Motorcycles We Loved – serie

With stunning bikes, technical advancements and pivotal milestones, the 1980s was a vibrant period for motorcycling in Britain. Accelerating sales saw the decade begin with the old, twin-shock Universal Japanese Motorcycles and end with race replicas, fully-faired tourers and screaming strokers. Bike sport grew and had a bigger influence on what was being ridden on the road. Learners became restricted to 125s, and the Paris–Dakar Rally spawned a new class of road-going replicas such as the Africa Twin, the precursors of today’s popular adventure bikes. And on the street, hooligan ‘LC Johnnys’ evolved into Simpson Bandit-wearing ‘streetfighters’ and day-glo-bedecked road racers on GSX-Rs.Having ridden and written about virtually every new bike since the 1970s, Phil West looks back at fifty motorcycles that were all hugely loved and lusted over during the decade that inspired a generation of bikers.

Few decades are as momentous, and memorable, as the 1970s. The years 1970–79 were rich, exciting and, for today’s fifty and sixty-somethings, a formative period of motorcycling in Britain.It was an era that saw the passing of the baton from British to Japanese manufacturers: Norton, BSA and Triumph were overtaken by Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki. Before long, multi-cylinder ‘superbikes’, such as the GT750, the XS750 and the GS1000, became the bikes idolised on many bedroom walls.In bike sport, Barry Sheene surpassed the old guard of Mike Hailwood and Phil Read, while heroes such as Evel Knievel secured motorcycling’s place in popular culture. Celebrating fifty of the decade’s best bikes, journalist Phil West remembers all of this and more in this fascinating book.