British motorcycle manufacturers were finished by 1959

British motorcycle manufacturers were finished by 1959, just as the first Triumph Bonnevilles were rolling off the production lines. I've shortened the article on my website at https://www.themotorcyclebroker.co.uk/british-motorcycle-manufacturers-were-finished-by-1959/ if you wish to read the longer, more in depth article. Most people believe that the Honda CB750 and Kawasaki Z900 were what killed British motorcycle manufacturers. The truth is that they were dead and buried already by the time the across the frame four cylinder machines arrived from Japan. Britain’s arrogance and refusal to develop and adapt to more modern engineering design and manufacturing methods is what destroyed this industry. A refusal to invest in the industry was underpinning this arrogance.?Unless British manufacturers produced machines that were much more reliable and at a more exciting price point, the British motorcycle manufacturing days were over.

Sales figures for 1959 said it all and it’s shocking that no one working in British motorcycle manufacture saw the writing on the walls. In the figures below you can see that worldwide British motorcycle imports went from 51,463 in 1950 to 25,699 in 1959. However, total worldwide motorcycle sales grew from 127,737 in 1950 to 333,500 in 1959. It seems like the same attitudes were prevalent during this period, in the British motorcycle manufacturing industry, as were nailed to the mast at the Earls Court Motorcycle Show in 1973. Honda started producing motorcycles in 1949 and you can see how in 1949 the best selling machines were over 250cc without a sidecar at 38,813 and 0-150cc machines were at a healthy 36,045. By 1955 motorcycles 0-150cc were selling at 98,040 and over 250cc at a static 38,106. By 1959 0-150cc motorcycle sales were at 229,000 and over 250cc were at 33,000.?

The reason for the motorcycle sales explosion in the 1950s was because these machines offered affordable transport to countries that had never had it before. A driving force for the desirability of these machines was the reliability that Japanese small capacity offered and the high mileages they could cover. British motorcycles could only cover low mileages without serious maintenance, they leaked oil which became another running cost, and they were hopelessly unreliable compared to the offerings from Japan. The British manufacturers lacked vision and were sitting comfortably while refusing to notice that the world was changing. The world was shrinking and globalisation was well and truly under way with the development of the aircraft and cargo ships. So where were all these motorcycles being sold??

This emerging motorcycle market was most likely to be in Africa. In the 1990s we were forward ordering tens of thousands of Honda C90 Cubs from Honda Burkina Faso and trading them into motorcycle rental companies in Greece. I looked further into the African motorcycle market and the figures were huge for small capacity motorcycles. Many nations used them for transporting medicines over the rough terrain they call roads. I suspect that Honda helped create this market from the 1950s onwards. Africa is an enormous market for small capacity motorcycles and has always been since the mid 1950s.?

Japanese motorcycle manufacturers grew into masters of creating new markets throughout the world and developing existing markets. The key to their success was delivering reliable machines that were totally dependable and that offered great value. Owners knew that if they owned a Japanese motorcycle it was dependable enough to get them into work every day for a specific time in any weather.?British made motorcycles just could not guarantee to get any owner to a specific place at a specific time even when they were brand new. Japanese motorcycle manufacturers offered freedom and many more choices of places to work to people who could never dream of owning transport before.?

Reliability was key to market domination between 1950 and the early 1980s. This is where the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers excelled and British motorcycle manufacturers failed spectacularly. Reliable transport transformed the lives of millions of people all over the globe. It gave them choices, if there were plenty of well-paid jobs thirty miles away a reliable motorcycle meant it was instantly accessible. Without motorcycles that could get people to work, guaranteed every day in time to start work like clockwork, day in day out, the well-paid jobs thirty miles away may as well have been in another country. The freedom this bought these new motorcycle owners, from 1950 onwards, generated new wealth for them. Other people saw this and followed suit which grew the market.?