Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

he' names of the departed are legion - Ariel, BSA, Cotton , Douglas, En field, Fran cis-Barnett, Creeves, Hesketh - yes, H esketh, th e la test in a long , and honorable, lin eage of post-World War II mo tor cycles tha t were and are no more. Vin cent Black Shad ow , Veloce tte Ven om Clubman , BSA Road Rocket, Ariel Sq ua re Four - marque and model. Nam es many of u s have heard, machines few enough of us have seen, let alone ridden . Royal Enfield Intercep tor. Norton Intersta te. Triumph Hurricane. This art icle co u ld sp end its pages wandering through th e annals of hi story, attempting to wax reasonably eloquent about those wonderful motorcycles of yore. Except they weren 't so wonderful - by today's standards, at least. The brakes were inadequate, th e tires had minimal grip o n the pav ement, th e electrics were a trocio us, and th e engines stopped running wh en ever they damned well felt like it. T o take any sort of trip meant carrying along 40 pou nds of tool s and spare parts. But for all th eir fa ults, whi ch th ey sha red with other motorcycles of the era, the Briti sh machines dominated the American mot or cycle scene in the 50s. The only popular alterna tives were Harley-Davidson and the occa sional BMW. In the pos t: World War II years th e Brit ish ind ustry settled into two basic engine designs. First was the big single, that grea t thump in g beast , wh ic h co u ld be tun ed to every ca lli ng , from the workhorse overhead-valve Ariel Red Hunter to th e race-worthy overhead-cammed , Norton International. T he verti cal tw in was an even 'mo re popular engine co n figu ra tio n of th e 50s. Li ght weight and low cost were the keys to thi s twin 's popularity, a nd mo st of the maj or British compa n ies produced their o wn versions of thi s engine. T he pri cey Vin cents a nd T fou r-cylinder Ariels passed o n to their pl aces in motorcycling history. In 1960 everything looked rosy for the British; less th an a do zen years later th ere was barely a sign of th e once-proud industry. The story is well kn own, but bears repeating one more time. 'After all , th ere are lessons to be learned. The British never u p-gra ded their m o torcycle technol o g y fro m th e halcyon da ys of the 30s. The J apan ese started from scra tch, built new machines, with new conce pts, new engineeri ng, a nd proceeded to bu ry the British . Wh y have a ra ttley OH V twin th a t shook you off the sadd le a t high rmp, wh en you cou ld bu y an OHC four with a d isc brak e a nd a n electric 'sta r ter? Nosta lgia be damned; the cons umer wanted convenien ce a nd power and comfort. H ere's a o ne-paragraph tour of the tri bul ations of th e Brit-b ike wo rld over the last quarter of a cent ury. In 1966 a compa ny ca lled Manganese Bronz e, o wned by a fellow named Dennis Po ore , bought Vill iers En gin eerin g Compan y LId. , wh ose en~i nes o nce powered most o f the Bntish two- stroke world: H e then ac q u ired Asso ci ated Motorcycl es Ltd. (AMC), a n umbrell a co mpa ny for Norton, Mat chless, AJ S, a nd several defunct marques, includ ing th e Villi ers-powered J ames and Francis-Barnett. Norton Vill ie rs becam e th e operating na me of the new o utfit; Ma tch less and AJ S tank bad ges soo n disappeared. In 1973 the British government convinced P oore to absorb th e fo u ndering BSA/Tri u m ph group, which a lso i ncluded th e recently re tired Ariel name. Nort on Vill iers Triumph (NVT) was born . P oore wa s alread y prod uci ng th e N orton Comm ando twin , and decided, in light of his newl y acq ui red responsibilities, to continue with th e Triumph triple as well - to the di smay of th e workers at the factory that made Triumph twins. A strike ens ue d, at a time when th e industry cou ld least afford it, and th e whole shebang collapsed lik e a house of cards. In 1976 NVT put out its last Commando, and in 1977 sold off th e Triumph name arid bu siness. By th e ear ly 80s, all there was to sho w for a once-great industry was a tri ckle of 750cc Triumph Bonnevilles, and we ha ven' t even seen an y of those in th e United Stat es for the past five years. ' That 's all hi sto ry. Now let us deal with the present and future. After a tour through industrial Eng land one co mes a way with th e opinion that th e world of British-m ade bikes is quite al ive, and doing quite well , thoug h o n ra ther a sma ll scale. T he indige nous Brit is h m o to rcycl e in d us try will no t, in the for seeable future, beco me a threa t to' the J apanese. However , it definitely does exist, with forward thi n kers o n th e engineeri ng a nd market in g staffs, and we should again see n ew Triumphs and Matchl esses and Nortons on th ese sh ores. T he Triumph twin has been the mos t outstanding, an d th e m ost poign ant, exa mp le of British technology . Edward Turner , a sel ftaugh t design er hired to ru n the Trium ph facto ry in th e middle 30s, look ed to ma ke a light, powerful, and reasonabl y simp le motor cycle. His OH V vertica l twin was widely acclaimed, leadi ng the way for others to imitate. By the technical standards of the era thi s engine was a n exce lle nt piece of wo rk. In 1937 a motorcycle magazi ne test in g the Triumph Speed Twin ac hieved a top speed of 107 mph - no mean feat on a sta ndard 500cc street mo torcycle of the time. The ma n ufacture of the Triumph tw in co nti n ue d for over half a cent ury after its introduction. Most recently a man by the name of Les H arri s was producing th e Bonnevill e mod el from 1982 until March of 1988. He did so under license from Triumph Motorcycles (Co ventry) Ltd., which owns all rights to th e T riumph name and its marketing. The L.F. Harris Ltd. assembly operation was a long way from th e old Triumph works at Meriden, near Coventry, being way down so uth in Newt on Abbot on the Devonshire coast. Harris didn 't have a factory per se, but rath er contra cted out for every thing that went into the making of the motor cycle, 'fro m frame to wheels to cyli nders, brough t all the pi eces together under one roof, and bolted t he m toge ther. T hese machines were quite like the last bikes that came out of the Meriden wo rks in 1981. T he Harr is-made Tri umph had the push rod- o pe ra ted O HV vertical twin, bored a nd stro ked to 744cc, using the unfortunat e (my word ) Umberslade H all o il-carryi ng crad le frame, with a n 18-in ch wh eel on th e rear sporti ng a disc brak e, 19-in che r on the front with dual d iscs, fivesp eed gearbox, a nd electron ic ignition. Preserving th e traditional image were 'wire-spoked wh eels and a kick starter. The engine design had been a ro u n d "fo r so long that it was running into problems co ncern ing British a nt i-poll u tio n regulations. The mufflers co uld always be made more restrictive, but it was basic engine noise and em issions that were next on th e list of no-nos. All su ch - p roblem s are solvable, of course, presuming that eno ugh money is thrown in th e righ t direcrion.When H a rri s sto p ped p ro d u ct ion la st March , the ostensible reason was th e cos t of developing modi fications tha t wo uld enable ihe engine to meet envi ro nme nta l sta ndards. While that undoub tedl y entered int o the eq uation, other factor s seem to be more important. Harris was only a licen -' see, whi ch meant that he had limited co n tro l over wha t he could do , and hi s licen se was up in November of 1988. The Harris ou tp u t was measured in th e hundreds, but he sold every motorcycle he made with customers clamoring for more. Most of his Bonnies went to the European market, with containers full of Triumphs al so going to far-off places like Australia and Japan. A desire for this anachronism does exist, it was a motorcycle for people who eq ua te performance to happi-

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