British Motorcycles of the 1960s and ’70s: 654 (Shire Library)

My husband was very happy with this book it was a Christmas present.

Very quick delivery & excellent quality.

More of a magazine than a book

I bought this book because I enjoy reading about classic British motorcycles. Unfortunately there's not a lot in there that's actually about bikes. Considering that this is supposed to be a book about British motorcycles of the 1960s and '70s it seems astonishing to me that the Triumph T140 Bonneville rates just one photo, and almost nothing at all in the text! That's right, the last and arguably the best known british twin, which survived into the eighties and, for a spell in Britain in the late seventies, actually outsold every other 750, including those from Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki, doesn't even get a mention beyond one solitary photo of the silver jubilee model, and a fleeting acknowledgement of good sales in the USA. So for me, a hugely disappointing book, which mostly just regurgitates the same old stuff about the decline of the British motorcycle industry whilst largely ignoring the actual products thereof. If you read this book and nothing else on the subject, you'd go away thinking that every bike produced in Britain in the period covered was a load of rubbish (except, of course, the Commando), everything the Japanese produced was perfect and the Triumph co-operative was what put BSA out of business. Hmm. Bert Hopwood's 'Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry?' is a far superior and more informative work, although to be fair, this book is far too short to have had a chance to cover that subject adequately. It's unfortunate, then, that in trying and failing, it also spectacularly fails to cover what its title would lead one to expect.

don't blame the Japanese for our downfall, it was the stick in the mud managers and money men that would n't change. if we had embraced change we might still have BSA, Vincent or AJS

Great for light reading

An easy read that gives a quick review and summary of the English motorcycle industry and it's demise. Goes into it a little deeper than just talking about the bikes, also talks about the social and business aspects and their affect on the industry and management complacency or ignorance. Also some nice pictures in there.

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Great book for those who love Triumph.

Nice short resume of the British Motorcycles of just before the collapse of the British Motorcycle industry. Nice pictures too.