Horseplay

As the UK industry fizzled out in the 1970s, it was fashionable to criticise its reliance on outmoded singles and twins in the face of four or more-cylinder sophistication from Japan. The talk among us young motorcyclists in those days was how the home industry had finally got its comeuppance and could no longer survive on another rehash of the same, tired, old concepts.

To hear my contemporaries talk, all the British industry had produced in its entire existence were four-stroke singles, twins and a few basic two-strokes for the small companies who bought engines in. British innovation was laughingly described as moving the valves from the side to the top of the engine, as we lusted over the latest, across-the-frame ohc-four from the east. Such is the naivety of youth.

The reasons behind our once-proud industry’s collapse, while not exactly straightforward, are well documented in several books written by people who were in it at the time, so better able to comment than me. Their words, based on the day-to-day experiences