A nice item of motorcycle history from the mid 60's. Definately too many similarities for it to be coincidence !! including the abilty to swap the gear lever/rear brake over to either side which Yamaha claimed as a first. BS won the styling stakes, though, with this one but as we all know Yamaha went on to dominate the motorcycling world with their 350s.
Spoke to a guy recently at a show who had a Kawasaki 67, A1-R (250) which he had raced back in the late 60s. Had made his own barrels and liners to convert it to 350 and enjoyed some sucess against the factory bikes. Got talking about disc valves and the BS GTR. He was firmly of the opinion that BS had been instructed to cease motorcycle production by the Japanese government but couldn't remember where he had learned this. Would make some sense, a strategic decision to avoid losing a major rubber producer ?. Anyone else heard this one?
Brian.