie, she’s been owned by Boyce since 1981 after he was inspired by his father, who rode a 1947 Indian. It is his first and only classic machine amongst the host of Bullets, Jawas and Yezdis that he’s owned and raced over the years at the Juhu airfield.
And with his curled-up moustache, black leather boots, half-cuff gloves and pudding bowl helmet, it seemed like Boyce had stepped through a time portal in 1960 to arrive at the shoot. The Shooting Star arrived with no less impact, as it thundered through the air purposefully just like it did when it was first launched to counter the Triumph Tiger 100. The A7, BSA’s internal designation for the Shooting Star, was put together mainly by chief engineer Val Page who worked closely with Herbert Hopwood and Edward Turner at Ariel. The three of them were working on a cheap, easy to build parallel twin engine format. Turner stuck with Ariel to design the KH and Hopwood moved to Norton and built the Dommie – a reason why all Brit marques look pretty much alike.
The A7 shone in pearlescent green (BSA coined that shade, not me) in the evening sun while the Dommie had Pablo wishing he was invisible. The gleaming chrome all over the motorcycle made the polychrome grey (this time it’s Norton doing the marketing) tank look pale in comparison – and reflected Pablo in virtually every shot he took. The A7 had a touch of design to it, with a more refined nacelle, two-tone tank and the BSA monogram embossed in a Golden Star. They obviously had to work on the looks, because it didn’t match the Tiger 100 for pace. They even painted the chassis in a deep green on many A7s to give them a distinct look. Okay, I lied about that, the deep green paint. It found its way onto the chassis from the nearby cycle department, as the A7 paint shop frequently ran out of paint. A drip tray was also incorporated into the later models of the A7 to take care of those blazing riders. BSA later realised that it wasn’t the riders but the petrol overflowing from the carburettor onto a dynamo under it.
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