As the world of motorcycles recently welcomed back the name ‘BSA Goldstar’ to market, we take the opportunity to look back at one of the motorcycling world’s best all-rounders – Eddie Dow and his story on how one of motorcycling’s legends, the BSA Gold Star, came to be….
Not only was the BSA Gold Star one of the best-looking bikes on the road, it was also unbeatable in 1950s production racing and dominated the Isle of Man Clubman’s TT in both 350 and 500cc classes.
In the nineteen-fifties it was not uncommon for even the world’s best riders to compete in various disciplines of motorcycling competition and excel at them all. Versatile riders needed versatile machines back then and, without doubt, the BSA Gold Star, whether in 350 or 500cc form, was the most versatile motorcycle of the period. In fact, it is considered to be the best all-rounder ever to turn a wheel.
Few of its rivals could match its high speed capabilities, as proven by the fact that it became so dominant in the Isle of Man Clubman’s TT races that the category was abandoned. The class was intended to prove the racing capabilities of the period’s road bikes but by the end of its ten year history in 1956 all that had been proven was that unless you were riding a BSA Gold Star you had no chance of success! The races, both 350cc and 500cc,had become nothing more than a BSA publicity benefit…
In off-road events there was more opposition but in general the story remained the same. In the 1950s, Gold Star riders were winning more British Championships than rival manufacturers in trials and motocross competition and were regularly bringing home Gold Medals from the International Six Days Trial long distance enduro.
Even in Grand Prix events the Gold Star was a frequent winner in 1950s motocross racing
The British Army team for the 1951 ISDT on parade with their Gold Stars – Lt. Eddie Dow at far left.
The ZB model Gold Star used in 1951 might have had pre-WW2 looks and mechanicals but was more than good enough to win Gold Medals in the ISDT, including one for Eddie Dow
This is the ISDT Gold Star that replaced the ZB in 1953. It was one of the very best ISDT bikes of the 1950s. The British Army team riders rode pre-production prototypes in the 1952 Austrian event
The ISDT is considered to be the ‘Olympics of Motorcycling’ and, because of its prestige and its usefulness in developing the necessary all-terrain riding skills for its dispatch riders, the British Army decided to enter a team in the 1951 event.
The ISDT always included road racing special stages, at which Eddie Dow (227) excelled. Success on the notorious cobblestone surfaces of an Austrian highway in 1952 gave him an idea for the future…
That year the trial was run in Northern Italy and one of the Army riders was a young Lieutenant by the name of Eddie Dow. He had been stationed in Italy since 1946 and was well familiar with the region. By the end of the sixth day he had put this knowledge to good use, had earned a Gold Medal for his unpenalised performance and was on his way to a future in motorcycle sport and the industry in general. The team had been provided with machines by the BSA factory and so began an association between Eddie Dow and the Gold Star models that lasted a lifetime.
The British Army team had finished fourth in Club team points in Italy and was back for the 1952 ISDT in Austria. The event itself was somewhat on the miserable side with plenty of rain and mist in the mountains but the bikes went well and Lt. Dow got his second ISDT ‘Gold’.
Eddie Dow took a First Class Award in the 1953 Scottish Six Days Trial but the intense concentration and the need to ride with absolute precision left little time to enjoy the glorious Highland scenery!
As the 1953 season got underway, Eddie – having by then risen to the rank of Captain – led an Army team of Gold Star riders entered for the Scottish Six DaysTrial. Unlike the enduro-style ISDT, this was the ultimate challenge in the precision world of observed trials. Eddie proved just as adept at the necessary ‘feet up’ balancing act and took one of the coveted First Class awards.
Earlier in 1953, however, his mind had turned to faster competition. He had always enjoyed storming the roads of the mountain passes in the events that had been held in the Italian and Austrian Alps – now he felt ready to tackle another famous mountain – one by the name of Snaefell in the Isle of Man! Soon after the Scottish Six Days, therefore, he headed for the Island and a distinct change of pace as practice began for the 1953 500cc Senior Clubman’s TT.
