1969 BSA Victor 441

I think the Victor was a '69, though it might have been a '70. Or maybe it was a left-over '69, and he bought it in '70. In any case, he bought it brand-new, and it was the race bike which replaced the Hornet. I think Jeff Smith's continued success on a Victor heartened my brother, and he raced the bike 'til '72 or '73. He never really had any success with it, though, and it was his swan song in racing. The above pic is the only photo I've got of an actual bike of my brother's, and that's him riding it. The occasion was an ice race years after he had given up racing on a regular basis. My guess is that it was taken somewhere between '77 and '80.
I never did get to ride the 441 much. For one thing, I could never master the starting drill. :-/ However, it was a sweet bike to ride, and quite competitive against the 2-strokes in scrambles. Or more so than was the Hornet, in any case.
Favorite memory; watching a semi-pro racer who was a friend of my brother's ride the bike at our house one day. This guy was really good, and could ride a wheelie like nobody's business. We had a nice little jump out back, right beside an apple tree that was maybe 15 feet tall, at that time. The dude took the jump dozens of times that day, feeling it out and getting progressively more crazy. In the end, we could see the top of the tree under the Victor's wheels! Now, we were standing at the bottom of the jump, while the tree was up on top, so this was partly due to the angle we were watching from. But this guy was getting some darned impressive air, nevertheless. Especially considering the Victor's primitive suspension!

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