The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

.....is because, by the time the Far Eastern competion came on song, it had
become utterly toss-useless and was:

Offering poorly designed ('parts bin') and poorly constructed expensive and
highly unreliable products.

Was riddled with 'us and them' management.

Was underfunded and permantly cash-poor due to unending high volumes of
warranty claims and 'head in the clouds' owners/directors remunerating
themselves out of all proportion to performance.

Had an arrogant, 'take it it leave it' attitude towards customers.

Was trading heavily on 'Brit Nostalgia' and pitching its marketing efforts
solely in the direction of the Yanks who were slowly waking up to the whole
gestalt and starting to lose interest anyway...


Why do I mention this here? Because the UK Audio Industry is going much the
same way, from what I can see of it....!!

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...


....is because, by the time the Far Eastern competion came on song, it had
become utterly toss-useless and was:

Offering poorly designed ('parts bin') and poorly constructed expensive
and highly unreliable products.

Was riddled with 'us and them' management.

Was underfunded and permantly cash-poor due to unending high volumes of
warranty claims and 'head in the clouds' owners/directors remunerating
themselves out of all proportion to performance.

Had an arrogant, 'take it it leave it' attitude towards customers.

Was trading heavily on 'Brit Nostalgia' and pitching its marketing efforts
solely in the direction of the Yanks who were slowly waking up to the
whole gestalt and starting to lose interest anyway...


Why do I mention this here? Because the UK Audio Industry is going much
the same way, from what I can see of it....!!







What you say is true of all products manufactured in Britain.
Sorry to have to say this but it is very true.

Regards

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

"Ian Bell" wrote in message
...
Keith G wrote:



....is because, by the time the Far Eastern competion came on song, it
had
become utterly toss-useless and was:

Offering poorly designed ('parts bin') and poorly constructed expensive
and highly unreliable products.

Was riddled with 'us and them' management.

Was underfunded and permantly cash-poor due to unending high volumes of
warranty claims and 'head in the clouds' owners/directors remunerating
themselves out of all proportion to performance.


Don't forget the stupid unions too. I was on a stand at a pro audio
exhibition in the 70's and I needed to attach a mains plug to a piece of
equipment. I had to hide in a small cubby hole to do it because if the
exhibition electricians had seen me they would have been out on strike.


I would suggest that much of the Unions' impetus in the 60s and 70s was
fuelled by the 'us and them management' referenced above - the masses in
this country had been promised a New Deal while risking mass slaughter in
WW2 and were a bit ticked off to see the same old 'us and them' BS sliding
back into place once the smoke had cleared. A little enlightenment (like
that displayed by the famous Japanese 'Names' at the time) would have gone a
long way to keeping this country on track, but then there was Maggie
Thatcher....

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

Today I went to a company in Hereford, who make aerospace components.

Over the last two years they have developed a wheelchair for severly
mentally and physically handicapped children, such is the innovation in the
design that several of the new ideas for the suspension and locking
mechanism's have been patented. It is made from aircraft quality specially
extruded aluminium and carbon fibre, it turns in its own length can be
altered to fit a range of positions and will 'grow' with the child, it can
be adjusted and pushed by an adult and more importantly adjusted quickly
again and be pushed by one of the childs siblings or friends.

British manufacturing is not dead, it is I admit in decline but there are
still engineers out there whose whole life is devoted to innovation and
technique, they range in age from 20 to 85.

Jem

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

Keith G wrote:



....is because, by the time the Far Eastern competion came on song, it had
become utterly toss-useless and was:

Offering poorly designed ('parts bin') and poorly constructed expensive
and highly unreliable products.

Was riddled with 'us and them' management.

Was underfunded and permantly cash-poor due to unending high volumes of
warranty claims and 'head in the clouds' owners/directors remunerating
themselves out of all proportion to performance.


Don't forget the stupid unions too. I was on a stand at a pro audio
exhibition in the 70's and I needed to attach a mains plug to a piece of
equipment. I had to hide in a small cubby hole to do it because if the
exhibition electricians had seen me they would have been out on strike.

Ian

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

Ian Bell wrote:

Don't forget the stupid unions too. I was on a stand at a pro audio
exhibition in the 70's and I needed to attach a mains plug to a piece of
equipment. I had to hide in a small cubby hole to do it because if the
exhibition electricians had seen me they would have been out on strike.

