Money matters

Two-stroke roadsters were never more popular than in the third quarter of the last century. In this country, long-established Villiers was well placed to take advantage of the post-Second World War demand for affordable personal transport – supplying numerous assemblers and manufacturers – while BSA and others made complete machines. The pattern was repeated across the continent, with Italian makers in particular producing stylish small motorcycles and scooters.

And then Yamaha and Suzuki burst onto the scene offering performance and sophistication never previously seen – or expected – in strokers. Their 125s more than filled the ride-to-work void left by Bantams and Captains, and their quarter-litre jobs belied their modest size with quite incredible levels of performance.

Soon, even those rocket-ships had been eclipsed both in capacity and performance, and the future was looking bright… It was too good to last. Two-strokes had always been somewhat inefficient, but it didn’t seem to matter