Top 10... British super bikes

1948 Vincent Black Shadow/Lightning

HRD was a British motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1924 by racer Howard Raymond Davies but with limited success found itself taken over by designer Paul Vincent in 1928, who renamed it Vincent-HRD. Vincent decided to continue the racing theme but after a poor showing at the 1934 TT decided to start using its own engines. The first, Phil Irving designed, 998cc V-twin powered Rapide, in 1936, was the result. After WWII, Vincent entered the US market, dropping the HRD tag to avoid confusion with Harley-Davidson. A tuned, more performance orientated version of the Rapide followed in 1948 called the Black Shadow while a special lightened version, using magnesium components, was also available to order. Most famously, Rollie Free set a new US speed record of 148.6mph aboard the first example at Bonneville, wearing just his swimming trunks, in September that year. Just 31 Black Lightnings were ever built. The Black Shadow remained as the world’s fastest production motorcycle until Vincent production ceased in 1955. Both remain among the most collectable of all British bikes.

1959 Triumph Bonneville T120

Triumph will probably always be best known for its Bonneville, a performance-orientated machine named after the location of Johnny Allen’s 1956 speed record success and based on a 650 Tiger twin but with twin carbs. That first Bonnie’s huge success resulted with the model becoming the cornerstone of the old Meriden concern’s range right until its demise in 1982.

Ironically, Triumph was actually founded in Coventry by a German, ex-pat Siegfried Bettmann, and began making motorcycles in 1902. They later made cars, but that business was sold to Standard in 1936 (and, ironically again, the Triumph car brand is now owned by BMW after it took over Rover in the 1990s). The key development for the Bonneville, however, was, Triumph’s launch of the Edward Turner-designed 500cc, twin cylinder Speed Twin in 1937, which became the basis of all Triumph’s subsequent twins.

Today, under the new, John Bloor-owned regime, the Bonneville lives on and was completely engineered for 2016 although, unfortunately for some, it is now a retro machine rather than an out-and-out superbike.

1967 Norton Commando 750

Norton superbikes are nothing new – whatever the astonishing new V4 suggests – but despite plenty of race success the original concern took a while to create a genuine, road-going superbike.

Like Triumph, the original Norton concern began making motorcycles in the West Midlands in 1902, at first using proprietary French and Swiss engines, and from the outset put an emphasis on racing and performance – indeed a Peugeot-engined Norton won the very first TT in 1907, beginning a relationship with the Isle of Man it continues to this day.

After plenty more TT success in the 1930s and 1950s, its first twin, designed to rival Triumph’s successful Speed Twin, came in 1949. This bike, the Dominator, grew from 500 to 600cc (and adopted the legendary Featherbed frame) in 1957, to 650cc in 1960 then to 750cc, as the Atlas model for the US market, in 1962. The Atlas, however, was blighted by engine vibration, a problem finally fixed with the introduction of the 750 Commando in 1969 (though the bike was unveiled in late 1967 production was delayed until 1969) with its ‘Isolastic’ frame. The Commando was not only much smoother it was the most powerful and best handling British bike of its day, enough for it to be voted MCN Machine of the Year for five successive years, from 1968 to 1972. 

1974 JPS Norton Commando 850

With Norton merged with Triumph and BSA, the last 750 Commandos were produced in 1973 and replaced that same year with an updated and smoother (although no more powerful) 850c version which powered the Roadster, Hi Rider and Interstate models.

Despite the company’s commercial problems, during the early 1970s Norton had achieved significant on track racing success. After receiving sponsorship from Imperial Tobacco, the ‘John Player Norton’ team was set up in November 1971 to contest the Formula 750 series with bikes designed by racer/engineer Peter Williams based on the 750 Commando. Williams knew other teams had more engine power, so he concentrated on achieving superior handling and aerodynamics. With lead rider Phil Read, the blue machine was fourth at Daytona, and second overall in the Transatlantic. Redesigned by Williams for 1973 with a revolutionary, stainless steel monocoque frame, radical aerodynamics and a now iconic white livery, Williams himself won that year’s Formula 750 TT and was partnered by Dave Croxford for the British series. To celebrate that success, in 1974 Norton produced 200 Norton JPS 850 Commandos, which replicated the fairing and livery if not the frame. Today it remains one of the first ‘racer-replicas’ and one of the most collectable. Interestingly, Peter Williams recently announced he was going to build a limited run of replicas of the monocoque for a princely £74,000 each.

1990 Norton F1/F1 Sport

After the old Norton’s demise in the late 1970s, the company stumbled from pillar to post developing a radical rotary engine motorcycle, which emerged in a variety of forms during the 1980s. On the road, these ranged from the air-cooled, police-spec Interpol 2, followed by the Classic roadster in 1987 and a water-cooled tourer called the Commander in 1988. All had very limited success. A spin-off racer developed by Brian Crighton was a very different matter, however, and in black and gold JPS livery it was a sensation in British championship racing in 1989 and 1990. Bowing to public pressure, a ‘replica’ of this bike was finally produced in 1990 with a Spondon frame and Seymour-Powell styling however, priced at £12,000, with just 95bhp and questionable reliability, though exciting, it wasn’t a success. This was followed up in 1992 with the restyled, more affordable F1 Sport, but again to only very limited success.