A Curious Case of Anglo-Japanese Collaboration: How the World’s Most Successful Motorcycle Maker Borrowed Design Ideas from a Small, Venerable, and Extinct British Bike Factory [1] James J. Ward

I first laid eyes on one in 1996 or 1997 in an unlikely setting, at the AMA-sanctioned Freemansburg Hill Climb which takes place twice each year near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tired of watching nitro-fueled hanger-framed machines trying to hurdle their way up a 500-foot incline, gouged with ruts and gulleys and lined by rocks and trees, I wandered into one of the fields used for spectators’ parking. A thousand or two bikes, most of them Harleys … Continue reading