Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126846
.... v ..0 S v ;;. o Z The cavalcade of motorcycles proceeding to the International Bike Show outside Birmingham. Britain remembers By Robert Marich You can walk through the streets of London for hours as scores of motorcycles pass and never see a right proper English bike. It seems that there aremore Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons and Royal Enfields on th e roads of San Diego than all of Good Olde London Towne. Curious,as the British might say. 18 But after a decad e of neglect, the En glish motorcycle is enjoyi ng a sma ll resurgence in its homeland. T hree monthl y magazin es devo ted to the classic British machine h ave sp ru ng up in the past five years. At the an nual Interna tio na l Bike Show that is dominated by Ja pa nese imports, small home-grown firm s that specia lize in manufacturing new par ts for old British steeds popped up in modest boo ths scattered in the periphery of the expa ns ive Nationa l Exhi bi t Centre conve ntion center in Birmingham. "They're a sma ll bu t growing pa rt of the scene," said Dennis Bates, press officer of the Motor Cycle Association of Great Brita in , whic h spo nsored the sho w. • Of course, the last mass-produced British makes folded in the mid-1970s. The demise of T riumph and Norton brought down the once-noble house of English iron that for decade s was supreme in the world. It should come as a surprise to Yanks, but the withering of the domestic industry passed without much notice excep t by a small cadre of die-ha rd enth usiasts. "You 'd think that because this is England, there would be a lot of English bikes here," said Pete Disson, 38, a mot orcycle di spatch courier for a London TV stati on . He's also president of the Sou th London branch of th e BSA Owners Club, one of the orga ni zations for die-hards. " Bu t there really aren't tha t many." Indeed, a t its peak in the 1950s, th e British mo torcycle ind ustry exported more than it kept. Its biggest bikes were shi p ped to the States in large quanti ty. Some were sold in the domestic mark et too, bu t the demand was greater for sma ller bik es that today are not particularly collectabl e. T oget a IS, 20 or 25-year-old motorcycle back a mong the running takes parts. As a resu lt, a uto jum bles (wha t Yanks call swap meets)are increasin gly becoming a forum for trading bike bits, or the En gli sh term for parts . " You park an English bike on the street these da ys, there's a danger that som ebody will pinch some bits off it," said Helen Don ovan , 25, a for mer nurse no w studying to be a teacher, who is a member of a vin tage motorcy.cle club in Birmingham. Wh en Colin Wa ll, 43, restorati on manager of the Na tiona l Motorcycle Museum in Birm ingham, rebu ilt a 1958 BSA to origi na l speci fications as a police bike of the era, he discovered that origina l leg shiel ds were un ob tainable. So he had to manufacture a new set of shie ld plates to mat ch originals. "T here should have been millions of them around, bu t we co uldn' t find any," said Wall . The demand for parts comes from across the world, usually locales that were once part of the far-flung British empire and export destinations of English bikes. Peter Watson , 28, a writer for Classic Bike magazine, recalls getting a lette r from a chap in Zimbabw e (the African cou n try that was on ce British Rhodesia) asking for a photo of a 1931 BSA sloper, a single-cylinder English bike on which the eng ine tilts forward. " H e wanted a picture so he could restore it back to catalog specification ," recalled Watson. At Watson 's suggestion, the bike's tattered gas tank was sent to a Coventry restoration outfit. The four-decade-old English bike now prowls the streets of Harare in the African country again . The annual In ternational Bike Show in Birmingham drew over 85,000 Englishmen October 26 through November 3. The show is much like its American counterparts. The major Japanese manufacturers show their wares in large exhibit spaces ..BMW, from West Germany, also was prominent. The crowds kick tires, scru tin ize the newest model mach ines and a lso cast eyes on models of the female persuasion dressed in flashy clothes who strike provocative poses on display motorcycles. Accessorymanufacturers, distributors and specialized outfits showed their wares in small booths in the periphery around the 'major exhibits. Among them were the few living remnants of the domestic industry. Most prominent of these was the latest incarnation of Triumph, once a leading world make but now a very small scale, boutique enterprise. Triumph displayed four 1985 model year' Bonnevilles, 750 twins. Only 80 have been produced at a new factory in Devon, which is in the Southwest corner of England. Although its longterm prospects are uncertain, enthusiasts were encouraged that T riumph was at least on hand to show the British flag. Four other concerns make motorcycles on small scale in Britain. The most successful is Norton, which for four years has produced a wankel rotaryengine-powered police motorcycle, the Interpol 2. A law enforcement booth exhibited two Norton Interpols, which is a very, very distant cousin to the piston-powered Norton Commando, an 850 twin built until the mid-1970s and expo rted to America . But , aye, what's thi s inside the Birmingham convention cen ter? Wh y it' s an English pub com p lete with brass rai ls, wooden cha irs and beverages for those with a dr y th roat. It di spen ses H ar p lager, Pil s lager, Ansells bitter and the ub iquitous Guinness. Whil e the win e coo ler is q ui te the rage of the trendy set in the States. the pub offered the dr ink th a t is soa ring iri popu lar ity here. It 's app le cider, quite