Ye Gods Patrick take a freakin' pill or something .
Can't anybody on this forum have a point of view other than yours ?

Technology :
I was around in the seventies in the UK and saw those rusting heaps of Japanese junk called cars ,even owned a couple too .Also I rode the bikes as well and when they were new they were great but they got old very fast .
The Japanese electrics a few years down the road were just as troublesome as Lucas . The welding was crap ,they used pressed steel sections that rusted instead of tubing and mostly the handling was awful .The only bike that impressed me at the time was the Kawasaki Z1 because at last the Japs had designed a bike that didn't look chintsy .

Invention:
"You may believe the Brits were the equal of the US in this area...but history sort of proves otherwise."-- I never suggested this Patrick- you did - wanna compare HDs of the time with Brit bikes ?

History:
Industry in the seventies in the UK was in a mess , Triumph workers used to leave little insulting messages in the engine cases for American owners to find.
I haven't tried to defend Brit industry , read what I wrote !
You mention Coal ,both sides of my family were miners , you mention Unions ,I lived in a coal mining area during the days of the 3 day working week and later the miner's strike ,do you want to tell me something about those days that I don't already know ?
What's your point anyway ?
Your view about Triumph is wrong ,they soldiered on until they went bankrupt ,sadly never, ever able to read the writing on the wall .
If only John Bloor had been chairman of BSA/Triumph in those days ; what would be the state of the Brit bike industry now ?

Racing:
British bikes came over to Daytona and won in the seventies and regularly beat Japanese and Italian bikes in International races , the Rob North framed Triumphs and BSA s are legendary .
Peter Williams' racing engineering on the Norton was superb and he beat 4 cylinder Jap bikes on a regular basis ,he experimented with monocoque and trellis frames many years before the Japs , if he had had a modern engine and a decent budget ,what could he have achieved? [ maybe this should be in technology ]
The Honda racers that raced in the Isle of Man were purpose built racers and fast but evil handling pieces of crap that only Mike Hailwood could tame .Yamaha were successful with their two strokes and dominated the smaller classes but in the early years successful racers used British frames . The only guy that could beat Peter Williams' Arter Matchless on the Island was Agostini on the 500 MV and that was well into the seventies .

Cars??
I never mentioned cars Patrick , I thought this was about bikes , but by denigrating British cars are you suggesting that Jap cars of the era were good , how many world rallies did Ford of Britain win -- not a bad record I fear ? .

Planes ???
Didn't mention planes either , but Brit technology can't be all bad or do you guys use the Harrier for shopping trips ? The Yanks used political pressure to destroy many worthy Brit projects .

Points of view of mine :
I lived in the UK during this period and witnessed the Japanese dominance of the bike industry ,it was as much due to the British ineptitude rather than overall Japanese superiority, after the collapse of the British bike industry there was nothing else to buy .The Japanese were great imitators and copied engineering concepts that originated in the West .By and large Japanese engines were reliable ,apart from Honda 4s that had a cam chain trouble and Kawa triples that seized ,and Suzuki triples that grenaded [ the 500 twin was good though ] - oh and wasn't there cam problems with early Honda V4s. So not perfect .

I borrowed a Honda 50 once , I thought that it was a piece of crap and not a thing I would ever want my mates to see me riding . The Honda cub may be the world's most successful bike but it's little more than a moped to me .


Please feel free to disagree and fly off the handle .

__________________
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."