1961 ISDT, the 36th, a 1200 Miles Marathon & held as usual in UK based out of Llandrindod Wells.  271 Starters & BSA had 'opted out of Team support with unofficial BSA C15's galore & Brian Martin the BSA Comp. Mngr. actively assisting the likes of Jim Sandiford, John Harris, Bill Faulkner & Mary Driver.   Only John Harris was a BSA reserve for for Vase 'A' Teamwho obtained a Gold, Mary Driver obtained a Silver & 2 BSA riders gained Bronze.  One of these was a 21 yr old Baker working in his Rhondda located family Business.   Gwyn Collins was a notable & extremely talented Trials rider going well on a 197 Greeves, later a 250 Cotton.  Gwyn's entry was accepted with 3 weeks to go, Trials Tyres, siamesed exaust pipes (which I swore by), monobloc carb instead of std Amal 10 TT9 Racing carb., lower gearing plus alloy front mudguard & Gwyn was off to ISDT.  Above we see that surviving machine on which he gained Bronze & had BSA used better metal or development could have gained far better.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42755  Double click on this to see the cine of 1961 ISDT.  First time I got this sort of thing onto line for us, thanks to a tip off on Guest Book.

1961 ISDT! what a a time to use the heavy BSA, mud for all.   Vase A team member on the left Triss Sharp gets his Greeves past another Greeves rider.

Second Day disaster, BSA using also Ariel alloy full width hubs which looked great but were very far from 'savage' on braking! had seen poor BSA mechanical parts allow the rear sprocket to wear away it's teeth,  then I sugest was when I for one noted 'beginning of the end for British machinery against Germany, Eastern Bloc, Italian bikes whilst Japanese machinery was beginning to show it's developing finesse.  

Gwyn Collins had to phone his dad to rush a sprocket from a friend's BSA 500 to get it fitted to resume, thank you BSA engineering!. 15 Nations involved & Kreidler Florette 'minis' showed superb performances & reliability against British Team machines, BSA seemed out of the market, whilst 650 Triumphs ridden by Ken Heanes, Eric Chilton & USA's Bud Ekins made creditable progress along with Graham Beamish's 650 Matchless, Alan Kimber took a 175 Lambretta Scooter through the course to a Bronze whilst Sebastian Nachtman of Germany took his BMW 590 to Gold.  The weight of that Big BSA was ever a problem & towards the end on Thursday Clutch slip started to affect progress, Brian Martin tried Trichlorethylene to remove oil from the well soaked Ferodo inserts which slightly helped before the Speed tests using a potholed, crumbling surface of Shobdon Airfield, it should have been a decent race track. 

Gwyn limped home at Shobdon with clutch slip a menace to him finishing at all, then returned his ISDT machine to road trim, rode his Tiger Cub in Trials, got married  continued baking.  'now long retired.