As its name suggests, the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) did not get its start making motorcycles. Founded in the 1860s, the industrial group spent its early years making firearms and over the course of its history manufactured bicycles, cars, buses and tools. BSA built its first motorized bicycles in 1910, and the motorcycle business grew considerably over the course of the 1910s and 1920s. BSA supplied motorcycles to the British military, most notably the lightweight M20 model. The 1950s and 1960s were arguably BSA’s best years. The company bought Triumph Motorcycles in 1951, while the single-cylinder BSA Gold Star established itself as one of the fastest bikes on the road through multiple wins at the Isle of Man TT. By the late 1960s, however, BSA faced financial problems thanks to poor management and increased competition from Japan, so the company merged with fellow English bikemaker Norton-Villiers to form Norton-Villiers-BSA. The subsequent years saw further struggles, and BSA eventually stopped motorcycle production in the mid-1970s.