Made in the Midlands — motorcycle history
Made in the Midlands: Sunbeamland — The Wolverhampton Factory That Finished Motorcycles Like Fine Furniture
Mike Bowden Made in the Midlands motorcycle history sunbeam wolverhampton
There are factories remembered for the number of machines they produced, factories remembered for racing success and factories remembered because their name survived long after their doors closed. Sunbeamland earned its place in British motorcycle history for something harder to measure: the feeling that whatever left its gates should have been made properly.
Made in the Midlands, Francis-Barnett, Villiers, British Motorcycle History
Mike Bowden Francis-Barnett Made in the Midlands motorcycle history Villiers
There is something rather special about visiting a classic motorcycle show and discovering that a seemingly insignificant detail can unlock an entire chapter of British motorcycling history. At the recent Stafford motorcycle show, several Francis-Barnett
Made in the Midlands: The Birmingham Tubes That Changed Motorcycling
Mike Bowden Made in the Midlands motorcycle history norton Reynolds Birmingham
There is a habit in motorcycle history of giving all the credit to the name painted on the petrol tank. We talk about a Norton, a BSA or a Triumph as though every tube, bearing and bracket emerged from one self-contained factory.
Made in the Midlands: BSA Small Heath – The Factory That Became a City Within Birmingham
Mike Bowden Birmingham Small Arms British Motorcycles BSA Made in the Midlands motorcycle history
For generations of Birmingham families, the initials did not merely identify the badge on a petrol tank. BSA meant a wage packet, an apprenticeship, the sound of machinery through an open factory window and thousands of people streaming through the gates at the change of shift.
Made in the Midlands: Royal Enfield Redditch - How a Midlands Motorcycle Survived in India
Mike Bowden Made in the Midlands motorcycle history motorcycle industry Royal Enfield
Royal Enfield presents one of the strangest and most revealing stories in British motorcycling. The Redditch factory closed, the British company disappeared and the site was sold—yet the motorcycle name not only survived but eventually became stronger than it had been for decades.