Sixties were dominated by BSA, Triumph

In the mid-1950s when the annual Daytona 200 motorcycle race was run on the beaches down in Florida, BSA riders once won all five top finishing positions. BSA was the world's top-selling motorcycle then.

Though BSA continued to remain competitive in dirt track and road-racing events, Triumph began to overtake it in sales numbers. Eventually, all British makers began suffering from a lack of technology and design innovation against their new rival, a Japanese bike maker.

The BSA Lightning was a dream bike to many riders in the 1960s. Lavishly chrome plated, painted in candy-apple red and traditional in design, the Lightning, along with the Triumph Bonneville, satisfied until the Honda CB750 hit in 1969 - the year this BSA was made - and changed everything.

The Lightning was offered from 1965 until 1972, when BSA went out of business.

Not content with the typical alphanumeric system of naming its motorcycles, BSA's marketing department was always over the top when naming its bikes: Gold Star, Hornet, Rocket, Golden Flash, Spitfire, Cyclone, Lightning, Firebird, Shooting Star, Victor and Royal Star were some of the monikers.

Displacement, number of carburetors and cylinders, general state of tune and the intended use were the differences between those BSA models. However, BSA styling in the 1950s and 1960s was a strong part of the brand. Chrome and candy-apple paint was a unifying theme.

This bike is on loan to the National Motorcycle Museum from Richard "Dick" Betchkal.