BSA: Japan Made in a Day What Britain Couldn't Make in a Week
The Hidden History
291 views
In 1960, the man in charge of BSA's motorcycle business travelled to Japan to see the competition for himself. What Edward Turner found inside Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda went into a report that set out, in plain figures, the gap between British motorcycle making and the industry he had just seen.
BSA was founded in Birmingham in 1861 to make guns by machinery, to answer a mechanised rival. It went on to build the M20, the Bantam and the Gold Star, won at Daytona and on the Isle of Man, and became the largest group in British motorcycling. Little more than a decade after Turner's journey, it could no longer survive as an independent motorcycle maker.
This documentary follows the evidence from Small Heath to Hamamatsu and back: Turner's 1960 report, the boom years of the 1960s, the arrival of Japan's big bikes, the crisis of 1971, the government-backed merger of 1973, and the last motorcycle built at BSA's own factory. And it asks what really came back when the BSA name returned.
KEY SOURCES
Edward Turner, "Report on Japan" (September 1960), as reproduced in published transcriptions
Boston Consulting Group, Strategy Alternatives for the British Motorcycle Industry (HC 532, HMSO, 1975)
Hansard, House of Commons Written Answers, 19 November 1973
Cycle World, "Demise of the British Industry" (September 1976)
Harvard Business School, Honda (A) case study
Steve Koerner, The Strange Death of the British Motor Cycle Industry (2012)
Brad Jones, BSA Motorcycles: The Final Evolution (Veloce)
The Classic MotorCycle
Archival images are used for historical commentary and education. This documentary is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by BSA Company Ltd, Classic Legends, Mahindra, Honda, Triumph or any other company featured.
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BSA: Japan Made in a Day What Britain Couldn't Make in a Week
The Hidden History
291 views
In 1960, the man in charge of BSA's motorcycle business travelled to Japan to see the competition for himself. What Edward Turner found inside Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda went into a report that set out, in plain figures, the gap between British motorcycle making and the industry he had just seen.
BSA was founded in Birmingham in 1861 to make guns by machinery, to answer a mechanised rival. It went on to build the M20, the Bantam and the Gold Star, won at Daytona and on the Isle of Man, and became the largest group in British motorcycling. Little more than a decade after Turner's journey, it could no longer survive as an independent motorcycle maker.
This documentary follows the evidence from Small Heath to Hamamatsu and back: Turner's 1960 report, the boom years of the 1960s, the arrival of Japan's big bikes, the crisis of 1971, the government-backed merger of 1973, and the last motorcycle built at BSA's own factory. And it asks what really came back when the BSA name returned.
KEY SOURCES
Edward Turner, "Report on Japan" (September 1960), as reproduced in published transcriptions
Boston Consulting Group, Strategy Alternatives for the British Motorcycle Industry (HC 532, HMSO, 1975)
Hansard, House of Commons Written Answers, 19 November 1973
Cycle World, "Demise of the British Industry" (September 1976)
Harvard Business School, Honda (A) case study
Steve Koerner, The Strange Death of the British Motor Cycle Industry (2012)
Brad Jones, BSA Motorcycles: The Final Evolution (Veloce)
The Classic MotorCycle
Archival images are used for historical commentary and education. This documentary is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by BSA Company Ltd, Classic Legends, Mahindra, Honda, Triumph or any other company featured.