I’ve just heard from the person who last owned “White Lightning” before it was sold to a customer in Birmingham. She says:
I was a previous owner and had actually wanted an A65 Thunderbolt – but was offered this Lightning at such a good price I couldn’t refuse. Not only had I wanted a Thunderbolt, but I wanted a black BSA – and this one was a strange dark metallic pink colour – but it was flawless and I decided to wait until it was worn before respraying it. I lived in Newcastle at the time and all I can remember about the owner before me was that he was called Dave and was a welder – the reason I got the bike so cheap (£250 – I sold a little Tiger Cub for £225 to get it) was that he had done a small repair to the cylinder head and couldn’t guarantee it’d hold (it did).
Another aspect of the machine was that it had been tuned to the hilt by an engineering firm specializing in A65s called Devimead – amongst other things it was bored out to 750cc and was a real pig to ride in traffic. A65s are known to suffer a design flaw in oilflow – Devimead did a modification but apparently that was about the only thing they hadn’t done on mine! It seized up while halfway through the Tyne Tunnel and my then boyfriend (a mechanic!) stripped it down for me and got it back on the road – that was when we discovered the extent of tuning done. On another occasion the wiring caught fire while sitting in rush hour traffic – the joys of British biking!
In the end I decided to get something more suited to daily plodding so I handed it in to the Classic Bike shop on Westgate Hill and asked the owner to sell it for me. Not long after he got in touch and said there was a potential buyer in Birmingham and would I let it go? I always get attached to my bikes and was happy at the thought that at least I’d never see it again – I even saw trailers for Boon and didn’t realise... that is until the owner before me got in touch and told me to take a closer look! Sure enough, there was EVK – albeit with ugly topbox and mirrors – so much for never seeing it again!
I’d heard that Michael Elphick hadn’t ridden bikes before and sometimes wondered what he thought about riding this one – she was only ever happy out on the open roads. As for me, I trudged further up Westgate Hill and fell in love with an ex army BSA B40 – a plodder if ever there was one!
Here’s a pic of the Lightning taken outside my bedsit in Rothbury Terrace, Newcastle, not long before it left for Birmingham.
I asked her about the wording “white lightning” on the triangular maroon panel between the seat and the engine, because the bike seen in the opening titles and closing credits of Series 1 just said “lightning” whereas whenever the bike was seen in the episodes the wording was “white lightning”. She says:
There was no text at all on the triangular panel when I owned it – just the gold coloured tinplate badge with ‘BSA’ above a lightning flash.
I also had just a speedo (no rev counter) and I seem to remember the headlight brackets were (home)made out of brass (Triumph owners were quick to point out that this was all that was worth anything!)
The silencers were ‘straight-through goldies’ and made a satisfying racket... although when I later moved to a council estate I would push it down to the main road before firing it up and pray it would start first time.
Going through photos I notice I have very few of EVK – to be honest it wasn’t really the machine for me... and I wasn’t the rider for it (as my boyfriend was always quick to point out!). Can’t remember how much I got for it – probably about £300 which I used to buy a WD B40... that has since ended up in a museum ‘somewhere in Finland’ and I’ve regretted selling it ever since.
Funnily enough I’ve just bought another one (via Ebay!) and I’ve got a month to wait until it’ll be shipped over – in the meantime I’m selling my current machine to make space which also happens to be an A65 (Rocket this time).
Page last modified: 16 June 2010, 12:38