British motorcycle history....

[Thunderous71]

Times are a changing the new Triumphs are excellent bikes and fair more reliable than my Kawasaki (which I love to bits) but they so indeed cost a little more. But if i can scrape the money together I hope to be a new Triumph owner in a year or so ;)

[441rider]

@Thunderous71

Ya and the poor guys in Thailand in the three factories making parts Brits could make is further destroying the British bike industry. Fake British bikes, put a Triumph sticker on your Kawi they are still far better bikes.

[IExposeMormonism]

I believe I owned a 700cc Norton single cyl, c1950-53. It idled around 300rpm (you could hear the piston, at hits per second) and I doubt it rev'd over 3500rpm. Had maybe 25hp. Has anyone heard of a 700cc Norton single?

[BeetleBerlin]

Go read HOPWOOD's book, What Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry.

[3455peter]

As an "Insider" in B'ham. The reason that the British MC Industry failed was simple. Corrupt Management. Nothing that you see on the road today is 'new' Bert Hopwood or Doug Hele had them on the Boards in the 50's. DOHC, Injection, Water/Oil cooling, Discs, all ready to go into production. But the Dockers, Turner et al stopped it. They liked the money, but hated Motorcycles.

[britishbiker97]

love the old British bikes. it's a shame the industry is nearly dead. i have an old moped which is British.

[piespokladowy]

*****

[goinghomesomeday1]

I’m an oldun – pre Japanese motorcycle days. I’m my humble opinion it was a number of facts which crippled the British motorcycle industry. #1. The Trade Unions were too powerful (one man – one job and all that). #2. The cost of production was very high as it was pre automation days. #3. While the British motorcycle was very well engineered its designers were to put is nicely! Limited in their imagination. Continued>>>

[441rider]

@goinghomesomeday1

The western countries sold out manufacturing by regulating and taxing the people. Also people became lazy with hand outs. Management and gov destroyed the industry via neglect IMO. Like Triumph using bits made in Thailand (lame) instead of employing student grads and work training programs.

[goinghomesomeday1]

When the Japanese were laughed at – at the TT on the IOM in the late 1950 no-one could foretell what was coming. While the British engineers were laughing at these sewing machine on wheels the Japanese engineering boys were learning and learning very fast. In the early 60’s when the Japs came 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. That was it, and their still having a good old giggle at the incontinent motorcycle era. Continued>>>

[goinghomesomeday1]

Back then there was no comparison between the British work ethos and that of the Japanese. I saddens me to think back at all the wonderful motorcycles of my youth. Vincent, Rudge, Sunbeam, BSA, Norton, Triumph, Matchless, AJS and so on. I used to ride a BSA Golden Flash. Aye, times past.

[929danny]

thanks for the upload proves how great we once were at building motorbikes

[bluezappy]

This is a neat old documentary, I've never seen it before.

-An Old Norton Rider

[doable1]

I love my 2010 Triumph Bonneville T100. Awesome machine

[lynn0335]

Thanks for posting. I rode a 1974 850cc Norton back in 1979. Only problem I had was clutch slipping. Gave two of my buddys a run on top end with the HD,S they were riding. LOL

[944ducati]

Superb film, a great bit of history.

[highcentered3]

Why England is losing in every cave in postwar Japan?

[MewFushisDad]

I have a picture of my grandfather on a Douglas motorcycle taken somewhere in France during WW1. He was a dispatch rider in the British Military.

Thank You for posting this video.

[bsacrazy]

i own a jap bike yam xjr1300 and a bsa a10 and i think i qualify to leave a comment after 29 years of riding...jap bikes are better engineered..fast and reliable and thats why when you go out you will get home..thats why i use the yam for my journey to work...but my bsa has soul and character that the jap bike will never ever have and sounds fantastic,,thats why the yam stays in the garage on my days off from work and the bsa goes out and always draws a crowd where ever it goes...nuff said !

