So, What Really Happened To The British Motorcycle Industry?

It’s a story that no-one is unfamiliar with; how the British motorcycle industry withered and died through the 1960s and into the ‘70s. What was once a thriving industry that sold state-of-the-art motorcycles from world-famous manufacturers, by the hundreds of thousands, was reduced to first a handful and then just one manufacturer, producing an outdated design in the face of modern and reliable machines from Japan.

- Harry Fisher

It’s a story of complacency, incompetence, arrogance, poor and short-sighted management, lack of investment, and a militant labor force. It’s a story of a government that didn’t care or, when one arm tried to help, the other arm dashed the cup out of its hands.

It’s not as if they didn’t know, those manufacturers. In 1960, Edward Turner of Triumph traveled to Japan to see for himself the extent of the threat the likes of Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha posed. Far from being resented, he was shown great respect as a figurehead of the British industry, which was held in high regard by the Japanese engineers.

Turner, too, was impressed. Upon returning to England, he wrote a report of his findings and it makes interesting reading today if only for the clear signs that were missed at the time or, if they were recognised, were not acted upon.

He noted that the Japanese companies were producing 500,000 motorcycles a year, as compared to the 140,000 in England. Even Honda alone produced more than the combined UK output.

Also, he was impressed by the sheer manpower available. “The speed with which the Japanese motorcycle companies can produce new designs and properly tested and developed models is startling and the very large scientific and technical staff maintained at the principal factories is…out of all proportion to anything ever visualized in this country [The UK], or for that matter in the US. Honda alone…has an establishment of 400 technicians engaged in studying new manufacturing techniques, new designs, new developments, and new approaches.”