TFI

#40: Triumph is here still.
As is a ’62 Heinkel which may yet be restored.

Put the Preview button back on please.

Anyhoo- you are having a mid life crisis and look a youth-obsessed nutjob on yer bike.

I jest!

This is my Father in the 1960s or 70s in his pindh of Nangal, Dist. Hoshiarpur, Indian Punjab. The first man, so he tells me, to have a Harley Davidson in India.

I don’t believe him on either account but it’s a nice story nonetheless.

http://i28.tinypic.com/2hnz048.jpg

Yes a Royal Enfield would have been more appropriate as they make them in India. When the British motorbike industry finally collapsed some Indian bought the entire factory in North London and shipped it home.

I was amused to see the 1970s described as producing classics. I was born in 1946 and grew up seeing, and late owning bikes, and cars, that were pre Second World War. A list of British bike manufacturers will probably surprise most of you. BSA from Birmingham, AJR named after the founder of the company Arthur John Peterson, the great Truimph, I had a Bonneville 650 a masively big engine in those days.

There were a number of two strokes as well and companies Like Excelsior and Ariel come to mind all. My two favourites were both big beasts. A 1954 Ariel four cylinder shaft drive and a 1960 ex Beglgian police Harley Davidson. In 1969 I paid £240 quid for it, 1000 cc with a foot clutch and hand gear change. That was the summer Easy Rider was released, I just counld’t go wrong!

The writing was on the wall for the Britiash bike industry but they could’t see it. I saw my first Honda in 1963 and my first Japanese sports car in 66, a Mazda. They were cheap and reliable. Hardly ever broke down and started on the button on the coldest mornings.

Both bike and car makers just refused to accept that they had competition with the result that we have now. No British bikes and whatever cars are produced are foreign owned. Let that be a lesson to everyone, never get complacent.

Of course to be really cool Sunny you need a classic restored Vespa or Lambretta, the only problem is cost. Some friends of mine are selling restored 1960s TV 175 Lambrettas for up to seven grand. Still you could be out there with your paka and Paul Weller hairstyle off down to Brighton for remake of Quadrophenia! Just a thought!

Ahhh, thanks for thinking of me, Sunny. But given I’ve never felt the need to rush out and buy a big shiny metalic penis extension you needn’t have worried

I didnt want to make you feel more inadequate than you already do Anas.

When bmw’s were first marketed in UK in the 60′s after passing through near demise [from having awful cars, and bavarian pride had precluded rescue under the care of schwabian DaimlerBenz], potential customers’ concerns that the car was a bit expensive were met with: “No, they’re VERY expensive”. The path was set and emulated. It still took decades to progress beyond the obsession against DB, which simply engineered better, and were happy to be staid, for they competed with no one.

(short for “young urban professional” or “young upwardly-mobile professional”)[1] refers to a market segment whose consumers are characterized as self-reliant, financially secure individualists (wiki)

Which sounds like something I’d aspire to. BUT if you mean making cars for yuppies means said car company puts less emphasis on substance and more on style, I’d agree. But you just have to look at the N54 engine to realise it’s not true for BMW. Many – if not most – BMWs BOUGHT are not impressive vehicles, like the innumerable 318s on the roads. However one can’t tar all with one brush. The 135i, 335i and the M-badgeds are quite spectacular cars.

The last of the BMW’s before they started making cars for yuppies with the the 3 series. But mustn’t grumble – the 3 series and VW Golf Mk1 were two cars that saved BMW and VW from extiction. The UK never had an equivalent best seller that could save BL.

the new M1 ?
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/04/bmw_m1.php

I had a ride in the original M1 25 years ago – mind blowing trip down the M4. 120 mph was fast then – now its passe

justforfun

Well, everyone’s entitled to their opinion jff. Clarkson agrees with me on this model (which, incidentally, is supposed to be a resurrection of the 2002), even though he dislikes BMW…but I doubt Clarkson is a popular character on PP so I won’t persist!

Yes I’ve read a lot about the GINA concept – looks amazing. Might be the future, who knows.