Classic British Motorcycles
An early classic British motorcycle, this 1908 Ariel 3hp was state-of-the-art for the day. Ariel started building bicycles and bicycle parts in 1886 and graduated into motorcycles in 1901.
An Introduction to ClassicBritishMotorcycles.net
Welcome to ClassicBritishMotorcycles.net. This site is dedicated to our passion and love for these amazing machines built in ancient times by artisans in England. It is our goal to become THE definitive reference resource for all things ClassicBritishMotorcycles, with great photos (many unique on the internet, because we took them ourselves), specifications, and mindful, descriptive text, all in a format that is fun and easy to use.
We call it an ‘online encyclopedia of ClassicBritishMotorcycles’, and it’s arranged logically, first by make, then model, then year. Each bike has it’s own page with photos, specs and history.
But more than just the bikes, we’ll look at what happened to the British motorcycle industry as a whole. In 1960, Britain was the largest motorcycle producer in the world, but with the collapse of the once-mighty BSA in 1972, the industry had all but vanished, leaving just a weakened Triumph and Norton to struggle on for a few more years. From market dominance to irrelevance in 12 shorts years. It’s a story worth telling.
Enjoy the ride!
Triumph started building bicycles in 1884 and built their first motorcycle in 1902, one year ahead of Harley-Davidson. This is a 1925 Triumph Model W.
Classic British Motorcycles Background & History
Up to and shortly following World War 2, Britain was the world’s largest producer of motorcycles, with legendary brands like Triumph,BSA, Norton, Matchless, Royal Enfield, Ariel, Vincent and Velocette (and many others). Throughout the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and the early 1960s, the British motorcycle industry was the envy of the world, and was considered to be the technological, engineering, design, manufacturing and performance leaders worldwide. No one else came close.
This 1938 BSA Gold Star represented the absolute pinnacle of performance in the 1930s, when big singles ruled.
Mainland Europe fostered many brands, some with advanced designs, but none produced the sheer volume of bikes as did the Brits. Over in America, Harley-Davidson and Indian struggled to produce enough machines to keep the lights on. And out in Japan, prior to World War 2 their industries were too primitive to compete with Britain, and after the war were decimated by Allied bombing. Britain stood alone among nations, with it’s rich history of innovation, industry and commerce.
The whole world changed when this bike was introduced: the 1938 Triumph Speed Twin.
Throughout these early years, the world looked to the Brits for motorcycles of every kind, which they were only too happy to export to the world through their sprawling empire. They built the world’s most advanced bikes, some of the prettiest, and certainly some of the fastest. British bikes were winning races throughout the British Isles and in Mainland Europe. No one else could hope to compete.
This 1947 Ariel Red Hunter is typical of the 500cc singles of the day.
Things began to change right after World War 2 ended. Millions of American servicemen had served in England and Europe and had been introduced to cars and motorcycles from ‘across the pond’. When they returned home, they hungered for more. Many bought British sports cars, and many bought British motorcycles. This created a boom in Britain’s car and motorcycle industries.
Cheap, reliable basic transportation was essential after WW2. This 1948 BSA Bantam was one answer and sold very well in England.
Classic British Motorcycles in the Postwar World
At the end of the war, the largest market for British products, sports cars and motorcycles included, was Britain itself, which they called ‘the home market’. That affected the types of cars and trucks they designed and built for the public. After the war, most Brits just wanted cheap, reliable transportation, and so British industry accommodated with bikes like the BSA Bantam, and legions of single-cylinder four-stroke machines. But, America very quickly became Britains biggest export market, which soon eclipsed their own home market.
But, Americans weren’t interested in cheap, reliable (and slow) motorcycles. The Yanks wanted speed, power and style, and lots of it. The British motorcycle industry responded with boatloads of stylish, high-performance motorcycles like the Triumph Tiger, the BSA Rocket, and the Norton Dominator. Americans snapped them up by the thousands and the race was on.
With Triumph leading the way, building bigger and faster bikes throughout the late 40s and 50s, the rest of the market rushed to keep up. This 1952 BSA A10 Golden Flash was one such effort.
