Motorcycling in the '50s
Motorcycling in the '50s

Author: Jeff Clew

Publisher: Veloce Publishing

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781787110991

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For many, a motorcycle bought at the beginning of the 1950s was a first taste of the freedom offered by personal transport. Postwar austerity was fading, money was still tight, and new machines were virtually unobtainable; but there were plenty of cheap, prewar, machines around, and an ex-War Department motorcycle could be bought dealers in payments; better still it would be sent to your local railway station. Ex-army dispatch riders’ coats and boots would serve to keep the weather at bay as the new motorcyclists explored and enjoyed the quiet roads in a pre-motorway era. The decade would become a Golden Era of motorcycling as manufacturers brought new and excitingly advanced machines to an appreciative audience that had never even heard of a Japanese motorcycle. Motorcycle sport mushroomed in popularity at a time when you actually had to go to the race to see it and helped to reinforce the public’s ever-growing enthusiasm for the motorcycle. The era would also see the arrival of the moped, scooter and bubblecar. For those who were there, Jeff Clew’s Motorcycling in the '50s will provide a delightful nostalgic journey into the past, while those younger riders who cherish 1950s motorcycles today will discover a whole new dimension to their enjoyment of the machines.

Big British Bikes of the 50s and 60s
Big British Bikes of the 50s and 60s

Author: Steve Wilson

Publisher: Herridge & Sons Limited

Published: 2016-01-11

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781906133603

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In the 1950s and '60s the British motorcycle industry was at its postwar peak, with its large-capacity high-performance bikes in strong demand all over the world. AJS/Matchless, BSA, Norton, Royal Enfield and Triumph were all making 100mph-plus big twins, with the king of them all, at least into the 1950s, being the mighty1000cc Vincents, while among the ton-up singles were the BSA Gold Star and the Velocette Venom and Thruxton. In this book veteran motorcycle writer Steve Wilson reviews the top-of-the-line bikes of all these manufacturers, first giving an introduction to the motorcycling scene in the period, with a particular look at the emergence of the Rockers, the black-leather too-fast-to-live-too-young-to-die bikers who developed a culture all their own, inspired indirectly by Marlon Brando behaving badly on his Triumph Thunderbird in the banned-in-Britain 1953 movie The Wild One. Then the motorcycle makers are dealt with alphabetically, with their big bikes described in detail and their performance, handling, strengths and weaknesses discussed. In addition to a wide selection of archive photographs, specially commissioned colour photography features examples of the outstanding bikes of the period: AMC/Matchless CSR 650 twins and their Norton Atlas-engined 'Hybrid' siblings, BSA A7SS 500, Gold Star singles, AIO Super Rocket and Rocket Gold Star 650 twins, Norton SS 500/600/650 twins, Velocette Venom and Thruxton 500, Royal Enfield Constellation 700 twin, Triumph pre-unit 500 and 650 twins and unit Bonneville 650, and finally the Vincent 1000 vee-twin.

These Are the Good Old Days
These Are the Good Old Days

Author: Fred "Bro" Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2020-06-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781734948448

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These are the Good Old Days is a series of motorcycle recollections written by Fred "Bro" Smith, Wayne Hosaka and Steve Kukla that originally appeared over a number of years in S&S Off Road Magazine. You'll enjoy every memory they share because they'll remind you of dirt bike memories of your own.

British Motorcycles of the 1940s and ‘50s
British Motorcycles of the 1940s and ‘50s

Author: Mick Walker

Publisher: Shire Publications

Published: 2010-10-19

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9780747808053

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After VE Day in 1945 the British population returned enthusiastically to the road. But the cost and availability of both vehicles and fuel led to the post-war scene being dominated by motorcycles, most of them ex-military machines, eagerly snapped up for everyday use in an age when a family car remained just a dream for many. The British industry, meanwhile, was exhorted to 'export or die', and until well into the 1950s the majority of new British bikes were sold abroad. During this period, the industry - the largest and most important in the world - continued to develop new and exciting machines, which increasingly populated Britain's roads. Mick Walker tells the story of the British post-war motorcycle during this golden age of the industry. Machines from the big names, AMC (AJS and Matchless), the BSA Group (BSA, Triumph, Sunbeam and Ariel), Douglas, Norton, Panther, Royal Enfield, Velocette and Vincent, are here plus a myriad of smaller firms such as Cotton, Excelsior, Francis-Barnett, James and Scott. With the help of archive photographs and advertising material this book conjures up a lost age of the British bike.

British Motorcycles of the 1960s and ’70s
British Motorcycles of the 1960s and ’70s

Author: Mick Walker

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2013-01-20

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 0747811040

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For the first half of the twentieth century, Great Britain led the world in motorcycle design and production, exporting its products to countries all over the globe. However, by 1960 this once-great industry had fallen into what was to be a terminal decline. During the 1960s and '70s Britain still manufactured a wide range of machines, but a combination of poor management, lack of investment, foreign competition (notably from Japan), and the arrival of the small, affordable car conspired to sound the death knell for most British motorcycles by the end of the 1970s. Mick Walker uses a host of colourful illustrations to explore the models produced by British companies and their foreign competitors, and explains what the industry did to fight its ultimate demise.