ON JULY 11, 1960, AT 2.55PM. LORD Aberdare delivered a speech to the House of Lords regarding the second reading of the Road Traffic (Driving of Motor Cycles) Bill. At last, Her Majesty’s Government was officially concerned about the rising death toll among teenagers riding motorcycles in general and, more specifically, the demise of so many learners. Until the new ‘250 learner law’ was passed later that year, 16-year-olds were allowed to buy any capacity of motorcycle. Statistics gathered from the late 1950s onwards clearly showed that youthful exuberance and powerful machines equated to serious injuries and/or death. According to Hansard (the reports of such parliament debates), “it would mean, if enacted, that from July 1, 1961, no one will be able to ride a heavy motorcycle with ‘L’ plates, and no one completely inexperienced will be able to ride these enormously powerful and dangerous machines.” The die was cast!
On face value, the move was both proportionate and appropriate. Teenagers had more disposable income and wanted mobility – for many, affordable motorcycles were the obvious choice. Larger capacity machines were capable of getting near the magic ton but, according to Hansard once again, the average 250 of the period had a maximum speed of about 65mph, which probably wasn’t too far from the truth. Home tuning aside, most British 250s would have struggled to breast the 70mph barrier, but then they’d never been designed to do so. Until the new learner law, 250s were variously designed and sold as cheaper basic transport, lightweight commuters, daily riders and so on. There had never been any intent or pretence that quarter litre singles and twins were performance machines – HMG must have thought it was on solid ground. What few could have envisaged was just swiftly things were going to change!
In reality, most 250s available at the time would have cruised happily at about 50/55mph, with a small select few making
