Buying my motor cycle

One thing which appalls me about our motorcycling scene is how ignorant our motorcycle salesmen are. Drop in at any show room (selling mainly Indian and Chinese bikes nowadays) and all they can tell you is the engine capacity and fuel consumption figures - and of course the warranty details, price and how to get leasing facilities.

I have faced this dismal situation at all the recent motor shows held at the BMICH. I finally decided not to talk to the salesmen any more. It's quite pointless. But something in the atmosphere makes you change your mind, and you are immediately back to square one, wondering why on earth these people became motorcycle salesmen in the first place (this is true whether they are just salesmen or marketing managers. Both categories seem to be equally clueless. In the latter category, I know of just two exceptions to the rule).

I'd like to find people who are inspired by motorcycles, who love them and ride them not just to commute but for pleasure as well. But such people are unfortunately very few among our bike marketing people. They should also know the history of motorcycles at least a little bit. These are people who should glance through a motorcycle encyclopedias when they find one (the public library has one, albeit quite old), with a few dog-eared motorcycle books and magazines by their beds.

Both are expensive, especially magazines, but second-hand ones can be had cheap. It's not easy finding them-- but then, nothing good in life ever come easy. They should know at least the highlights of motorcycling history - who made the world's first motorcycle, why the Triumph Speed Twin had such an impact on the British motorcycle industry, or why the Honda CB 750 Four is known as the world's first modern superbike. I'd like them to at least have heard of marques such as the Brough Superior, Ariel, Vincent HRD, Rudge, Indian, Excelsior and their humbler cousins such as James or Jawa. But all they seem to know are BSAs, Triumphs and Nortons, because they were once so common in this country or were raced.

The byword in this context is that ignorance is bliss. Companies which import bikes should make sure that their salesmen have some technical knowledge - they should be know at least the engine rpm, torque, horsepower and compression ratio of the machines. They should know about motorcycles not imported to this country, from commuters to racers, and a bit of motorcycling history. It's the company's duty to see this happens. The company can keep motorcycle magazines and an encyclopaedia as reference material for the staff.

In my case, having given up on dull-minded motorcycle salesmen, I feel duty bound to inform the reading public, few of whom are (or need to be) motorcycle enthusiasts, about the great motorcycles of the past.

Now that I have already mentioned the Honda 750 Four (thus named because of its four-cylinder engine). I'll start with that.

The Honda CB750 Four, introduced in 1969, took the world by storm (at least the Western world where bikers with the kind of money needed to buy a superbike existed). Until then, the Japanese were thought of as makers of cheap, fancy-looking small bikes while the more serious business of building big, macho machines remained the exclusive domain of the British (well, there was BMW and oddities such as the Russian Ural, a BMW copy, but it's Triumph and BSA which dominated the fancy bike market, with Harley-Davidson on the other side of the Atlantic).

There were warning signs that the Japanese were set to change all that. Honda's 450cc 'Black Bomber' of the early 60s was a warning sign which was ignored by the British. Actually, when the 750 Four was introduced, BSA/Triumph had their big triples, and Norton had the Commando. The Triumph Trident was a mean, high performance machine, and the Norton with its famous featherbed frame handled better.

So what made the Honda 750 Four so popular? It wasn't the world's first four-cylinder overhead camshaft machine, but it was the first production roadster to offer a front disc brake as standard. It was stylish, handled reasonably well, and its engine was oil-tight. It was also cheaper than the big British twins, but it wasn't the price alone which made it king. It was the entire package.

The rest is history. The new Honda spelt doom for the flagging British motorcycle industry. It confirmed what many already suspected - that the Japanese could build stylish, high performance motorcycles. Kawasaki followed soon with the Z900, the world's first production roadster with a DOHC engine, upstaging the CB450 Four. Soon, Japan's big four were engaged in a fierce competition to build multi-cylinder machines, upstaging each other. This resulted in the new generation of four-cylinder motorcycles being called 'UJM' - Universal Japanese Machine, a derogatory term.

Only the Italians were able to challenge them in any way. Triumph was reborn again in the 1980s as Hinckley Triumph and has a faithful following, but hasn't regained its former status among the giants of motorcycle manufacturing yet. The 750 Four is now lovingly regarded as a classic motorcycle, and has been followed by other impressive multi-cylinder Hondas, including the Goldwing and the Pan European. But more of that, later.