It was another ten years before I owned one. By the time I turned 16 and got my bike license, the girls I was interested in preferred scooters to motorcycles, so that's what I rode. And then the advantages of four wheels for cherchez la femme became apparent, so I traded my Vespa for a 1955 flathead Ford. But my lusting for a BSA Victor never completely went away.
It wasn't long before I was back into bikes, and after a couple of years commuting on a Honda 125, I decided it was time to move up, and found a used 1969 BSA Victor. Actually riding the BSA after my little Honda was a major disappointment. Where the Honda was slick, sophisticated and easy to ride, the Beezer was stark, clunky and ornery. I pretty much only had to look at the Honda and it would start, while I sweated away trying to kick the BSA into life. The Honda ran like a Swiss watch; the BSA shuddered and misfired. Its favorite trick was stalling at traffic signals just as the light turned green. Trying to kick it back into life from the saddle often resulted in little more than an angry contusion on the back of my thigh from the thoughtlessly located oil filler tube.

I couldn't find parts for it, nor anyone who could help with knowledge or insight. And while Gold Stars and Vincents were becoming collectible, later British bikes, especially the BSA unit-construction singles, were just so much junk. The world had moved on, and the obsolete Victor was caught in the twilight zone between trash and treasure. I had become, I found out, a 'victim.'

The Victor story
All BSA unit-construction (the gearbox in unit with the engine: earlier British bikes mainly had separate gearboxes) singles trace their lineage back to the Edward Turner-designed 150cc Triumph Terrier of 1953, a simple, unsophisticated four-stroke single intended as a cheap commuter. This soon grew into the popular best-selling 200cc Tiger Cub. The BSA group had owned Triumph since 1951, and for 1958, BSA announced the C15, a new 250cc four-stroke single based on the Cub with cylinder dimensions of 67mm x 70mm. This proved to be a solid, reliable little bike, and tens of thousands of British teens cut their motorcycling teeth on one. It was cheap, cheerful, and tunable too. Before long the C15S scrambler was winning trophies in motocross, especially when piloted by BSA team rider Jeff Smith.
BSA next produced a 350cc version of the single, the B40, by increasing the bore from 67mm to 79mm. This also sold well and became the British army's standard motorcycle until replaced in the seventies. A sports version for 1962, the SS90, soon developed a reputation for fragility, perhaps indicating that the limits of the basic 150cc design were being approached.