Description
The Golden Years of British Motorcycling. Murray Walker is your guide to the golden years of British motorcycling and the greatest bikes this country ever produced. Using rare and dramatic archive footage featuring famous machines and top British riders, Murray takes you from the earliest days of the industry through to the 1960s. You’ll see rigid frame bikes with fishtails bouncing around the banking at Brooklands and visit the ‘Island’ where Nortons and Velocettes piloted by Jimmy Guthrie, Freddie Frith and Stanley Woods, ruled the road. You’ll share in the excitement of the first British scramble of 1924, see 1930s motorbike and sidecar racing and join the crowd at an Ilkley trial to see C15s, Greeves and Ajay thumpers burying themselves tank-deep in the moorlands mud! This video also looks at British motorbikes during both World Wars. You’ll see a 30,000 model H Triumph cutting through the mud of the trenches and British troops crossing the Sahara in 1941 on trusty BSAs while the Harley D’s going nowhere fast. Murray charts the decline of Norton through the careers of Geoff Duke and John Surtees and explains the rise of MV and Gilera. By the time of the 1949 Earls Court show the British bike industry ruled the world. Why, by 1961 had it all started to slip away? Was it the arrival of the Honda or the Mini priced at just £496? Today, our motorcycle industry is a shadow of its former self - but you can relive all the glory, all the pride and all the achievements in this outstanding video.