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The Strange Death of the British Motorcycle Industry
The British motor cycle industry once stood at the top level of world production . BSA, Ariel, Norton, Triumph, Matchless and Vincent led the world in design, technology, and popularity. After 1945, when the German industry failed to develop, British bikes continued to be untouchable both on the racetrack and in the showroom.
Then it all began to go horribly wrong. Lucrative overseas markets began to decline, and foreign scooters tore into the UK market. At the same time, rates of motorcycle accidents rose and many British consumers were deciding to buy cars instead of two-wheelers.
Finally there came a whirlwind from the East, as fierce competition arrived from innovative, sophisticated and more mechanically reliable Japanese machines. By the early 1970s, with alarming rapidity, the British motor cycle industry had all but disappeared.
REVIEWS
"Of interest to motorcycle enthusiasts and students of the history of technology, this volume on the British motorcycle industry examines the dominance of the English industry in the early years of motorcycling and explores the dramatic effects of Asian competition on the industry in the 1960s and 1970s that led to its steep decline. The volume discusses classic brands, industry design and labor practices, international followings and economic trends, and includes numerous black and white photographs of classic British motorcycles. Koerner is a Canadian writer and British motorcycle enthusiast."
Reference and Research Book News, 2012/08
Koerner is as much a British motorcycle enthusiast as he is an academic, but he doesn t wax nostalgic about the industry. He is critical in hindsight, and although players in the trade aren t identified as heroes or villains, it s fairly obvious who they are.... Crippled by the early 1970s there is no easy answer regarding the downfall of the British industry, but Koerner s book is one of the better attempts at an in-depth exploration. Life is complicated, Koerner says. And there aren t simple explanations. It wasn t all Bernard Docker s fault, nor was it German or Japanese manufacturers, or the attitude of management. It s simply not that simple to explain.
Greg Williams Motor Writer Automobiles, Trucks, Motorcycles old and new
..".packed with information and insights into the demise of the British motorcycle industry. Some of the material we've seen before. ...But mere facts are never enough. It's the analysis that counts, and Koerner has delved deeply into the root causes of the collapse of AMC, Ariel, BSA, Norton, Triumph et al, and has presented his arguments in an intelligent, readable and coherent way. There's plenty of boardroom intrigue and political machinations. And we're taken repeatedly into the filing cabinets and tool rooms and exposed to the atmosphere of an industry that, in hindsight, ultimately had nowhere to go but down.... we especially like is (a) the hard numbers backing up the aforementioned facts, and (b) the contextual information. In other words, this book gives you an all-important sense of time and place, and it highlights many other key issues around the country (and the world) that impacted on British motorcycle manufacture. Actually, there's one other point here worth mentioning. The book has hundreds of notes and references intended to underpin the facts and highlight the sources, and that naturally adds authority to this work."
Sump Magazine"
Then it all began to go horribly wrong. Lucrative overseas markets began to decline, and foreign scooters tore into the UK market. At the same time, rates of motorcycle accidents rose and many British consumers were deciding to buy cars instead of two-wheelers.
Finally there came a whirlwind from the East, as fierce competition arrived from innovative, sophisticated and more mechanically reliable Japanese machines. By the early 1970s, with alarming rapidity, the British motor cycle industry had all but disappeared.
REVIEWS
"Of interest to motorcycle enthusiasts and students of the history of technology, this volume on the British motorcycle industry examines the dominance of the English industry in the early years of motorcycling and explores the dramatic effects of Asian competition on the industry in the 1960s and 1970s that led to its steep decline. The volume discusses classic brands, industry design and labor practices, international followings and economic trends, and includes numerous black and white photographs of classic British motorcycles. Koerner is a Canadian writer and British motorcycle enthusiast."
Reference and Research Book News, 2012/08
Koerner is as much a British motorcycle enthusiast as he is an academic, but he doesn t wax nostalgic about the industry. He is critical in hindsight, and although players in the trade aren t identified as heroes or villains, it s fairly obvious who they are.... Crippled by the early 1970s there is no easy answer regarding the downfall of the British industry, but Koerner s book is one of the better attempts at an in-depth exploration. Life is complicated, Koerner says. And there aren t simple explanations. It wasn t all Bernard Docker s fault, nor was it German or Japanese manufacturers, or the attitude of management. It s simply not that simple to explain.
Greg Williams Motor Writer Automobiles, Trucks, Motorcycles old and new
..".packed with information and insights into the demise of the British motorcycle industry. Some of the material we've seen before. ...But mere facts are never enough. It's the analysis that counts, and Koerner has delved deeply into the root causes of the collapse of AMC, Ariel, BSA, Norton, Triumph et al, and has presented his arguments in an intelligent, readable and coherent way. There's plenty of boardroom intrigue and political machinations. And we're taken repeatedly into the filing cabinets and tool rooms and exposed to the atmosphere of an industry that, in hindsight, ultimately had nowhere to go but down.... we especially like is (a) the hard numbers backing up the aforementioned facts, and (b) the contextual information. In other words, this book gives you an all-important sense of time and place, and it highlights many other key issues around the country (and the world) that impacted on British motorcycle manufacture. Actually, there's one other point here worth mentioning. The book has hundreds of notes and references intended to underpin the facts and highlight the sources, and that naturally adds authority to this work."
Sump Magazine"
350 pages, Paperback
First published March 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 7, 2023
Well written, incredibly detailed, important reference work. Needs some effort to get through it all.
February 1, 2022
Here is a book at the intersection of two niche interests: business history and motorcycles. Business histories are not usually my thing (I’ve reviewed only one, about champagne), but I’ve recently resumed an interest in motorcycling after an absence from involvement in such things of over 4 decades. I’m now the owner of a brand new 650cc Royal Enfield “Interceptor” and I’m very pleased with it. Much as I like motorcycles, I have no interest in reading nostalgic books about the past glories of famous marques. This book appealed to me because it promised to be very informative while eschewing that sort of thing. I wasn’t disappointed.
Strange Death won a Wadsworth prize for British business history, and seems to me to be a very deserving recipient of such an honour. There is a list of prize-winners on Goodreads; it’s pleasing to see what a broad range of topics, and industries, that they cover.
It’s a sorry tale that Koerner has to tell. The industry died, he remarks on the last page, of an accumulation of “self-inflicted wounds”. Managers of British motorcycle companies were, for the most part, self-taught, and tended to be pretty conservative and set in their ways. Though some were very capable engineers, they seem to have shared a quite singular lack of business acumen. The industry’s inability to compete with continental imports in the 1950s (eg. the Italian Vespa scooter) presaged the complete collapse of the 1960s and 1970s brought about by the onslaught of large volumes of well designed and manufactured Japanese machines. British buyers voted with their wallets. I’ve enjoyed this book, but I will be the first to admit that it’s not likely to have wide appeal.
Strange Death won a Wadsworth prize for British business history, and seems to me to be a very deserving recipient of such an honour. There is a list of prize-winners on Goodreads; it’s pleasing to see what a broad range of topics, and industries, that they cover.
It’s a sorry tale that Koerner has to tell. The industry died, he remarks on the last page, of an accumulation of “self-inflicted wounds”. Managers of British motorcycle companies were, for the most part, self-taught, and tended to be pretty conservative and set in their ways. Though some were very capable engineers, they seem to have shared a quite singular lack of business acumen. The industry’s inability to compete with continental imports in the 1950s (eg. the Italian Vespa scooter) presaged the complete collapse of the 1960s and 1970s brought about by the onslaught of large volumes of well designed and manufactured Japanese machines. British buyers voted with their wallets. I’ve enjoyed this book, but I will be the first to admit that it’s not likely to have wide appeal.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews