captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

My first road-registered bike was a 1956 Zundapp Bella 200cc scooter, similar to those below.

It was unusual in very many ways. It was electric start, with no kick-starter. Note that this was mid 1950s. Even Japanese manufacturers didn’t trust their electrics enough to dispense with kickstarters until 20 years later. It had a full frame. The front-end was leading-link – making rough dirt-road handling very good – better than a 1970s motocross bike.

There was programme on TV some years ago, British, which was a bit like Ramsay’s Restaurant Rescues, but for other types of businesses. An expert would look at the operation, and make recommendations.

Coincidentally, one was the Norton firm.

As the expert put it, Norton was doing quite well making motor bikes, and then along came the Japanese, who demonstrated that motor cycles didn’t have to be complicated, unreliable, and expensive. This was quite a shock the the motor cycle industry, including Norton.

It seems that the Italians did something similar at an earlier stage, but were found easier to ignore.

(The expert’s recommendations were to separate Norton’s thriving aero engine business from the motor cycle side, and to stop using the aero engine profits to prop up the bike business. He was politely ignored.)

That make sense even to a layman