Round·up

ROUND.UP

THE BRITISH HAVE DISAPPEARED, BUT THEY’LL BE BACK

I FOUND IT a bit saddening to read Joe Scalzo's excellent story of Norton Triumph’s downhill trip. Like most riders who have been around for a while, I owned several Triumphs. My first one was a 1949 Trophy 500 and I thought I was invincible on it... an easy claim to make since few of the riders I rode against are around today to refute it.

Moreover, I can look back on a close relationship with Johnson Motors and Triumph in Baltimore. I was not aware of the internal problems that Scalzo mentions, but I was personally dismayed to see Triumphs come out year after year with nothing more than a new paint job. This at a time when the Japanese were putting their enormous technical abilities to work making multicylindered, overhead cam machines that were modem and sophisticated.

After a few years of competition with the Japanese, BSA quietly died, and for a while we had BSAs appearing with Triumph labels on them (the 500cc Single is a case in point). To the thousands of loyal BSA fans in this country and in England, that was an unpardonable sin.

When we commissioned Joe Scalzo to research the British downfall and write the story, I sat down with Roger Stange, president of Norton Triumph, to gather as much information as possible regarding its current situation. I came away pleased because Roger convinced me that Triumph is by no means dead. In fact, it has quite a few workable plans for the future.

The situation is as follows: The workers’ co-op running the Meriden factory is working . . . one admission I thought I would never have to make. It may be called communism at work, but it has solved the staggering union problems they had. At any rate, the pre-war factory is producing 750cc Bonneville Twins at the rate of 1000 per month. Americans will recognize them immediately as classic Triumphs, even though they have been updated to meet new federal standards that require the shift on the left and the brake on the right.

As far as quality goes, several Triumph dealers told me they are the best Britishmade bikes they've seen in more than eight years.

Obviously, the British industry cannot rely on a single model, so it is making plans. The most significant is a 900cc version of the three-cylinder Trident scheduled for production in 1977. Parts inventories are going to be beefed up too. In fact, Norton parts are arriving now after an eight-month delay caused by yet another worker lockout in Wolverhampton. That plant is currently in receivership, but the receivers are going to operate it until tooling and other equipment can be sold off. To ensure parts delivery in the future (as well as new machine production), a new company has been formed to deal with Norton. It will be part of an extremely complex corporate maze, although it will be financed by the same principals. Norton production will be low, but bikes and parts will continue reaching the states at a steady rate.

Stateside, a select group of dealers will handle the British machines and parts. They will be few in number, but again the intent is to stock them properly for adequate customer service.

I know Dennis Poore who is handling the British side quite well and count him as a friend. Frankly, I'm glad to see this effort because I would have been more than mildly stunned if he had given up when the government withdrew support.

About all that’s left to comment on is what British machines past and future will offer. They will not be smooth, slick Multis like Japan builds. But they will be simple and easy to work on. And most important, they will be light, nimble, and will steer better than the latest Japanese offerings. In other words, their balance between handling and power cannot be matched.

In short, they are motorcycles, not twowheeled automobiles. They sound right. The delightful ease of kicking one to life (when it’s in tune and the prince of darkness, Joseph Lucas, is under control), is a sensuous pleasure I have always enjoyed. They are plain Jane simple machines. Wires and things run everywhere, adding to the beautiful symmetry of glossy black paint, polished alloy and chrome.

You can’t help but love them if you're a motorcycle purist.— Joe Parkhurst

BEATING TRAFFIC TICKETS

PEEDING TICKETS getting you down? You can beat the rap—if you're smart enough. Engineer Stan Brown, written up for 61 mph in a 55-mph zone, felt sure he was reading 55 on the speedometer when the California Highway Patrol pulled him over.

His answer, an illustrated technical presentation in court, impressed the judge so much that Brown won a dismissal. The key elements of his defense: There can be nearly 20 percent correlated error (or 6.7 percent uncorrelated) between what an operator thinks his speed is and what it really is. The majority of error is owing to his equipment.

Standard methods of officially calibrating speedometers offer a chance for more than 8 percent error. Tire pressure changes—overand under-inflation and temperature variations—can cause errors of up to 5.65 percent in either direction.

Instrument parallax, or error caused by the angle relationship of the operator's eye to the speedometer needle to the speedometer card, can produce the illusion that the needle is in front of a number when it really is not. The speedometer will appear to read lower if the eye is to the right of the needle. On a small instrument these errors can be significant.

As a condition of his dismissal, Brown videotaped the presentation for use by the CHP and other law enforcement agencies. Hopefully, it will make them more understanding, because the meticulous engineer went to a lot of trouble for a piddling 6-mph error.

AMA UPDATE AND TITLE CHANGE

Y SECOND year as a trustee of the AMA—and first six months as vicepresident—has produced several interesting changes. They are not changes I made alone, of course, but they do represent some truly effective action that the Board of Trustees has taken.

For one, the AMA now stands for the American Motorcyclist Association, not the American Motorcycle Association. That change was approved by the membership in February of this year.

It was requested and approved because of a change in the basic purpose of the AMA. The organization now is designed to “pursue, promote and protect the interests of motorcyclists.” The old name sounded too much like an organization of manufacturers rather than riders.

These changes are only the beginning. Soon to follow is a new group of insurance programs designed to offer any AMA member the lowest possible rates for several types of policies.

Also, at a recent board meeting in New Orleans, a proposal was approved that will separate sportsman, amateur and legislative departments from all professional activities. This came about because members who joined for sportsman activities or road riding programs, or simply because they knew the AMA was helping motorcycling with its legislative efforts, seemed to feel that the AMA was dominated by the professional racing department. This feeling and any justification for it will be eliminated by the separation of divisions within the association.

I believe this is long overdue and think it will ultimately contribute to the elevation of motorcycle racing, along with (instead of at the expense of), insurance plans, programs for road riders, etc.— Joe Parkhurst