Written by Jon Branch The Land Rover, like the original Volkswagen, has been a car that defied the norms of automotive marketing. The motor industry has been in a mindset of wanting to constantly create a new model, sometimes every year, and lots of variations on that model, seeming to think that people are constantly…
Introduction The story of the Indian Chief is one that is not quite of the order of sadness of a Shakespearean tragedy but it is nonetheless one that evokes a number of “what if” questions from motorcycle enthusiasts and especially Indian enthusiasts. The Chief was first produced in 1922 fitted with a 62 cu. in….
In a roundabout way, we owe the existence of the Harley-Davidson XR-750 to the Brits. They didn’t design it or built it of course, but what they did do was complain – loudly and often – about the rules governing the Grand National Championship which excluded them (by design). Prior to 1969 the American Motorcyclist…
The creation of the Japanese sword gives us an insight into the thinking behind the creation of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle (UJM). In the time prior to the Japanese creating their own sword design they used a variety of design concepts mostly borrowed from China. But there came a point at which they seem to have collectively decided that the two handed sabre was the best choice…
Back in 1978 when Yamaha first created the SR500 it was intended to be a Japanese replacement for British thumpers like the Manx Norton – yet Yamaha also made it a bike for entry level riders by building the SR series to be easy to ride and easy to maintain.
If the Brough Superior was the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles, then the Vincent Black Shadow was the Aston Martin. When Vincent began back in 1928 they started out the way they meant to keep going as “the makers of the world’s fastest motorcycles”.
Introduction The Norton Commando is a vintage British motorcycle whose name would become so iconic it’s still a household name decades after the originals left production. Most people with even a passing interest in motorcycles will have heard of it. Given that the Norton Commando was created using a dated parallel twin engine and certainly…
Motorcycles were a market that was to be a natural opening for Japanese industry. Although the British, Americans, Italians, and Germans were making motorcycles that sold well they were steeped in traditional ideas of what a motorcycle should and should not be. The Japanese were not. Japan had worked on creating a motorcycle industry especially in the post war period.
Introduction to the Triumph TR6 – The Desert Sled The Triumph TR6 Trophy, otherwise known as the “Desert Sled” is perhaps best remembered as the bike Steve McQueen used in “The Great Escape” – albeit a TR6 that had been camouflaged to look a little more German. Over the course of its production, the iconic Triumph…
The Beginning The Japanese are an interesting people. When US Commodore Matthew Perry engaged in a bit of American “gunboat diplomacy” back in 1853 the Japanese were forced to emerge from their two hundred and fifty years of isolation from the world. In just fifty years they went from being a sixteenth century nation with…
The Japanese rise as a dominant force in the motorcycle industry during the seventies caught much of the established European motorcycle manufacturers off guard. The bikes from the Land of the Rising Sun had nice convenient electric starters and quickly earned themselves a reputation for dependability. The expression “boringly reliable” was quickly applied to anything made by Honda, because they were. A flat out ride on a Honda CB750cc was however anything but boring and the Kawasaki 900cc that followed it provided levels of excitement that beggared belief.
