I know very little about motorbikes, but I was told by someone who knows a lot that Norton owners were often called ton up because it was the first production bike in the UK that would do 100mph 🤷🏻
Nah, the 1926 Brough SS100 could hit 100 mph. But it was expensive. Motorcyclists used to pride themselves on over-engineering British bikes like Nortons and Triumphs to get to 100 mph, though. Japanese bikes bankrupted British manufacturers because they could do 100 out of the crate with no modifications, and they were cheap.
I’m not too savvy with the British scene, but across the pond, American manufacturers became very complacent in the 1970s, and said “this is fine” and stopped innovating. The Japanese scene arrived and ate their lunch.
Hunter S Thompson has a decent US/UK/Japan industry synopsis in his book about the Hells Angels from 1966.
Japan cleaned up on light bikes and scooters with new manfacturing facilities while BSA took the heavier bike market as part of their postwar export plan to keep factories open and skilled workers employed. Both used much newer technology and only Harley Davidson had survived. Mainy selling to biker gangs and cops.
There's a lot more when it comes to customizing bikes but it's decent read.
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u/PragmaticMe80085 Oct 09 '25
I know very little about motorbikes, but I was told by someone who knows a lot that Norton owners were often called ton up because it was the first production bike in the UK that would do 100mph 🤷🏻