Product Description

The inside story of an industry which, as recently as the late 1960s, was the third largest dollar earner for Great Britain, after cars and whisky, recounting how it was mismanaged in later years. The book describes what caused the dramatic decline of the British motorcycle industry at the time when it had to face up to increasing competition from foreign manufacturers. It details the mass manufacture of motorcycles during World War II and illustrates little-known prototype and experimental motorcycles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210639 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
The inside story of an industry which, as recently as the late 1960s, was the third largest dollar earner for Great Britain, after cars and whisky, recounting how it was mismanaged in later years. The book describes what caused the dramatic decline of the British motorcycle industry at the time when it had to face up to increasing competition from foreign manufacturers. It details the mass manufacture of motorcycles during World War II and illustrates little-known prototype and experimental motorcycles.

Customer Reviews

Read It And Weep
"This is it" opened the contemporary review in 1981, when first published. An uncharacteristically literate review in a motorcycle magazine concluded " students writing thesis and chronicles of our times need look no further". Prophetically this book is finding its way into university libraries as questions that should have been asked 30 years ago are now taxing a new generation of intelligentsia.

And there in may be a big part of the "problem" It has taken a generation to pass to remove the raw edge of reality of life in an industrial nation. The lofty spires of our universities, many built on the proceeds of industry , were much more at ease with sociology than the grimy world of their benefactors. The public face of industry became a quilted coated Brummie barking " down tools " on a 1970's newsreel. Some lecturers may have thought it a nice idea to have the "workers" running the country but having them round to tea was an altogether different matter.

Thankfully Bert Hopwood, a man at the centre, chronicled the rise and fall of a mighty industry. And what a fall it was. BSA had 72 ( yes seventy two ) satellite factories, motorcycles were a massive export employing staff in their thousands at each factory. Ariel, Triumph, Norton and BSA are all covered by Hopwood as is the industry at large after his lifetime of experience.

This is a personal rather than a technical book. After all it is personalities that made and ultimately killed the industry.

It's a small thing but Hopwood recalls entering the management dining room ( canteen ) in motorcycle gear only to be told he was underdressed ! I n a motorcycle factory ? Although Hopwood doesn't say as much the "class" factor is recorded elsewhere . For the industry in which there was no shortage of talent, did not rate its own. Many of them were the product of evening classes and experience. At board level they were almost contemptuous of men off the shop floor rising through the ranks. Many were consequently alienated by being overlooked in favour of a 22 year old graduate just because he had a degree. Cometh the hour, cometh the man with the clipboard.

Speak to anyone with experience of British industry and Hopwood's words will have a resonance way to broad to be dismissed as bitterness.

The "new thinking" that he criticises so, won the day. And we lost our industry as a consequence. Those who were placed to make a difference did not care and perhaps few care today, for this is one of the very few studies on the decline.

Hopwood could have made the difference; if somebody had let him. His designs were solid and he understood the market without going on a "course". Some of it was so basic it makes you weep. When a bike wins a race, why not build a run of models to sell. Selling is their business. And when you get Trophies, why not let dealers display them ? Production racing is nothing if not an advert. He championed modular design, now an industry standard the world over. You should be crying by now.

In today's fast moving world it is incredible to hear of Hopwood designing a Norton in 1948. In 1973 Norton "merged" with BSA and Triumph where Hopwood was by then working, and all they had to offer was his old design.

Some reviewers have felt that this was a tome of recrimination from a man by a man who was deprived of fulfilling his full potential. It isn't. It is an important document compiled by a man who saw an iceberg, screamed at the captain who ignored him and only got his hands on the wheel when the vessel was taking on water. The captain meanwhile rowed off in his lifeboat.

Twas ever thus.

Yes, but...
This is a must-read for anyone interested in british bikes. But, it's like being cornered by an old Brummie who just wants to gripe about management, especially Edward Turner. Hopwood actually seems to believe that his Norton twin of 1947 was an advance on Turner's 1936 Triumph design. He can't have noticed all those Tritons?