I had an exhibition centre electrician who claimed that it couldn't have
been him who blew up my computer because he only disconnected the earth
for a moment. So maybe unions and rules aren't all bad.

--
Eiron

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

The obvious commercial compromise is to design it and specify it this end,
and to get it built really cheaply and well in the East (or in Brazil or in
Africa) and then to re-label it and market it all from source: be it bikes,
audio gear, white goods or stuff using bytes. The biggest drawback is often
a lack of serviceability, so much of it is binned when it turns sour and
obsolescent!
But global competition is mega-ginormous, not like in the kushti "the world
owes us a living" period from early '50s to the mid '70s.

"Jem Raid" wrote in message
...
Today I went to a company in Hereford, who make aerospace components.

Over the last two years they have developed a wheelchair for severly
mentally and physically handicapped children, such is the innovation in
the design that several of the new ideas for the suspension and locking
mechanism's have been patented. It is made from aircraft quality specially
extruded aluminium and carbon fibre, it turns in its own length can be
altered to fit a range of positions and will 'grow' with the child, it can
be adjusted and pushed by an adult and more importantly adjusted quickly
again and be pushed by one of the childs siblings or friends.

British manufacturing is not dead, it is I admit in decline but there are
still engineers out there whose whole life is devoted to innovation and
technique, they range in age from 20 to 85.

Jem

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

"Eiron" wrote in message
...
Ian Bell wrote:

Don't forget the stupid unions too. I was on a stand at a pro audio
exhibition in the 70's and I needed to attach a mains plug to a piece of
equipment. I had to hide in a small cubby hole to do it because if the
exhibition electricians had seen me they would have been out on strike.

I had an exhibition centre electrician who claimed that it couldn't have
been him who blew up my computer because he only disconnected the earth
for a moment. So maybe unions and rules aren't all bad.



http://www.lalamy.demon.co.uk/ronanpnt.htm

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

"Jim Gregory" wrote in message
...
The obvious commercial compromise is to design it and specify it this end,
and to get it built really cheaply and well in the East (or in Brazil or
in Africa) and then to re-label it and market it all from source: be it
bikes, audio gear, white goods or stuff using bytes. The biggest drawback
is often a lack of serviceability, so much of it is binned when it turns
sour and obsolescent!
But global competition is mega-ginormous, not like in the kushti "the
world owes us a living" period from early '50s to the mid '70s.


Jim 2, the world did 'owe' the workforce of this country a living in the 50s
and 60s - it had just gone off en masse to keep those nasty Nazis out of the
English Country Houses and had been promised one! What it got instead (and
has done ever since) is a constant influx of cheap foreign labour to keep
prices down and profits up for the aforementioned Country House owners who
were busy cutting a dash on the Riviera or down on the Solent. The fact that
quality, motivation, enthusiasm, productivity and innovation goes down the
tubes at the same time is comfortably overlooked by those who don't
need/want to be reminded!

Remember 'Made In England' stickers? - Fakkin' collector's item now!!

The real reason the British Motorcycle Industry failed...
 

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 19:13:03 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:

....is because, by the time the Far Eastern competion came on song, it had
become utterly toss-useless and was:

Offering poorly designed ('parts bin') and poorly constructed expensive and
highly unreliable products.

Was riddled with 'us and them' management.

Was underfunded and permantly cash-poor due to unending high volumes of
warranty claims and 'head in the clouds' owners/directors remunerating
themselves out of all proportion to performance.

Had an arrogant, 'take it it leave it' attitude towards customers.

Was trading heavily on 'Brit Nostalgia' and pitching its marketing efforts
solely in the direction of the Yanks who were slowly waking up to the whole
gestalt and starting to lose interest anyway...

Aah, OK, I thought you were going to come up with some pathetically
jingoistic 'nasty foreigners' bull****. Basically, and very sadly, you
nailed it. :-(

Why do I mention this here? Because the UK Audio Industry is going much the
same way, from what I can see of it....!!

Oh, I dunno, most of the famous names seem to be hanging in there,
they just shifted the manufacturing to somewhere more cost-effective.
As did Dyson.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering