British tiddlers!

UNLIKE THE JAPANESE and European manufacturers we’ve looked at over the last couple of months, the British motorcycle industry didn’t embrace the small capacity motorcycle enthusiastically.

Big bikes were where it was at and the industrial might of the nation was engaged in ‘export or die’ practices, desperately trying to make enough money to pay off the war debt, something that didn’t finally happen until 2006. US buyers were the biggest market and they wanted big bikes. One British manufacturer stated that they were happy to let the Japanese make small bikes as it saved them the trouble, and those new riders on 125s would buy British later. What they didn’t appreciate was that the Japanese would start making big bikes too.

Not everyone ignored the threat from the Far East. One managing director admitted to being scared by the sophistication displayed by foreign manufacturers after buying a small Honda to study. He said: “When we stripped the machine it was so good it frightened us. It was made like a watch and was not a copy of anything.”

Edward Turner of Triumph went on a fact-finding tour of Japan and also came back astonished by the prowess of the manufacturers. But by the time the realisation had struck, it was too late.

That’s not to say that the British ignored the tiddler market. The success of the BSA Bantam and the many manufacturers who used proprietary Villiers two-stroke engines in 98cc and 147cc capacities proved that not everybody needed a big bike. But there was no real reason to buy a small motorcycle when you could ride anything you wanted on L-plates until the early Sixties, unless your primary concern was fuel economy. The wartime imposition of Purchase Tax had put a big strain on the sale of new bikes, and even in 1946 you needed a special licence to be allowed to buy one. In the meantime, there