Menwho mattered |BertHopwood
74 THE CLASSICMOTORCYCLE|SEPTEMBER 2019
Hoppy wasalways
onefor the art of
gettingamove on.
H
erbert ‘Bert’Hopwood wasaMidlander who
held verydefinite views andhadnohesitation in
expressingthem inaforthright manner.Born in
Birmingham in 1908toapoorfamily, he leftschoolaged 14 and
starte dworkatasalear ner in an iron foundry at Components,
Ltd. Here he laid the foundation forasuccessful engineering
career through eveningclassesatt echnical college.
By winningamemorialprize he came to the notice of
Ariel’s chief designer,Val Page,who took him on asajunior
draughtsmanat theComponents DrawingOffice.
In the late 1920s,and with Britainheadingfor adepression,
the departmentclosed down... butAriel survivedand operated
on areducedscale.By1929, having impressed manysenior
members at thecompany,Hopwood wasmade an assistant
of Edward Turner,thenengaged on thepreliminaryworkfor a
machin ewhichwould laterbe the SquareFour.Theprototype
wasfantastically light, butfinances lead to difficulty in creating
unique parts;thereafter items alreadyinproductionwere
incorporated into thedesign,resultinginaheaviermotorcycle.
Hopwood stayedaschief draughtsmanat Ariel; in histime
therehehelped in thedesign of theoriginal RedHunter.Early in
1936 ,EdwardTurnerbecamegenera lmanager,later managing
directoratTriumph.Hopwood joinedTurner thereand was
appointed head ofthedesign department.
Shortly after theemploymentoft he duo emergedthe Speed
Twin, amachine that wastoheraldanew trend in motorcycle
desi gn.Hopwood remained at Triu mphuntil 1947, when
he took theposition of chief designer at Norton. Although
Hopwood respectedTurner as an inventivedesignerand an
astute businessman, he livedtoo long in hi sshadowand their
relationshipwasoften uneasy.
Therewas an immediate task forHopwood to tackleat Norton;
he neededto revise theexistingrange.His designsintroduced
arevisedgearbox, plus aredesigning of th eES2, Big4and 16H
models.Not longafter,Hopwood worked on thefirstengine
for which hewasentirelyresponsible,the Dominator,thefirst
Norton twin since the earliest days of the company.
In 1948 ,Hopwood wasjoinedbydevelopmentengin eer
Doug Hele,the startofalongand fruitfulrelationship.From
hereonin, Bert evolved and built upon his modular concept for
product design –his clinicalapproach toreducingthe number
of components neededto manufactureacompleterangeof
motorcycleswould have helped the companykeepcosts down.
Hopwood wasalwaysseenasfocused and hard-working
duringhis timeat Norton and, in an interview, Doug Hele tal ked
aboutthe peculiarities ofhis character: “Hewould walk through
the office each mornin gwhen hecame inbutnot speak toanyone.Later in themorningwhen he visite dthe drawingboards
he wasadifferen tperson,keen to thrashoutproblemsor give
credit if thingslookedtobegoingwell.
“When conductingameetingIfound it interestingthat if
anyone triedtobeabit in solentortobring himdownhealways
managed to smile to preven tthemfeelingtheyhad scored.”
Hopwood’s stayatNorton lastedtwo years and,at the end
of that time, he toyedwith the idea of leavingthe motorcycle
industry.But in 1949 hefoundhimselfmovingtoBSA as a
forward product designer.Withinsix weeks he wasappointed
chie fdesigner,and shortly afterDoug Hele joinedBSA...and t he
pair’s compatibilityint he workplaceshinedonceagain.
During hisfirstyear at BSA, the Norton Dominator Hopwood
designed(pennedin1947) ,becameavailable tobuy. From here
on in,he redesignedthe Gold Star competition models and
oversaw designsfor theBSA‘GoldenFlash’650cctwin.
By 1953 ,Hopwood waspromotedtochief eng ineer at BSA,
and in 1954,BSAtookfive of thefirstsix placesat Dayton a.
He returnedtoNorton in 1955 as executivedirector, and just
three years laterwas promotedtomanaging director .Together,
Hopwood and Hele made goodprog ress at Norton, though the
companystruggledfinancially, and the pair movedtoTriumph
in 1961, Hopwood as directorand latergenera lmanager.Both
Hopwood and Hele were keen to look intoathree cylinder engine.
Their ideawastot akethe Triu mph500 twi nand add anotherpot;
butitwas years beforesuch adesign sawthe lightofday.
In 1964, Hopwood left Triumph andwasappointed
engineering director anddeputymanagingdirector (toHarry
Sturgeon)of BSAAutomotive Division.Talkingabout working
alongsideHopwood at BSA, AlistairCave spok ehighly of his
talents andwork-focused attitude:“Hoppywas always onefor
the artofg etting amoveonand this is what we did.Altho ugh he
wasveryquiet and reserved,hewould alwayslisten toreason able
suggestions,and wasverykeen on joint discussions.”
Hopwood helped overseeand improvethe BSARocketThree
andwas praisedfor hi simprovingthe Fury-Bandit350cc twin.
He alsoworkedonthe developmentoft he BSA750cc A70and
the Triumph750cc T140models.In1970Hopwood became
anon-executivedirector andayearlater wasappointedby
new chairmanLordShawcross to theBSAparen tboardwith
responsibilityfor motorcycledesignengineering.
Shortly after theNorton VilliersTriumph company wasformed
in 1973, Hopwood retiredand movedtoTorqu ay in Devon.It
wasfromherethatin1981hereleased his seminal,Whatever
Happenedtothe BritishMotorcycleIndustry,inwhich hegave
his opinions of what went wrongfor theindustry.Bert
Hopwood died on Octobe r17, 1996.BERT HOPWOOD
End
Words:ADAM REAR