The Great British Motorcycle Reboot | What's new for 2022?

So one of the big stories doing the rounds in the MotoPress at the moment is this idea of the big reboot of British brands. Apparently we are heading back into another golden era of British biking thanks to the fact that so many of our favourite heritage brands are now refinanced, rebooted and ready to go for 2022. So in this video we're going to jump in, we're going to have a look at what's in store for us, we'll take a look at some of the bikes I saw up at Motorcycle Live and we'll answer the question, are we really heading back into another golden era of British biking? Let's find out. So Bike Magazine are calling this the Great British Reboot. MCN have published a bit of a tongue twister for me to try and say British bike brands bounce back for 2022 and I've also witnessed this with my own eyes as well. You know up at Motorcycle Live it was undeniable that there are a whole range of British heritage brands now either freshly reinvigorated and rebooted or just doing amazing things and really turning the dial up to 11. Now when we talk about British heritage brands we're not necessarily focusing on who owns what or where what is made, we're talking about iconic brands and iconic models that were around in that post-war era, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, dominating the scene before stuff like this happened and then this and then this and that kind of marked the end of the era for the golden age of British biking. But now apparently those times are coming back so a lot of these brands freshly financed and ready to go again and some of them never really went away. Brands like Triumph, which is a good place to start on this list, those guys have been around for a long time but they've had a bit of a bumpy ride over the past few years. You know 2020 they lost quite a lot of money losing around 40 million pounds but it was a very different story last year. I don't know if you read in the papers but they are now very much back in the black turning a profit of about 50 million quid. Over 2021 they sold 76,000 bikes, sales were up around 28% too. Now I spent a bit of time riding a Speedmaster last year, you can see me here taking it out on the streets of London. A fantastic bike and it's really interesting to see just the diverse range of all the different types of bikes that Triumph are offering in some of the biggest sections of motorbiking. So bikes like the Tiger that dominates in the adventure scene, bikes like the Thruxton that dominates the calf racer scene, modern classics dominated by bikes like the Bonneville and even in the super naked space you've got bikes like the Speed Triple that are definitely formidable machines in that very hot category of riding. So all over the place they have machines that are right up there in terms of the best reviewed, the best selling and put all that together there really is a motorbike seemingly for everyone in the Triumph range and that might be part of the reason why they're seeing such amazing commercial success at the moment. So Triumph going from strength to strength not just in terms of what they're doing at the moment but also how they're innovating as well. They've got bikes like the TE1 prototype which is being built alongside a collaboration with Williams. I saw the frame and some of the workings of this on display at Motorcycle Live. Again this is going to be Triumph trying to push the boundaries in the electric space giving us performance focused machines and while others out there are still continuing to push these somewhat spurious conspiracy theories about electric, I'm really excited about what it's going to bring. At the end of the day I don't really care how my bike is powered, if it's fast as hell get me on it and I might just buy one. So really good to see what Triumph are up to not just in terms of their range of existing bikes but also where they're planning on taking us with innovations in the next few years as well. So good on Triumph for that. Now up at Motorcycle Live there was another British heritage brand rising from the ashes and ready to make a big noise in 2022 and that of course was BSA. Now Birmingham's small arms were really the darling of British manufacturing in the early 1900s. They brought us bikes like the Gold Star and kind of post-war really dominated the scene with that bike. It was the bike to be seen on. 1970s all went horribly wrong for BSA like others and you know they went away but now they are rebooted with new financing from Mahindra Group and the all-new Gold Star for 2022 is looking extremely promising. I spent some time with the bike at Motorcycle Live, got up close with it and I made a full video on it as well if you want to jump into the details. But looking at the thing it is really quite amazing to see what the engineers have managed to bring us in a world where we now have so many rules and regulations around what you can and can't do with a bike. We have a big 650 single thumper, all of that classic styling of the original Gold Star. Things like the chrome tank, the black frame, the spoked wheels. It's just a beautiful looking machine and again it just gives a new generation of riders the chance to enjoy a little bit of that heritage but with some of the mod cons, you know small things like brakes that actually work and all that kind of stuff. So good to see BSA back. They're starting out with the Gold Star but again there's a lot of innovation coming from companies like BSA so they've just match funded four million pounds from the government to bring us some kind of new electric vehicle as well. I think they're probably going to head down the modern classic look so it's going to be really interesting to see how they fuse modern technology with that British heritage iconic design theme. So a lot to look forward to from BSA in the years ahead. Now another brand that definitely has a lot to look forward to in the years ahead is Royal Enfield. Now they are very much a British heritage brand. Not a brand that went away but a brand that kind of collapsed here in the UK but was continued over in India. And over the past few years Eicher Group have just done an amazing job of turning Royal Enfield from being a brand that was very much serving the domestic Indian market back into being very much a global player. And now it seems wherever Royal Enfield land they hit the top spot in terms of the best selling bikes, the best reviewed bikes and bikes that customers are really falling in love with. I'm absolutely one of those people. I've got an Interceptor. For me personally it is one of the best bikes that I have ever owned and I will go as far as saying if you want to ride a bike that really feels like a proper classic bike you know the Interceptor is probably the purest experience that you can buy today in order to get you that proper classic feel with none of the hassle of actually owning a kit. And they've got lots of things coming out this year as well. So we're going to see the Meteor