1977: Can CCM Save the BRITISH MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY? | Nationwide | Retro Transport | BBC Archive
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- British motorbikes used to be the envy of the world, with companies like AJS, Matchless, Sunbeam Cycles and BSA producing state-of-the-art motorcycles, but in recent decades the industry has declined to the point of complete collapse. But one man is on a mission to single-handedly bring the British Bike Industry back from the brink, Alan Clews.
Luke Casey reports on his small but rapidly expanding motor bike manufacturing company, Clews Competition Machines (CCM).
Originally broadcast 6 April, 1977.
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Well, at least we still make bog roll and wagon wheels.
I raced motocross in the late 70's early 80's and there were a few CCM's in the same events.
The sound of them was both awesome and different and although in the hands of amateurs, they struggled to compete with the lightweight two strokes, I wanted one.
I never did own a CCM motocross bike, but fast forward a few years and I bought a CCM supermoto. I still own it and will probably only consider selling it when I finally hang my helmet up for good..
Good to see they are still going.
Just working on my CCM tonight, 1 of 2 i own!
Bob Wright on a CCM, was part of my childhood!
Clews have links in Scotland, the Duchess of Argyll was a Clews,i saw her grave on Iona,she's lying near John Smith, the former Labour leader!
I had one, a 500 four valve, long time ago wish i still had it.
Used to go to scrambles in the 60's and 70's. Loved watching and hearing the CCMs, rode a BSA at the time (still do) so I was especially happy to see them. Great bikes, but that moustache!
Triumph are still around, making bikes in Hinckley, UK.
All that’s left 😢
Brilliant and beautiful bikes too. Wanted around the world. But I do think triumph make bikes in another part of the world now predominantly. I may be wrong.
Sorry to disappoint you but most of the output comes from 3 factories in Chonburi, Thailand.
From Wikipedia < In February 2020 it was announced that Triumph would be moving the remainder of large scale motorcycle production, including the Tiger 1200 and Speed Triple production lines to their Thailand factories, leaving only the specialist Triumph Factory Customs and prototype builds remaining in the UK. Whilst the R&D department remains within the UK (and 20 additional staff have been taken on in that department), substantially larger redundancies were announced amongst production staff. >
@@cyrillicsam you don't disappoint us you disappoint the whole nation :'(
Never. Knock me over with a feather. The only thing which connects the old Triumph company, with the new one, is the name.
Old guy owned local bike shop did the TT races passed yrs ago was old man had the pic in his shop
Lovely old bikes
A couple of mistakes here.
The magazine shops were owned by his wifes family, he married into them and the chap guiding a bike down the stairs in the video was the one wheel building behind the newsagent counter.
I would have one of them CCMs now, even though am a 2 stroke head I would have a old twin shock
That’s Norman Barrow in the yellow of the sales team, sad fact that Norman passed away as a result of a mountain bike accident, the irony 😢
Bob Wright always won on ccm when it rained in Haslingden in three 70s
Boycie before he got into the car trade
bitter sweet for me where i live at the back of my nans house in the lane steven haines had one identical to those motocrossers sponsership and so on very good rider only young and the yokes snapped on landing a big off and the bikes behind hit him i believe . cant help thinking it was ccm's fault but in court they were cleared but steve ended up in a wheel chair after the accident. i did bump into the owner at the nec and i mentioned steve but he never wanted to talk about it . such a shame steve was a great fella and his dad roy . i never got to own those type of moto crossers but i did buy a 97 604 which i think started as a moto crosser and i also bought a 604 ds which has SM wheels , i still have them great bikes love the enthusiasm of the rotax
I'd heard someone talk about the magnesium yokes being suspect but have never been able to find out more and lve read the print off the 'Rolling Thunder' book.
I remember them back in the 70s hete in Aus. They didnt even compete with a 250 two stroke. About the same time Honda were trying to introduce the XR as competitive with two strokes. I remember my first ride on one and thinking WTF ... then feeling embarrassed that Id even given them the benefit of the doubt.
Magazine stall is a throwback. Able to buy anything running a magazine stall would be knowing the secret to liquid gold nowadays.
Is the man doing voice over at the beginning the guy from HardTalk? Sounds like him.
No. Luke Casey is not Tim Sebastian.
@@sandgrownun66 Are you sure Luke did voice at beginning?
@@jackiechan8840 Interesting. I noticed that as well. I'm not sure the reason for the two voices. It does sound a lot like Tim Sebastian at the start. His biography states that Sebastian began his journalism career at Reuters in 1974, moving to the BBC as foreign correspondent in Warsaw in 1979.
Turns out, no they can’t.
Ok so we've learned if BBC says can ** save ** bet against it
Betteridge at work
There are plenty of CCM bikes at Canadian Tire.
