Motorcycle makers BSA, Matchless and Norton were among several British builders who supplied racers with motorcycles during the early years of scrambling. Greeves was another successful British manufacture, and at one time, most of the motorcycles produced were going to the United States. Greeves became so successful in the US that they had a significant influence on the growth of the off-road biking sport, and with the invention of the trail bike with their road legal off-roader, the Ranger.
The International Motorcycle Federation created racing divisions in 1952 using engine displacement size to divide competitors and level the playing field. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Spanish-made Bultaco and Husqvarna of Sweden emerged as popular models rivaling BSA and Matchless in the United States off-road racing circuit.
Then in 1951 the BSA Group purchased Triumph Motorcycles, and became the largest producer of motorcycles in the world claiming “one in four”. British manufacturers Triumph, BSA, and Norton retained a dominant position in some markets until the rise of the Japanese manufacturers (led by Honda) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The role of the motorcycle shifted in the 1960s, from the tool of a life to a toy of a lifestyle. It became part of an image, of status, a cultural icon for individualism, a prop in Hollywood B-movies. Today Triumph is still apart of the American lifestyle, but sadly the other British manufactures faded away. Mainly due to financial down fall, and the fast paced advancement of Japanese technology.