Triumph Leads the Market
With Triumph leading the way, British motorcycles became bigger, faster, more powerful, and better looking every model year. Throughout the 1930s and just following World War 2 (1939-1945) the vast majority of classic British motorcycles were single-cylinder machines (called ‘singles’) of varying sizes, topping out at about 500cc and around 20 horsepower. Coaxing more power out of the big singles brought with it wicked engine vibrations that were hard on rider and machine alike. This all changed in 1937 when Triumph introduced an entirely new class of motorcycle, the ‘Parallel Twin’. Designed by genius Edward Turner (who also designed the Ariel Square Four), his brilliant design split that 500cc’s of displacement into two parallel cylinders (in most cases vertical) with the pistons rising and falling together, but firing alternately. These new parallel twins were lighter, stronger, made more power, loved to rev, and didn’t vibrate as badly as the big singles.
The 500cc 1938 Triumph 5T Speed Twin hit the market in 1937 and literally changed the world, the world of motorcycles, that is. Up until that moment, nearly every manufacturer was putting all their focus on their big singles, which were instantly made obsolete by the fire-breathing twins. This touched off an arms race in Britain, as every motorcycle manufacturer (those who could afford it, anyway) raced to develop their own parallel twins.
The ultimate sports bike at the time: the 1962 Triumph Bonneville.
Vertical Twin Race
Soon, BSA, Norton, Royal Enfield, Matchless, AJS and even Ariel all had 500cc parallel twins of their own…just as Triumph upped the ante. In 1950, they introduced the 650cc 6T Thunderbird, and suddenly all those shiny new 500cc twins were outclassed. Again, they all rushed to follow in Triumph’s footsteps. This arms race continued into the 1960s, with classic British motorcycles getting bigger, more powerful and faster every year. Some incredible machines were produced in this era.
However, storm clouds were on the horizon. Many of the storied British brands, and also Indian Motorcycles in America were struggling financially. By 1960 Indian was gone, Vincent and Ariel too. By the end of the 1960s, Matchless, AJS, Royal Enfield, and Velocette also gave up the ghost. The few remaining players, Triumph, BSA and Norton struggled to hang on and ultimately all failed. BSA, once the industry’s powerhouse, only made it to 1972.
Triumph & BSA attempted to modernize their bikes in 1971 with a new frame and running gear. Same old engine, though, and hopelessly outclassed by the Japanese bikes. This is a 1971 Triumph Bonneville.
From Riches to Rags
What happened? How did the British motorcycle industry go from Number One in the world in 1960 to the trash heap of history in less than 10 years? One word: Japan! As Japan rebuilt its shattered industries after World War 2, they slowly began producing products that could be exported. Because the post-war Japanese market also needed cheap, reliable transportation, many companies focused on building motorcycles to satisfy the demands of their home market. By 1960, these companies had developed to a point that they began exporting their lightweight motorcycles to the American market. It took awhile for them to catch on, but one company among them, Honda Motorcycles, led the way and almost single-handedly created a boom market for Japanese motorcycles that lasted into the 1990s.
The die was cast and there was no going back. The classic British motorcycle brands that had practically owned the market just a decade before were still building the same old products, fairly primitive bikes by comparison to the Japanese. They were heavier, high-maintenance, somewhat unreliable and they liked to leak oil. They were also expensive because of the exchange rate between the US dollar and the British pound. By comparison, these new Japanese bikes were light, cheap, totally reliable and they never leaked oil. Japanese motorcycles soon crushed all the competition from these classic British motorcycles, and even hurt Harley’s sales as well. It changed the market forever. By 1968, Honda alone was producing more motorcycles in a single month than the entire British motorcycle industry was building in a year! And the cash-strapped Brits didn’t have the capital needed to modernize. The rest is history.
The 1972 Norton Commando was the first year for the front disc brake and the last year for the 750. Displacement would increase to 850 the following year.
Classic British Motorcycle Industry Collapses
BSA built its last motorcycle in 1972, Norton built it’s last Commando (by then, it’s only model) in 1975, the Triumph factory in Meriden, England, on the verge of closure in 1974 was bought by a worker-owned co-op and struggled along producing fewer and fewer bikes each year until 1983. So ended the golden age of classic British motorcycles.
Today, several classic British motorcycle brands have been revived. Most notably Triumph, which now produces a wide line of state-of-the-art motorcycles that are world class. Royal Enfield has been Indian-owned for decades and still produces 500cc Bullets that look just like the bikes from the 1950s. The BSA brand was recently purchased by tractor-giant Mahindra (also in India) and are producing new BSA motorcycles that have little connection to BSA’s rich past.
THANK YOU
Thank you for visiting my site. Please enjoy it, and look at ClassicBritishMotorcycles.net as an online encyclopedia of, you guessed it, classic British motorcycles, arranged by Make, then Model, then Year. Each has its own page with photos, specifications and history.
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