small arms company limited bsa type listed company fate acquired 1973 by manganese bronze holdings founded gun quarter birmingham england 1861 headquarters birmingham uk key people j.d. goodman chairman 1863 1900 sir hallewell rogers chairman 1906 28 dudley docker sir bernard docker chairman 1940 56 jack sangster chairman 1956 61 products firearms ammunition bicycles motorcycles vehicles military equipment subsidiaries firearms bsa guns cycles and motorcycles bsa cycles bsa motor cycles new hudson sunbeam cycles ariel motors triumph engineering motorcars buses and bodies the daimler company the lanchester motor company transport vehicles daimler bsa cars iron castings cardiff foundry and engineering machine and small tools bsa tools burton griffiths & co bg machinery fine steels william jessop & sons jj saville & co bromley fisher & turton coal cleaning and sintering plant the birtley co hard chrome process monochrome sintered metals metal & plastic compacts website www.bsaguns.co.uk footnotes references bsa brand bicycles are currently manufactured and distributed in india by ti cycles of india motorcycles bearing the brand bsa were briefly manufactured after 1979 by a business now known as bsa regal bsa brand air rifles are manufactured in birmingham by a subsidiary of spanish manufacturer gamo this article is not about gamo subsidiary bsa guns uk limited or bsa company or its successors . the birmingham small arms company limited bsa was a major british industrial combine a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms ; bicycles ; motorcycles ; cars ; buses and bodies ; steel ; iron castings ; hand power and machine tools ; coal cleaning and handling plants ; sintered metals ; and hard chrome process . at its peak bsa who also owned triumph was the largest motorcycle producer in the world . in the late 1950s and early 1960s poor management and failure to develop new products in the motorcycle division led to a dramatic decline of sales to its major usa market . the management had failed to appreciate the importance of the resurgent japanese motorcycle industry leading to problems for the entire bsa group . a government organised rescue operation in 1973 led to the takeover of remaining operations by what is now manganese bronze holdings then owners of norton villiers and over the following decade further closures and dispersals . the original company the birmingham small arms company limited remains a subsidiary of manganese bronze but its name was changed in 1987 . manganese bronze continues to operate former bsa subsidiary carbodies now known as lti limited manufacturers of london taxicabs and formerly the largest wholly british owned car manufacturer . manganese bronze is now owned by the chinese company geely . contents 1 history of the bsa industrial group 1.1 firearms 1.2 new ventures 1.2.1 bicycles 1.2.2 bicycle components 1.2.3 ammunition 1.2.4 sparkbrook 1.2.5 motorcycles 1.2.6 motor cars 1.2.6.1 bsa cars 1.2.6.2 daimler vehicles 1.2.6.3 steel bodies 1.3 first world war 1.4 inter war years 1.4.1 motorcycles 1.4.2 aviation 1.4.3 lanchester 1.4.4 armaments 1.5 second world war 1.6 post war 1.6.1 norton villiers triumph 2 trademarks 2.1 motorcycles 2.2 guns 3 products 3.1 bicycles 3.2 motorcycles from 1910 3.3 motorcycle models 3.3.1 pre world war ii 3.3.2 post world war ii 3.4 military vehicles 3.5 military firearms 3.6 civilian firearms 4 see also 5 notes 6 references 7 external links history of the bsa industrial group edit bsa began in june 1861 in the gun quarter birmingham england founded specifically to manufacture guns by machinery . it was formed by a group of fourteen gunsmith members of the birmingham small arms trade association . the market had moved against british gunsmiths following the outbreak of the crimean war in 1854 because the board of ordnance s royal small arms factory at enfield had introduced machinery made in the usa and enfield s greatly increased output had been achieved with reduced reliance on skilled craftsmen . 1 the war office provided this new grouping of gunsmiths free access to technical drawings and their facilities at their enfield factory . the newly formed company purchased 25 acres 10 ha of land at small heath birmingham built a factory there and made a road on the site calling it armoury road . this machinery brought to birmingham manifested the principle of the inter changeability of parts . 2 firearms edit bsa s resort to the use of machinery was rewarded in 1863 with an order for 20 000 turkish infantry rifles . the management of the bsa company was changed at an extraordinary meeting called on 30 september 1863 when the company was changed from being run by a committee to that of an elected board of directors joseph wilson samuel buckley isaac hollis charles playfair charles pryse sir john ratcliffe edward gem and j.f. swinburn under the chairmanship of john dent goodman . 3 the first war office contract was not agreed until 1868 . in 1879 the factory without work was shut for a year . the military arms trade was precarious . 4 new ventures edit bicycles edit the next year bsa branched out into bicycle manufacture . 4 the gun factory proved remarkably adaptable to the manufacture of cycle parts . what cycles needed was large quantities of standard parts accurately machined at low prices . 