Whatever Happened to the British Motor Cycle Industry? [Paperback]

"This is it" opened the contemporary review in 1981, when first published. An uncharacteristically literate review in a motorcycle magazine concluded " students writing thesis and chronicles of our times need look no further". Prophetically this book is finding its way into university libraries as questions that should have been asked 30 years ago are now taxing a new generation of intelligentsia.

And there in may be a big part of the "problem" It has taken a generation to pass to remove the raw edge of reality of life in an industrial nation. The lofty spires of our universities, many built on the proceeds of industry , were much more at ease with sociology than the grimy world of their benefactors. The public face of industry became a quilted coated Brummie barking " down tools " on a 1970's newsreel. Some lecturers may have thought it a nice idea to have the "workers" running the country but having them round to tea was an altogether different matter.

Thankfully Bert Hopwood, a man at the centre, chronicled the rise and fall of a mighty industry. And what a fall it was. BSA had 72 ( yes seventy two ) satellite factories, motorcycles were a massive export employing staff in their thousands at each factory. Ariel, Triumph, Norton and BSA are all covered by Hopwood as is the industry at large after his lifetime of experience.

This is a personal rather than a technical book. After all it is personalities that made and ultimately killed the industry.

It's a small thing but Hopwood recalls entering the management dining room ( canteen ) in motorcycle gear only to be told he was underdressed ! I n a motorcycle factory ? Although Hopwood doesn't say as much the "class" factor is recorded elsewhere . For the industry in which there was no shortage of talent, did not rate its own. Many of them were the product of evening classes and experience. At board level they were almost contemptuous of men off the shop floor rising through the ranks. Many were consequently alienated by being overlooked in favour of a 22 year old graduate just because he had a degree. Cometh the hour, cometh the man with the clipboard.

Speak to anyone with experience of British industry and Hopwood's words will have a resonance way to broad to be dismissed as bitterness.

The "new thinking" that he criticises so, won the day. And we lost our industry as a consequence. Those who were placed to make a difference did not care and perhaps few care today, for this is one of the very few studies on the decline.

Hopwood could have made the difference; if somebody had let him. His designs were solid and he understood the market without going on a "course". Some of it was so basic it makes you weep. When a bike wins a race, why not build a run of models to sell. Selling is their business. And when you get Trophies, why not let dealers display them ? Production racing is nothing if not an advert. He championed modular design, now an industry standard the world over. You should be crying by now.

In today's fast moving world it is incredible to hear of Hopwood designing a Norton in 1948. In 1973 Norton "merged" with BSA and Triumph where Hopwood was by then working, and all they had to offer was his old design.

Some reviewers have felt that this was a tome of recrimination from a man by a man who was deprived of fulfilling his full potential. It isn't. It is an important document compiled by a man who saw an iceberg, screamed at the captain who ignored him and only got his hands on the wheel when the vessel was taking on water. The captain meanwhile rowed off in his lifeboat.

Twas ever thus.

If you have any interest in British motorcycles and how the industry that created them eventually strangled itself, and especially if you grew up in the '50s and '60s, when British machines led the world, this book is a fascinating revelation of how a relatively small number of men dominated the evolution of the major brands. As Hopwood moves between Ariel, Triumph, BSA, Norton and AMC we see, through his eyes, how pride, arrogance and complacency led a major industry through decline and decay to extinction.
Hopwood's book focuses exclusively on the rise and fall of the British motorcycle industry but the factors that led to its demise are not exclusive to that industry; they read across to shipbuilding, cars, aircraft etc. Read this book and mourn for what might have been.

This is the book I have wanted for years but did not know of its existence. Bert Hopwood was a senior engineer and then manager in Triumph, Norton and BSA so that he is well placed to comment. Obviously it is his view rather than an impartial examination by an authoritative outsider but his experiences and analyses ring true with my experiences of similar companies. He highlights constant short-termism, often by people with no understanding of their market or prodeuct and even contenpt for their customers, and a terribly amateurish approach. Crucially, at a critical point in their fortunes, they fell for the blandishments of management consultants. Recently such companies have been shown to take on naive employees and give them three weeks of training (indoctrination?) and then send them out to call for a 30% cost reduction by firing employees. What a con! The whole book is a massive indictment of the British management of those days, and one suspects it is typical of too many companies today. It is an absorbing read but also sad and frustrating.