Motorcycling in the 1970s Volume 5:: The Magic of Motorcycling

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INTRODUCTION

This series of books is, in some respects, a love letter to motorcycling. It has certainly been written from the heart. I started riding powered two-wheelers in the mid 1970s, on a fabulous little 50cc ‘popsicle purple’ Yamaha FS1-E, and straight away I felt that riding set me free in a way that was not only instantly joyful, but also meaningful and somehow magically transcendental.

I was also aware I was stepping into a great, flowing river of history, and I was deeply glad of it. I quickly became as interested in motorcycling’s past as its present; hungry to find out about the fascinating machines and singular people that made motorcycling what it was, and had been. And I began to explore what it was that set motorcyclists apart from the majority and made biking so uniquely enjoyable. As an avid rider and reader, I became a student of ‘the sport’.

Those thoughts and feelings have endured for nearly 40 years now and while I still find motorcycling in all its aspects as boundlessly fascinating as did my teenage self, it is the period in which I plunged in and joined the flow, the time when I was at my most impressionable and when my mind was at its most absorbent, that still holds the greatest interest for me today. The 1970s. The time when I fell in love with motorcycling.

The first book is a general history, briefly told, of motorcycling in Britain from its beginnings at the very end of the 19th century up to 1969 (interwoven to an extent with two-wheeled goings on in the USA and elsewhere). It charts motorcycling’s pioneering years, skips through two world wars, tells of social acceptability in the 1920s, hard times in the 1930s and growing ostracisation and decline in the 1950s and 1960s. It attempts to make sense of the motorcycling world order, and of motorcycling’s place in society and everyday life, and sets the scene for the larger, more detailed volumes which follow.

Taken together, Books Two, Three and Four form a comprehensive, in-depth history of the bikes and motorcycling trends and events in the 1970s. They tell the story of the arrival of the superbike, the continuing and inexorable rise of the Japanese motorcycle industry and, partly from an insider’s point of view, the wasteful, lingering death of its British equivalent. They tell of the thrilling and extraordinary sporting machines from Italy and of the bulletproof BMW twins designed in Bavaria. They tell of motorcycling culture and of two-wheeled life and lives.

In the 1970s, motorcycling became a leisure activity in a new and exciting way, there were more motorcyclists than ever before, or since, and dozens of new and ever more fabulous and technologically advanced motorcycles crammed the showrooms every year. It was the time of Jarno Saarinen and Giacomo Agostini and of Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene. The time of Bike magazine, of Motorcycle Sport and Cycle in the USA, of Mark Williams, Dave Minton and LJK Setright in his pomp.

I argue that although the protagonists were largely unaware of it at the time, the 1970s as a whole can now be seen to have been a golden era in the history of the movement, a pivotal decade which represents a high point in the history of motorcycling that is never likely to be matched.

The final book in the series, entitled ‘The Magic of Motorcycling’, takes a sideways look at the 1970s classic motorcycle scene in the second decade of the 21st century and explores what it is that makes motorcycling so special to so many people yet an anathema to a great many more.

And a series of appendices list nostalgic, amusing and sometimes poignant reminders of the life and culture of the 1970s, reminding us of the global goings-on and domestic backdrop underlying the motorcycling scene and, of course, all lesser matters.

Books Two to Five all feature a short chapter containing potted biographies of the interviewees quoted in the text.

Altogether, this gigantic and far reaching but, I hope, always coherent tome, is an attempt to make sense of motorcycling and celebrate its apogee in the 1970s. I have tried to set down a great many facts in a logical yet entertaining way and, as well as aiming to be informative, I have strived to connect with fellow enthusiasts and devotees at an emotional level, and also to convey to non-motorcycling readers something of what is wonderful and fascinating about powered two-wheelers.

PART ONE –

CLASSIC MOTORCYCLING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

THIS IS NOW

1971 Yamaha 350cc YR5 (Venture Classics)

The 1970s nostalgia scene is growing all the time. Most modern day motorcyclists are in their fifties and sixties. Many started on sports mopeds in the 1970s and moved on to a 250. Some kept on biking without a break, others have returned in recent years as born agains. In the 1970s, bikes were still a cheap way of getting to work, but they were also about fun, freedom, rebellion and being different from the crowd. The 1970s was the beginning of a long period of growth in recreational motorcycling in Britain. For the first time, bikes were being used first and foremost for the sheer joy of motorcycling.

Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, most large modern motorcycles are sold to middle aged and older males. They are mid-life crisis machines. Youngsters today might ride a scooter for a year, but really want a Citroen Saxo lit up underneath and set pulsing and throbbing by an iPod or iPhone plugged into its dash. Rather than ride motorcycles, teenagers get virtual thrills on their X-Boxes and PS3s.