2 in 1880 bsa manufactured the otto dicycle in the 1880s the company began to manufacture safety bicycles on their own account and not until 1905 was the company s first experimental motorcycle constructed . bicycle production ceased in 1887 as the company concentrated on producing the lee metford magazine loading rifle for the war office which was re equipping the british army with it . the order was for 1 200 rifles per week . bsa recommenced manufacturing bicycles on their own behalf from 1908 . bsa cycles ltd was set up in 1919 for the manufacture of both bicycles and motorcycles . bsa sold the bicycle business to raleigh in 1957 after separating the bicycle and motorcycle business in 1953 . bicycle components edit in 1893 bsa commenced making bicycle hubs 3 and continued to supply the cycle trade with bicycle parts up to 1936 . bsa bought the eadie manufacturing company of redditch in 1907 and so began to manufacture the eadie two speed hub gear and the eadie coaster brake hub . bsa also signed an agreement with the three speed gear syndicate in 1907 to manufacture a 3 speed hub under licence . this was later classified as the sturmey archer type x. bsa introduced a duo hub in the late 1930s which was capable of one fixed gear and one gear with a freewheel . all bsa hub gear production temporarily ceased in 1939 until they recommenced making their 3 speed hub around 1945 . the eadie coaster hub made a brief return in 1953 on two bsa bicycle models . bsa forever ceased production of their hub gears in 1955 . ammunition edit bsa sold its ammunition business in 1897 to birmingham metal and munitions company limited part of the nobel dynamite trust through kynoch a forerunner of ici . 5 sparkbrook edit in 1906 frank dudley docker was appointed a director of the company . by the autumn of that year bsa was in some difficulty . they had purchased the sparkbrook royal small arms factory from the war office and in return the war office undertook to give bsa a quarter of all orders for lee enfield rifles . but the war office did not honour their undertaking . 6 the ensuing financial crisis did not prevent bsa from signing an agreement to amalgamate with another bicycle component manufacturer the eadie manufacturing company of redditch on 11 february 1907 . that decision was ratified by the shareholders of both companies at separate extraordinary general meetings held in the grand hotel birmingham on 27 february 1907 . albert eadie became a bsa director a post he held until his death in 1931 . 3 motorcycles edit motor bicycles were added to bicycle products in 1910 . the bsa 3 hp was exhibited at the 1910 olympia show london for the 1911 season . the entire bsa production sold out in 1911 1912 and 1913 . 3 motor cars edit bsa cars edit main article bsa cars in an effort to make use of the sparkbrook factory bsa established a motorcar department there . an independent part of it was occupied by lanchester motor company . the first prototype automobile was produced in 1907 . the following year marketed under bsa cycles ltd the company sold 150 automobiles and again began producing complete bicycles on its own account . by 1909 it was clear the new motorcar department was unsuccessful ; an investigation committee reported to the bsa board on the many failures of its management and their poor organisation of production . daimler vehicles edit main article daimler company dudley docker had joined the board in 1906 and was appointed deputy chairman of bsa in 1909 . he had made a spectacular financial success of a merger of five large rolling stock companies in 1902 and become the leader of the period s merger movement . believing he could buy the missing management skills that could not be found within bsa he started merger talks with the daimler company limited of coventry . daimler and rover were then the largest british car producers . daimler was immensely profitable . after its capital reconstruction in 1904 daimler s profits were 57 per cent and 150 per cent returns on invested capital in 1905 and 1906 . the attraction for daimler shareholders was the apparent stability of bsa . 7 so in 1910 bsa purchased daimler with bsa shares but docker who negotiated the arrangements either ignored or failed in his assessment of their consequences for the new combine . the combine was never adequately balanced or co ordinated . one of the financial provisions obliged daimler to pay bsa an annual dividend of 100 000 representing approximately 40 per cent of the actual cash bsa had put into daimler . this financial burden deprived daimler of badly needed cash to fund development forcing the daimler company to borrow money from the midland bank . 8 bsa had still not recovered financially from the earlier purchase of royal small arms factory at sparkbrook and bsa were not in a position to finance daimler nor had either company ample liquid resources . bsa went ahead with motorcycle production in 1910 their first model available for the 1911 season . in 1913 the bsa group were compelled through pressure from the midland bank to make a capital issue of 300 000 preference shares . in the short term this was to solve the liquidity issue but further diluted the group s capitalisation . 9 dudley docker retired as a bsa director in 1912 and installed lincoln chandler on the bsa board as his replacement . dudley docker liked to draw a comparison between the bsa daimler merger he engineered and that of his 1902 merger of metropolitan carriage wagon & finance company and patent shaft . however there was not the integration of facilities in the bsa daimler case nor was there a reorganisation of either bsa or daimler and in view of the earlier criticism contained in the 1909 report of the investigation committee bsa continued to produce cars of their own using daimler engines . in 1913 daimler employed 5 000 workers to manufacture 1 000 vehicles an indication that things were not well . 10 steel bodies edit in 1912 bsa would be one of two automobile manufacturers pioneering the use of all steel bodies joining hupmobile in the us . 11 first world war edit during the first world war the company returned to arms manufacture and greatly expanded its operations . bsa produced rifles lewis guns shells motorcycles and other vehicles for the war effort . inter war years edit 1935 magazine advert