The firms full title was CCM Britain for this very reason.
@@bananabrooks3836 Clews Competition Machines vs Canada Cycle & Motor
Does anyone know the name of the rider with the tash and green jersey?
I think that was bob Wright I believe he was a farmer
Bell
Did he say 'Britisher'?
It was an old fashioned way to say “British”. More or less died out nowadays.
The same way as a German would call an American an Amerikaner.
@@Dreyno Fascinating! I've never encountered this before.
@@davidjpeacock The term continued in India, USA etc. for a long time after it stopped being used in Britain. By the time this was recorded it was only used for a bit of editorial colour. Nowadays it’s an oddity and it’s not unusual you wouldn’t have heard it used.
I can't help myself, but the intro really sounds like some lobby group helped in the writing 😬
"Competing with the Japanese.."
This is the problem.
I've seen Japanese looking Triumph and Norton bikes.
Ho - hum.
It's.. The "brand".
As Harley Davidson is to the USA.
Royal Enfield, now an Indian company, have a very "British" looking bike, and it is a business idea that has done alright for them.
For reasons already pointed out, it was never a good idea trying to compete with the Japanese.
P. S. "With the right type of government help.."
There's a lot to unpack in this one statement, in itself.
"I've seen Japanese looking Triumph and Norton bikes. "Where do you get that statement from? The Japanese took a lot of British technology, and improved it. Anyone would be a fool not to incorporate any advances in their products. Today, there is a lot more homogeneity in products such as cars and motorbikes. It's a good way to cut costs, but it does lead to things all looking the same.
At least he tried....
he would have succeeded well if he tried to convert them into simpler 2 stroke air cooled monsters!
Alan Clews died in 2018 aged 79..
What? Have you seen how many 4 stroke off road bikes are around nowadays? He would have succeeded if he'd got the financial help he deserved.
@@MrSimonmcc they only came 4 stroke after the world started demonizing 2 strokes as pollutive..this happened only about a decade ago.. this man had at least 25yrs unused opportunity to play with 2 strokes
@@fidelcatsro6948 He more than played with them. He made a successful business making and selling them. Do you comment on History Debunked by any chance?
BRITISH arms industry is doing WELL MIND you aways HAD BRILLIANT sales staff randy Andy, mark Thatcher etcetc
I don't think either names could sell a bean can. They were in it for themselves, rather than the UK sell more arms.
CCM fell in to the same trap as the rest of them. They were still building the same bike in 1980 as they were in 1977. Owning Japanese MX bikes from 1976 and 1980, and being able to see the pace of development across them, while a 1977 CCM was competitive, my 1980 YZ465 would put a CCM in the ground. It's the same short sighted lack of development and investment that killed them all off
From 9:00 , so that's how Britain's great industries went to nothing.
1977 ...Can CCM Save the British Motorcycle Industry ???
2023.... NO!
Amazing story love the CCM .
2023 and we're seeing the end of Toyota because of lack of innovation. maybe having some of their own medicine now regarding the electric car market and renewable energy and the end of toxic ice
Toyota will survive ,will Volkswagen...just laid off 200 from their EV plant due to poor sales?
...and in Motogp, Honda and Yamaha struggling, Suzuki quitting which Kwak did long ago.
Welp, now them and AJS are still around but just the name, their bikes are fully made in china now lmao. My first bike when I was 16 was a 2 stroke 4 gear AJS JSM 50. British name, British company, but fully made in China.
Ever since ive had a Suzuki, Honda, bmw and on my 3rd Yamaha, and with the exception of the bmw, the Japanese quality is undeniable, especially for the pricepoint, its why the homeland bikes died off as the jap bikes took over. Same for cars too
And Jaguar are Indian cars now.
I am all for globalization, but not like this. 🤦
Austin helped the Japanese after WW2 showing them how to build cars on a production line, they also gave them the rights to produce the old Austin seven engine
@@Markcain268 and now in the 21st century its the other way around, bmw's flagship bike, the S1000rr was built off of the 2006 Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine, i had a 2011 BMW S1000rr, they did add some fancy gizmos to it, but the bike was japanese engineering at its core.
Nowadays its only the japanese manufacturers that are the innovators, the european companies like bmw, ktm and triumph only seem to gradually adapt to what the jap manufacturers have to offer, such as Yamaha's crosplane inline 2 cylinder they put in their MT07, I had an MT07 as well, KTM copied the configuration for their 790 duke that they released a couple years back, just to name an example
Bet that Suzuki is a nice bike
@@ltipst2962 Im literally discussing trading in my Yamaha MT10 for a Suzuki GSXR 1000 as we speak 😅