It is ironic that Honda's success spelt doom for the British motorcycle industry, which was too slow to react to the new Japanese standards of production, design and marketing. Among the best bikes from that hallowed tradition was the Triumph Bonneville, named after the salt flats in Utah where countless speed records have been set and challenged. This was deliberate on the part of Triumph. They wanted to give their quintessentially British bike an American twang, and the Bonneville hit the spot perfectly. The bikes were the love of a generation of American bikers and the Triumph name was canonized in films like The Wild One and ss .
All vertical twins suffer from it, and the bigger the engine, the more pronounced the vibration.
Honda's success was Triumph's death-knell, and its end came fairly quickly. Today, the Triumph name has been revived, but the mystique of old is still exemplified in the Bonneville. The Derbi 50 Grand Prix bike is a marvel of speed and precision. That it was based on a bike, the Antorcha, that was the most commonplace little moped of all, is even more remarkable. Most important, in the hands of a genius like Angel Nieto, it was very very fast-too fast for the competitors in the far richer Kreidler and Suzuki teams.