Milestones and beyond
a big thank you to the many readers who sent their congratulations on reaching our milestone one-hundredth issue. It is gratifying to know that OBA is held in such high esteem, and we’ll do our best to keep it that way.
As expected, a large proportion of our recent mail has been about the OBA 100 feature on the 25 Most Significant Road Bikes of the 20th Century, and as expected, there was plenty of robust discussion therein. There were numerous queries about the lack of certain models, such as the Yamaha RD series, Kawasaki H1 and H2, Laverda, MV Agusta and so on. My answer is that had this been the Top 50 instead of the Top 25, they would all be in there, but a line had to be drawn according to the definition of ‘significance’ as detailed in the opening paragraph, “Motorcycles that created the platform for a long production run of subsequent models based on the original concept, or bikes that spawned similar ideas (possibly better) from other manufacturers.” Taking the Yamaha RD series as an example, do we go back to the original YD series, or even the Adler design itself that inspired Yamaha engineers, and which eventually led to the highly refined RD250/350?
Several people questioned the Brough Superior’s absence, but although a delectable piece of work at then-stratospheric prices, the Brough was not really the work of a manufacturer, but of many manufacturers – an eclectic mixture of parts to make up a whole. Engines (usually JAP, MAG or Matchless but also Barr & Stroud and even Austin), forks (usually Brampton or Harley-Davidson later copied by Brough and trademarked as Castle), gearboxes (Sturmey-Archer), brakes (usually Enfield), paintwork and plating to Brough’s exacting standards supplied by contractors, and so on.
The Brough situation reminded me of the last time I visited the Ducati factory in Borgo Panigale, around forty years after the first of my many visits. Accompanied by a senior company man, we strolled through the plant, and I swear I saw a tear in his eye when he said that Ducati no longer produced their own components – not even engines – but relied on outside suppliers and merely assembled the motorcycles in house. Frames, exhaust systems, electrical components, suspension, brakes, wheels, tinware that had once been pressed in the Ducati factory, metal castings that were once poured and machined in-house, plastic components and so on. That’s progress for you. And that’s why bikes of the various classic eras are so revered, because they were built, not just bought-in. Why, in their short stint as a motorcycle manufacturer, Maserati even made their own spark plugs.
If I had to pick just one, bearing in mind that word ‘significance’ it would probably be the BSA Bantam. Given of course that BSA (and several others including Harley-Davidson) had this design dropped in their lap courtesy of the originators, DKW, being on the wrong side of the post-war carve up, the humble Bantam served not only as affordable and reliable everyday transport, but as commercial vehicles and even racers. An enormous number of future committed motorcyclists cut their teeth on Bantams.
So, anyway, that ‘Top 25’ story certainly achieved its aim of stimulating spirited discussion, so that can’t be a bad thing. Maybe we’ll have to do a Part 2, extending that to the Top 50.
There’d be plenty of contenders.