Time signatures (Made in Italy)

To them Nuts and Hello are more interesting than motorcycle magazines and two minutes on the lavatory can be the only time they hold print media in their hands. Lads are just not getting into bikes at all. There is next to no new blood. New bikes are sold to the same old bikers every year and design changes come in ripples rather than waves. Despite this, most motorcycles today have reached a level of specification that defies criticism. There are no terrible bikes, but there are certainly a lot of unremarkable ones.

It’s subjective to say 1970s motorcycles were attractive and beautiful and today’s machines are ugly by comparison, but most 1970s bikes have a pleasing simplicity and pureness of line. Today’s bikes are just not as attractive. Or is it like pop music? Like the fact most modern music is dross to older ears? Each generation is imprinted with the musical tastes, fashions and styles of its youth and grows up resenting change. And it is in teenage years the heaviest impressions are made; when views are set for a lifetime. Certainly, and classic machines from past eras all give off different time signatures.

Old men’s playthings. 1970s sports mopeds

And as today’s older bikers become too decrepit to ride and then drop off the perch altogether, where does that leave motorcycling? Is biking on the way out? There won’t be another sales boom like in the 1970s. Motorcycling has been marginalised by prohibitive legislation and the industry, that which remains, lacks the teeth to fight back. There are few votes or jobs tied up with a dangerous recreational pursuit with antisocial overtones.

Motorcycling still sometimes comes under attack from the establishment, but this is rare. Biking has largely shaken off its bad boy image. It has been absorbed and moved back into the mainstream of society where it was in the 1920s and 1930s. But this is not because motorcycling is central to the life of the nation as it was then. It is because bikes are now boys’ toys. More accurately, they are old men’s playthings. To society as a whole, they are an irrelevance.

Mark Williams: What changed during the 1970s was bikes went from being something you needed for transport to something you bought for fun and prestige and consequently there was a decline in motorcycling as cheap transport. Then in the 1980s there was an ever increasing focus on speed as the major buying factor and the market for commuter bikes all but completely disappeared.

I don’t think the industry realised it at first, but the mainstream motorcycle market became more rich and middle class and the industry abandoned other aspects of the market at its peril. The manufacturers should not have been willing to lose the commuter market so readily and abandon the sixteener market as it was once called, the new riders. The industry, such as it remains an industry, has now settled for steadily diminishing overall sales but at hiked retail prices across the board to try to keep its margins.

Gerald Davison: A few years ago I had a conversation with the chap who was running the bike division at Honda UK and I said, do you have any idea what’s happening with ownership? As an industry you focus on the number of people who’ve got bike licences and the number of bikes that are taxed for the road but what you’ve got to take on board is that more and more motorcyclists own several bikes so the number of bikes registered doesn’t tell us anything about the number of owners out there. There’s a smaller number of us riding bikes and multiple ownership is almost the norm.

Motorcycle enthusiasts today. Getting older and mainly looking backwards

And we’re all getting older and mainly looking backwards. None of us are interested in today’s bikes. My bike doesn’t have upside down forks or wavy brake discs and I say so what? But this was the magazines’ obsession until recently. They told us we had to have all these things that don’t actually enhance the experience at all. During the summer I do a lot of biking and I meet a lot of riders who are influenced by this but the number of people who are obsessed with this year’s bike is starting to dwindle quite fast and the manufacturers are doing nothing to address this.

I never thought motorcycling was safe in the hands of the Japanese. They’re just interested in running their factories and producing high volumes and at the moment motorcycling to them represents the production of tens of millions of very small engined bikes they sell in Vietnam and Thailand, Indonesia, India. Oh, they still sell a few big bikes in Europe and North America but that’s not big business now. Not any more.

Sammy Miller Museum, New Milton, Hampshire

Most of us have got cars and motorcycling is nothing to do with transport any more. The garage is my toy box and in it I’ve got a touring bike that’s very practical and very fast to ride over distance. It can carry luggage and I can put my wife on the back. But if I just want to go out for a really enjoyable afternoon with one of my pals I’ll take my CBX 1000, a classic bike that still gives me the most enormous buzz and puts a big smile on my face. Or I might take my little 500cc single because down little roads I can run it flat out all day long and it’s an absolute joy.

So what is there that I can buy from a dealer today that would add to my enjoyment or experience with these bikes? Zero. I go into my local dealer for odd bits but I never stop to look at the bikes. I’d rather go and look at classic bikes somewhere because they interest me more. I spend a lot of time at Sammy Miller’s museum down at New Milton. My past is in there I can walk around and enjoy looking at the bikes again.

Mark Williams: The classic bike scene is very healthy because people who grew up with the sort of machines we grew up with are now in their fifties and sixties and they can’t be doing with modern motorcycles, but they haven’t lost their appetite