The British Motorcycles Of The 40s And 50s By Roy Bacon

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The British Motorcycles Of The 40s And 50s By Roy Bacon.

When World War II ended in 1945, the pressing need was to put the British Economy back on a peacetime footing, to get the population out of uniform and back to work. Throughout the industry the cry was “export or die”, and the motorcycle manufacturers met this need as best they could, despite the shortage of raw materials. The British Motorcycle Industry also faced a high demand at home, where the population was starved of transportation.

For awhile they made do by re-introducing obsolete designs from the late 1930s or by reconditioning ex-military machines, but as the 1950s dawned, the situation began to improve. New designs previously only destined for foreign shores, became available at home and sales began to rise. Constant improvement led to motorcycles that were very reliable and had good spares availability.

Sales of British motorcycles peaked at 1959, but by then the writing was already on the wall. The Mini was about to sound the death knell for the sidecar market, and the East a nation so recently defeated in war was preparing to deal a devastating blow to the British Motorcycle Industry, from which it was never to recover.

All this was in the future, however, and as the 1950s came to a close, it looked as though the Sun would never set on the British Motorcycle Industry.