Because of the prestige and premium price of BSA parts they were widely copied. The old time bike guys in the US always prefaced the word BSA with "genuine" when they meant the real deal. That implies that knockoffs abounded.
BSA was careful to mark even the smallest parts with the three rifles trademark. If you dissassemble a BSA three speed, the planet gears each have the rifles. If a real BSA three speed bike is totally disassembled, I'll bet the 3 rifle trademark appears over 100 times. If they could- they would have stamped each bearing!
As to wartime, I suppose BSA was put to work on the armaments directly. Other than the great folding parachutists bikes that is.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> Edward Albert wrote:
>
> > I am trying to get some information about a crankset that came on a
> > 1940's Australian Malvern 5 Star. They are steel cottered track,
> > stamped Utility British Made, and have a 5 bolt pattern like BSA's
> and
> > take BSA chainrings.
>
> I also have a Malvern Star five star, from 1947, with these cranks. I
> had assumed that BSA were de rigueur for five stars for this period, and
> that my Utility cranks were later additions, but your mention of a
> similar vintage five star with the same cranks makes me wonder if they
> were standard fitment... Perhaps there were problems with supply of BSA
> parts immediately after the war?
>
> Is anyone in the know?
>
> Regards,
>
> Suzy Jackson
> Sydney Australia