Slimline featherbed

[johnnyboy-wonder57]

British Motorcycles:
Total Production:
1945 49,000
1946 84,240
1947 111,600
1948 130,800
1949 154,800
1950 171,270  for motorcycles, 43% + of production was exported, if you add bicycles to the value of exported goods the total rises to £32,172,197!
Four biggest markets in 1950;
Australia     22,171 @ £2,041,923; There must be quite a lot of stuff out there in Aussie-land!
USA               8,582,  @ £987,700;   Bit of a surprise here the USA resisted importing machines as much as possible!
Canada         6,225, @ £500,160;
Switzerland  4,338 @ £495,690;

Now you know why, some years later it made so much sense to abandon the Commonwealth & other trading partners & join the Common Market, look at our trading partners in 1950!

Well R, I know monetary values have changed, but I would be more than happy now, today, to be producing & exporting that number from (1950) of motorcycles from Blighty!

Firms: BSA, Triumph,  AMC/AJS/Matchless, Norton, Ariel, Velocette, Vincent, Royal Enfield, P & M & Douglas would be your main  4 stroke suppliers, plus many Villiers-engined derivatives  Ambassador, Norman, e.t.c.
BSA was by far the largest motorcycle producer in the World in 1950, by a big margin, aided by war reparations & and copying & mirroring of the German DKW engine, that became the beloved Bantam & this model had a massive effect on BSA in the 1950s, as most of you would know!

Sadly it all went "titsup", if you are not born with wealth already there, it only comes through work & a Nations prosperity mainly comes through real jobs in real production, they may go on now in the News about how much the "City" brings in, but the real cost of investment abroad, to the Country is massive in British jobs &  a skewed wealth distribution & this seems to be not really accounted for, most wealth  created @ present is limited in circulation & not distributed as evenly as in early post-war Britain, jobs in production allowed wealth to filter down, through the respected social hierarchical groups.

Admittedly modern production techniques are not labour intensive, but surely something has to be done,  otherwise most of us and our children in the future, will only know an England with part-time jobs in Supermarkets a very shaky retail sector and extremely badly tarnished & corrupt? Financial Services & Insurance sector & the disappearance of Small Businesses & pubs on a scale last seen in Cromwellian times!

Anyhow a new series on China on Monday nights is interesting in that Niall Ferguson on the "nature of the Beast" is informative about the Modern Global World!

And Mary Portas's Bottom Line has given light at the end of the tunnel to some.
As Peter Kay says "you can't go back"!  But is he right?



Cheers


JBW

[chaterlea25]

Hi JBW,
"Quote" from previous post
""Norton machines did benefit from a superior AMC gearbox though!""


To the best of my knowledge, and experience the Norton box is derived from the original Sturmey Archer
4 speeder, later the Dolls head , upright/laydown and finally the version which was fitted on Nortons AMC's etc from the late 50's through to the Commando
The late Norton gears will fit a 30's box, which is very good news for restorers ( maybe not all the ratios identical, but it will work)

AJS?Matchless models used Burman gearboxes up till they took over Norton (maybe later??)

I felt this correction needed to be made
Regards
John

[johnnyboy-wonder57]

 I stand corrected, in misleading fellow enthusiasts:
 Yep, AMC fine-tuned the Norton design for a better gear-change experience, I should have put that AMC developed the Norton gearbox, having said that the box is often (probably incorrectly), referred to as an AMC gearbox rather than an Norton product  refined  through an AMC redesign!

"The Norton Commando 4 speed gearbox is an ancient design that dates to 1935, with a revision in 1956, it became the ubiquitous AMC gearbox. It was designed for a 30hp, 500cc engine." Originally.

It seems most people at that time in the mid-50s regarded the redesigned gearbox as a better product especially for building race-derived bikes or slightly later on the hybrid , like Tritons e.t.c.

For my Imp-engined creation, a Norton/AMC box has been recommended, so post 1956, with a Norton Commando clutch, triplex primary drive & counter-shaft for lining everything up.

Sorry to mislead with sentence-structure & incorrect wording, so as you rightly say & according to Legend, AMC revised the Norton product & made it better/superior, rather than fitting an AMC gearbox to replace the Norton original!.



Cheers


JBW

[chaterlea25]

Hi JBW,
Thanks for all the history on the AMC / Norton developments
I read in a recent mag that Andover Norton have a heavy duty casing available,
might be required with all that power?
Cheers
John

[johnnyboy-wonder57]

John,
I have emailed Andover- Norton for a catalog!

Cheers

JBW