The inside story of an industry which, as recently as the late 1960s, was the third largest dollar earner for Great Britain, after cars and whisky, recounting how it was mismanaged in later years. The book describes what caused the dramatic decline of the British motorcycle industry at the time when it had to face up to increasing competition from foreign manufacturers. It details the mass manufacture of motorcycles during World War II and illustrates little-known prototype and experimental motorcycles.