If you’re thinking this bike looks a little like a Triumph Trident of the same era, that’s because they were basically the same machine; Triumph and BSA were, at the time, basically the same company.
Legitimate question here: can you think of a time when two motorcycle brands have successfully been run by the same organization? I can think of plenty of times when it didn’t work ─ Victory and Indian, Harley-Davidson and anybody ─ but can’t from memory come up with an example of competing brands remaining strong under the same roof.
Certainly you could not describe BSA or Triumph as really thriving in the late 1960s. The former in particular. The Rocket 3 was one of BSA’s last-ditch efforts before financial ruin arrived in 1972.
Driven by a 740cc air-cooled inline triple, the Rocket3/Trident was manufactured from 1968-1975, meaning it’s a model that crossed into the infamous Norton-Villiers-Triumph years. The engine claimed a peak power output of 58 horsepower. Not exactly mind-blowing numbers these days, but in 1969 Cycle World declared the Rocket 3 “the fastest street-legal tourer running in America.”
The bike was made very much with the US market in mind. And it received a reasonably favorable reception in the American press. But it was relatively expensive and soon found itself overshadowed by the Honda CB750. That bike was released just a few weeks after the Rocklet 3 and had more modern features, like electric start and disc brakes.
The financial mismanagement of BSA also didn’t help. It’s difficult to get a bike to succeed when the bosses are running the company into the ground (I feel that’s a truth that a certain modern three-letter brand should be taking to heart right now). Ultimately, the Rocket 3 was transformed into the Triumph T160 in 1975, with NVT hoping the platform could finally compete against the CB750. It didn’t; reportedly it took dealers several years to sell off the 7,000 T160s that were made.
Hindsight is a different sort of thing, though, and the Rocket 3 now produces all kinds of warm fuzzies for classic bike enthusiasts.
This example has the fuel tank from a BSA Lightning.
With 3,030 miles on the clock you can find this Rocket 3 for sale for $6,500 in Dacula, Georgia, here on Facebook Marketplace.