Words: Abhishek Pandey
When I first rode the BSA Gold Star 650, I was impressed by the way the motorcycle managed to catch eyeballs as well as how it performed. In urban conditions, the bike felt comfortable, handled nicely and the engine, despite being a short-stroke motor, performed well even at lower revs. What I couldn’t test was how it would perform on a track and to be honest, one seldom expects to ride a retro motorcycle on a race track. But I was in for a surprise as Classic Legends, the parent company of BSA, Yezdi and Jawa, invited journalists to experience their motorcycles at the National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) high-speed testing facility and the lineup included the BSA Gold Star 650.
I was visiting the NATRAX for the first time, which is about an hour and a half from Indore, and the fact that such a facility is situated in my home state was enough to pump up my excitement even more. The complete range of motorcycles from Classic Legends was parked right outside the handling track, one of the many testing tracks at the facility. My first choice was the BSA Gold Star 650 — it was the latest bike from Classic Legends that I reviewed.
The Gold Star 650 is a comfortable machine which soaks up bumps and undulations with great poise and manages to stay composed in the corners and this very fact made me curious as to how it would behave when pushed to the limits. I assessed the track on my first two laps, marked the visual pointers and then opened it up. The handling track at NATRAX is a combination of flowing corners, tight turns and long sweeping straights and the 650cc single-cylinder, although nestled in the frame of a classic motorcycle, felt at home. The punchy motor, coupled with precise gearing, resulted in quick triple-digit runs — the fastest I managed to clock was 160kmph, or 100mph, making this a true member of the ton-up club!
The capable engine is complemented by a potent chassis and a sorted suspension package which, although fantastic on the road, reaches its limits on the track quite quickly. The motorcycle feels confident on the straights, but when it comes to the corners, you do feel the need for a slightly stiffer rear suspension, but that does not mean I was limited by it. The Pirelli Phantom Sportscomp tyres were doing a phenomenal job of sticking to the terra firma and I was even scraping the foot pegs at some of the corners. However, I was struggling with gripping the smooth tank with my thighs courtesy of touring pants and that was the point when I realised the importance of tank grips on motorcycles.
As humans, we tend to judge a book by its cover and I won’t shy away from admitting I never thought the BSA Gold Star 650 would be capable around a track but that just goes to show that the machines we ride are often more capable than we realise. Swap the rear suspension with a stiffer unit, put on a pair of clip-on handlebars and you have a proper cafe racer in your hands. That is exactly how cafe racers came to be and while there’s already a scrambler on sale from BSA, I would love to see a factory cafe racer on this platform and take it to the limit at NATRAX once again.