Up to that point, the 500cc Gold Stars had been overshadowed by the Triumph and Norton models. Imagine the surprise, therefore when the name of Captain W.E, Dow, riding a 500cc Gold Star, appeared on the leader board of the first practice session for the Senior race. Although a complete novice at road racing and a newcomer to the Island, Eddie actually topped the times in the third practice session with a lap of the 37 ¾ miles Mountain Circuit at 81.1mph – the fastest Senior Clubman’s class lap of the whole of practice week!
In the race, he finished the first lap in third place behind two Norton-mounted rivals. Then, on the second lap, he broke the class lap record and went into second place. No BSA had ever lapped the Island so quickly but it was too good to last….
“I overdid it in a big way in one of the worst possible places” Eddie recalled ruefully. “It was at Laurel Bank, with a rock face on one side of the road and a stone wall on the other. As a result I was hospitalized for three months with nine different fractures and a collapsed lung”.
Evidence of his quite phenomenal race pace for a BSA rider came from the fact that, once Dow was out, the next fastest Gold Star came home in 17th place…
Spurred on by Dow’s pace, the BSA development team followed it up with the CB model in 1954. It was the first to feature the now iconic Gold Star engine look with big square-cut finning on the cylinder barrel and head and had the Amal TT carburetor replaced by that company’s new and more efficient Grand Prix unit. Various internal upgrades meant that the new 350 and 500cc CB motors gained 5bhp over their predecessors and the result of all this development was a 1954 double in the Clubman’s TT classes, Alastair King winning the 500cc Senior and Peter Palmer the 350cc Junior.
Eddie Dow had finished a disappointed 10th in the Isle of Man but things improved when the ISDT came around again later in the year and he was asked to put together Army teams for the event that would be run in mid-Wales around Llandrindod Wells. Living in nearby Army barracks, the teams put in eight weeks of local riding and were rewarded when Individual riders took eight Gold Medals – with Eddie (who had missed the 1953 ISDT while hospitalized while recovering from his TT injuries) getting his third in four years.
In 1955, BSA came out with the DB series –the ultimate Gold Star with yet another 5bhp power increase. Eddie Dow was one of the first customers for the new model and was back in the Isle of Man for his third Clubman’s TT. “The race that year was switched to a shorter course” remembered Eddie. “and although I would have preferred another crack at the full Mountain circuit, it was what it was and I set out to learn the short but tricky circuit. It was around ten miles long (that’s short? -ed), so I decided that to be as precise as possible was the way to approach the race.
Eddie Dow on the way to an emphatic victory in the 1955 Clubman’s TT on the Isle of Man
“It turned out to be the right approach and I moved into the lead on lap three. From that point on it was just a matter of maintaining full concentration for the rest of the race. For the last six laps my times varied by less than a second and it turned out to be just a fast ride to the finish rather than a race.”
The bike finished in perfect condition. So much so, in fact, that it was entered for the Thruxton Nine Hours endurance race a few weeks later, where Eddie would share it with Eddie Crooks. Nothing was done to the bike apart from a check-over and minor adjustments to brakes and chains. Both the primary and rear chains were the same components that had completed the Clubman’s TT…as were both front and rear tyres!
Eddie Dow and his wife celebrating his Isle of Man TT win in 1955
In an amazing display of Gold Star reliability combined with fast and consistent riding, the bike ran faultlessly through the nine hours around the Hampshire airfield circuit and the two Eddies won comfortably at an average speed of 67.86mph.
The TT and Thruxton double was obviously the high point of Eddie’s road racing career and the 1955 competition season was his last intensive one.
In 1956 he left the Army with a thousand pounds gratuity as his demobilisation payment and put the money into a motorcycle dealership in Banbury. Within a very short space of time it became by far the world’s leading supplier of Gold Stars and sold no less than 49 of them in 1959 alone! In addition, he offered a mail order service that kept the local Post Office busy on a daily basis shipping out his patented performance parts and accessories to BSA owners around the globe. No wonder the names of Eddie Dow and the BSA Gold Star are forever linked in the minds of classic bike enthusiasts.
Words by Bruce Cox
Photographs courtesy of Bonhams Auctions and the Dow family personal collection
