Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board 1970 A50 information

Hi All,

I have just bought myself an A50 off a friend, bike runs well and starts easily so im pretty happy with that, but over the coming years I would like to restore it. For now it will make a great bike and change from the other bikes in the stable.

I was wondering if anyone had any original photos (either US or Home and general export spec) of such a bike of that year. The tank looks original so I might find some of the original colour on the underside.. we will see....

The internet is your friend, "BSA A50" in your search engine will bring up tons of info and photos. Personally I use Duck Duck Go, to has a photos only option, "Images" at the top of the page or "more images" a little farther down.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=bsa+A50&ia=web

Hi Mike, Thankyou for taking the time to help.

The only sad thing with search engines is you have everybody’s repaint in what ever shade of blue they think is correct. The photographs from BSA NSW’s collection of catalogues are really good, but they are more a drawing than half decent photos.

Back in 2007 I bought a NOS tank, it had no decals so I just assumed it was a Lightning but could easily have been royal star. On some literature it states both were airfcraft blue. On others it states and shows a different shade, the tank I bought had some storage damage to the paint and I repainted it in a car colour which was not too dissimilar. I made a nice job too at the time but ended up repainting it red.

The colour was Emy53 Peugeot Miami blue.

Hi Allan, Not the correct year, but did BSA change a color once used? I have an NOS ‘67 tank on my A65 (T-Bolt tribute), and it was Flamboyant Blue. You likely knew that………. Not sure a ‘70 color would be any different?

Hi KC. I think BSA did change at least some of the colours from year to year. The Spitfire colours were different over the 3 years of production, for instance.

Some of the colour differences might have just been a matter of changing the base coat, or the number of coats used. Either of these can make quite a difference to the appearance.

I'm glad they're coming in handy. The brochures tended to have "artist's impressions" of what the bikes were going to look like, but the 1970 US brochure does use actual pictures of pre-production bikes. Unfortunately, the scans are only 300 dpi, and the colours appear rather darker than the brochures.
Even the brochure colours were subject to the photo developing and the printing, so can be misleading.
It really needs something like a Pantone colour chart in the picture as a reference.

If the Royal Star, Lightning and Firebird blue were the same, I can PM you a shot of the NOS Firebird tank I bought a few years ago. It appears to have been stored away from too much light.

Thanks guys,

KC, as Shane states, there was a colour change between the years. Assuming my original tank was for a royal star it is a different colour to the 67 guards I originally fitted it with to get it on the road.

(Ignore the side panels. Those were repainted, but at this point the guards and the tank were still in their factory appearance, yet somewhat aged)



Shane, yes those catalogues have been very helpful over the years and for an artist impression they have been very accurate.

The Firebird blue is a lot darker than the Lightning blue, from what I have seen it’s more like an indigo shade than the flamboyant aircraft blue.

However, please do send some photos of the tank. I am still interested all the same. I don’t think photos work on a pm so you might have to drop me an email.

Thanks again

Too many things fade over the years .
go with whatever color you see in your minds eye .
these images are from a 2 owner 1969 , you be the judge .
https://www.carandclassic.com/auctions/1969-bsa-500-royal-star-nrpOe8

Thanks Quinten, I appreciate the reply but I’m pretty sure that has been painted as it has the decals from a 67 and the tank from what would be 69 on (if it was the original blue, before anyone corrects, I those tanks were from 68 on but in 68 they were either black or red). The seat looks pretty original though, none of the aftermarket seats I have seen seem to get the hump right.

There’s a 69 RS in the States on facebook at the moment which looks pretty original, I saved the pics on my phone but the forum doesn’t like the file format so I will change it when I can upload them in the office to JPEG (my phone saves in PNG) that looks pretty bone stock with regards paint… but it’s a dusty old bike with the photos taken place in the barn so it’s not easy to tell.

You're right - the Firebird blue is quite a bit darker. The factory paint is a couple of shades darker than my bike you rode at Hall's Gap.

Thats a nice shade Shane, my friend is restoring a 70 firebird, just like yours so this info will also be helpful to him.


My friend delivered the bike yesterday, after a bit of shifting about in the garage I was able to make some space for the old Gal.

I didn't take photos, but I looked in the tank and noticed that the colour of the paint inside the cap looked metalic and quite bright. I will wait until I get round to getting the tank off and have a look under there.

You might want to consider that under the tank in the tunnel, and inside the calf may not have received as much topcoat over the base, and therefore be a shade lighter
The other issue with looking at old parts is paint fade. Perfect example is the ‘70 spring gold, which faded quickly into puke green. In that case, it was almost the opposite of what I said above. Looking in the tunnel I discovered the color was actually quite nice. Went ahead and matched it with modern paint from Hutchison.

B25 UK Aircraft Blue

As Flamboyant colours were a coloured varnish over a silver or gold base they would have varied a lot from the factory dependant on the number of coats of coloured varnish and the thickness of the coats.