that's been launched. It's a small 350 cruiser. We've also got the classic 350 as well which is just a beautiful little bike. A little 350 engine. Just a stunning machine. Definitely a bike that I could see myself owning. And then they're going to enter the cruiser market as well. We've been teased with the Shotgun. This was a bike that we saw in prototype form at Motorcycle Life but we are going to see a slightly more traditional 650 cruiser-esque style bike coming out from Royal Enfield in the next few months as well. So a company that is going places. A company that understands fundamentally that it's got two markets that it's serving. It's got the older generation of bikers but it's also kind of down with the kids as well. It's a cool brand. People want to be seen in the Royal Enfield. They're affordable. They're achievable and they're just taking over. So really, really impressed with what I've seen from Royal Enfield over the past few years and as I said my Interceptor has reinvigorated my passion for modern classic bikes and it's a bike that I will have in my garage for as long as I'm allowed to burn petrol. So another brand that kind of combines that magic of Indian investment and British heritage is undoubtedly Norton and they are back under new owners TVS and let's just say it as it is the past couple of years has not been exactly great for Norton. Kind of unmitigated disaster springs to mind. The brand is back but it's important to note that they are completely new in terms of their entity and in terms of how they're being managed. Now one of the first things that they've done is I guess to kind of clear the air and right the wrongs with the somewhat doomed V4SS project. Now this really was the nail in the coffin for old Norton but they've brought the bike back. They've apparently fixed a lot of those problems with the original machine. It's now called the V4SV and it was put on display at Motorcycle Live looking absolutely fantastic. Very small run only going to make about 200 of these and really I feel like it's been done to try to kind of clear the air with a lot of disgruntled SS owners. Most of the customers for this bike will be previous SS owners who have been given the option to trade in their old machine for 10 grand. They can get one of these which is I think the right thing to do even though legally they didn't have to do it. One of the other bonuses that we've seen off the back of the SV project is this. This is the CAF racer prototype. Again it's a little bit of peacocking from Norton. They've taken the clothes off that super bike and just shown the world what this thing really looks like under the skin. Again it will probably be a very small production run but once these bikes are out of the way Norton will crack on with bringing us scale production bikes. Bikes that you and I might actually go out and buy but I think they're always going to remain on the slightly more premium end of the market. And again Norton are another brand talking a lot about innovation. Talking about how by 2030 they want to be very much a technology driven company. A serious player in the electric space as well. So very interesting to see what Norton's going to bring us in terms of more accessible bikes over the next few years and also how they're going to innovate and push into that new electric space as well. So great to see Norton back. Let's hope that it goes a little bit better this time around but I'm sure with TVS behind them only good things can happen. So moving on finally it's worth mentioning the plethora of smaller British brands that are out there serving niches all around the world in different smaller markets. We've got brands for example like CCM. Now they were originally launched back in the early 1970s and they came back recently with bikes like the Spitfire, the Street Tracker, the Maverick and if you've ever been up close with one of these bikes if you ever got your hands on one and had a proper look at one you will see that they are among some of the best built bikes on the market today. The craftsmanship that has gone into these machines is second to none. Everything from the worlds to the way that these frames are put together, the scale of the bikes, they are absolutely beautiful. I absolutely love one and if they weren't so damn expensive for what they are I would undoubtedly have one but they serve a smaller market right. They're more hand-built, they're kind of crafted and sold in small numbers for people that just want something a little bit different but great to see brands like CCM back. They are prototyping at the moment a new bike called the 71 which marks their 50-year anniversary, what it would have done last year. That is apparently due to come out in a small run very soon as well. Elsewhere we've got bikes like Brough Superior. Now they're under French ownership and again very very small production runs, very very expensive bikes. If you're feeling extremely flush at the moment you could get yourself a Lawrence for example for a mere 66,000 euros. I mean undoubtedly a beautiful bike, undoubtedly a very small market for it but it's good to see that classic design continuing and being made available to those who can afford it. Of course the Lawrence is named after the Lawrence of Arabia who famously owned a Brough Superior and unfortunately met his demise on one as well. So history there, on completely the other end of the spectrum we also have brands like AJS. Now they are still British owned, yes the bikes are made over in China but these bikes are all about bringing new riders the opportunity to own and ride a modern classic machine. Now you can get a bike like the Cadwell for under £3,000. Just look at it, I mean it is a beautifully styled 125 modern classic bike, the kind of gateway drug if you like to the modern classic British heritage scene and regardless of the fact they're not made here, whatever, it is good to see AJS, still British owned, still giving riders the opportunity to access a beautiful modern classic motorcycle if that's what you want. So to answer the question, are we heading back into another golden era of British motorcycling? Well not in the sense of it being a golden era because this isn't really all about innovation, this is more about bringing some history back for a new generation of riders. So kind of call it what you want, a resurgence maybe, a trend, who knows. But at the end of the day it is fantastic to see brands like Triumph and Royal Enfield just dominating around the world now. It is fantastic to see brands like Norton and BSA giving another shot and of course some of our boutique heritage brands like Brough, like AJS, like CCM, all out there doing amazing things in their individual markets as well. So not really a golden era but definitely a reboot and something that I'm very excited about and if I can get my hands on some of these bikes and take them for a bit of a test ride, I certainly will get that done. Let me know what you think in the comments below and until the next one, ride safe.