[johnnyrazor60]

If you have ever been stranded miles from anywhere on a cold damp November Night because of Inferior Joseph lucas components ,you can understand why the Japs succeeded .They didnt have it there own way when they came out , Remember the war wasnt that far away and Most of that generation faught in it ! , as cars got cheaper a new generation of Bikers wanted to get home as well as get there ! The Unions and the workers as well as the Bike companies all had a hand in the Death of the British Bike!

[dianeandwilson]

nook garage is that gordon by any chance?.

[nookgarage]

Why do they talk silly in the old days.Comming from Lancashire,England they sounded like foreiners

[nookgarage]

Biggest mastake was to alow Jap bikes in the country.That goes for cars too.Even though I fell for it too.I had a James catin given to me for free by a ex-scamblebike rider.I traded it in at John Halls in Blackpool,Lancashire,England.F­or a Suzuki 125cc-single.2-stroke alearning mastake.Then I got 3 Honda 50cc's.1 suzuki 50cc.Years later after living in Australia,I went back to u.k. to buy a Triumph Bonnieville T-140v 750cc 1982

[webbersite]

rubbish

the fact is the jap bikes were better !

not more nostalgic or more classic but faster better equipped and more reliable.

the british bike industry didn't understand that they should design what people wanted and not expect them to buy whatever they made just because they had done so the year before

[441rider]

I'm going on 18 years riding stricly a '69 441 as hard or hrder thanj a Honda and my parts cost per year is less than $200. New clutch plates a tire etc. no 400/4 or vintage Yama could do that and I see very few 15+ year Japanese daily riders here by the ocean. The Brits made a machine the Japanese made disposable perfection or some think. Trash materials and short sighted high parts cost especially on a 70's asian bike.

S

[aliwhitwell]

Yeah I hate to say it but I tend to agree with you. I have been riding since 1966 and have sampled both Brit and Jap bikes. Brit electrics and oil leaks let them down. Jap bikes excelled in these areas. However, I have a Triumph Speed Triple now and have to say that it has been 100% reliable for the last 3 years and is a joy to ride. No oil leaks either!!

[robbell]

Re: Japanese vs British

Post war Britain was deeply in debt. In fact the debt was not paid off until 2007. That's right 60 years later!

Meanwhile Japan was given mountains of our money to keep the peace and rebuild their economy into the industrial powerhouse it became.

It's no wonder the British motorcycle industry failed.

[EpiDemic117]

@robbell "It's no wonder the British motorcycle industry failed." That had absolutely NOTHING to do with why the Japanese motorcycles DOMINATED the British motorcycles. Some of the companies like Kawasaki had some government subsidies (I don't like Kawa anyway, they to are unreliable), But Honda was purely founded By two men who had a passion for doing what they did, The problem with most British bikes at the time was some of the over engineering and lack of quality control.

[Nordjyden9000]

@EpiDemic117

My last roadgoing bike was a Triumph 500 cc 1966 model. It was not a question IF anything fell off, but a question of WHAT fell off. Usually it was the exhausts. One day I came home ex the entire rear mudgard including lights and numberplate. Broken right off due to vibration. Oil seeped out everywhere, except from the valves in the tubes.

[MrBowsmith]

@Nordjyden9000 Had a '71 Triumph 500cc Tiger 100, same story. I feel your pain!

[EpiDemic117]

@robbell But as my great uncle once said about his BSA he owned in the 60's and 70's "you had to bring a tool kit with that thing where ever you went" And some of the Harleys to would literally rattle themselves apart. Also, Don't think that after the War the United states didn't give Brittan a fuck ton of money either. We bailed their asses out after the war. Russia thought we'd go into another great depression but we sure as hell proved them WRONG!

[SIMBER9]

@robbell The U.S. loaned the U.K. money. The U.K. had no Marshall Aid at all, only a loan. So don't get caught up in the propoganda get caught up in the facts.

[toilit]

WOW!!!

[roadrocket]

very interesting.