Chapter 3:

Nobody seems to be in charge of design at BSA
It is not generally known that in 1965 the first of the new triples looked like a normal Triumph. This early prototype was on display at Beezumph in 2003. Check out the nice, sandcast cylinders and heads. Had this machine been brought into the US, American riders would have been very happy.

For some reason, management went to outside, "professional designers".

The first Triple of 1965 looked great. What happened?
Craig comments: This BSA corporate design stuff makes no sense to me. Why were the new triples not styled by Jack Wickes, Triumph’s famous in-house designer? Who called the shots in design?

Don answers: Jack Wickes was Edward Turner’s man. Management then was looking for a fresh design not reminiscent of the Triumph of old. At that time I was long gone and couldn’t tell you who was responsible for design. At some point after the BSA Group failed, Jack Wickes got involved with some Americans who were trying to design the “perfect” Triumph. I spoke to him once. He seemed very unhappy. It wasn’t the Jack Wickes I remember. I never spoke to Jack again.
Ogle Design BSA Triple
Ogle Design Triumph Triple
Craig continues: BSA had its own designers at Umberslade. What was Matt Guzetta doing? What was Steve Mettam doing? Worse, BSA retained Ogle Design, a design house located in Letchworth, to style the new triples.

Ogle had earned a design award for the Bush radio which has become a collectors’ items in England. But what were their credentials for designing motorcycles? Why did they get design awards for motorcycles that were generally disliked?

These are big mysteries still.
Ogle Design radio
Don to Craig: Matt Guzzetta was working at Umberslade, but was under other engineers. Matt had complained to me that he had not been given any important projects to work on and eventually said he wanted to come home, which he did before I left the company.

Craig: Bert Hopwood offers a clue in his book, "Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry," which is my favorite book on the era. He writes, "The styling of the motorcycle was so transformed that, to me, it looked like a strange mixture." It sounds as if nobody was in charge. Hopwood also observed in that book, "If we made a motorcycle which pleased British riders, we were well on the way to pleasing the rest of the world." Of course, he was right. I have always said that it takes a motorcyclist to design a motorcycle. Triumph finally came to their senses and put Jack Wickes to work on fixing the triples.
I know this because when I was at Meriden in December of 1972, Bert Hopwood even lent a hand with a clay model of my 1972 Bonneville TT design. Jack and I worked together to incorporate the design elements of this bike into the electric-start triple. These became the T-160 and the stillborn T-180. This is another story, however.
Bert Hopwood with a clay study from my Bonneville TT
Don continues: When I returned to the office in Nutley, I discussed the Rocket 3 specifications with our sales manager, Harry Chaplin. While I didn’t reveal the extent of my dislike for the Rocket 3 styling, I did ask him if he knew of anyone that did custom bike styling. He handed me a card with the name "Craig Vetter" on it. Harry said he had seen some of the bikes that Vetter had styled at Daytona and that he liked them a lot.
Craig says: In 1968, three years out of design school, I was known for my fairing designs. But I wanted to do an entire motorcycle. At the same time Don Brown was pondering how to somehow "Americanize" the BSA Rocket 3, I was designing a special 'zoomy' seat - tank for my new Suzuki 500. It held 5 gallons of fuel and 1 gallon of two-stroke oil! I rode it everywhere and in the summer of 1969 regularly raced it at the Indianapolis 1/8 mile drag strip. It was there that I realized that the long, 'zoomy' shape, as beautiful as it was,- forced a viewer’s eye right off onto something else - anything else. My next motorcycle design, I decided, would somehow keep a viewer’s attention right there.
In March of 1969 I brought my Suzuki to Daytona and pestered every motorcycle company executive I could locate. "Look at this," I said, "You need me to design a bike for you. That's when Harry Chaplin took my card.
Vetter Suzuki 500 at Daytona, 1969
Don continues: The telephone number was in Rantoul Illinois. On April 21, 1969, I called Craig to discuss a project he might be interested in. That set the stage for lunch on June 3, 1969, which proved to be interesting indeed.

Craig remembers: Don’s offer was to fly to Nutley and meet. If he liked me, he would give me the keys to a BSA Rocket 3 and I could drive it home to Illinois. I bought a one-way ticket.

Don: The fellow walking toward my table was a long-legged hippie-type with hair to match, dressed in the requisite blue jeans and T-shirt. I felt over-dressed! But in less than five minutes, I realized that this so-called "hippie" was intelligent, clear spoken, and he knew his bikes. Craig informed me that he was a graduate of the Design School of the University of Illinois. I was impressed. He knew a lot about airplanes too, so that was the icing on the cake.

Craig remembers: It turned out that Don and I had many common interests including motorcycles and racing (but not clothing). The big topic of excitement was that Don and I both loved airplanes. Don knew my heroes! His daddy had flown the 1929 Travelair Mystery Ship -- designed by Walter Beech -- a name I later used for a motorcycle. We talked so long about airplanes that I almost forgot what I was there for. Eventually, Don got down to business.
The Mystery Ships
Don says: Craig listened politely while I outlined what I had in mind. "BSA is introducing a new triple, the styling of which isn’t to my liking and may not be that well accepted in the marketplace, I told him. We can’t change the styling of this model - it’s done - but maybe we can influence the engineers in the UK how styling for this market might be done," I went on. We talked at some length about design concepts and I told him the story of my first bike, a customized 1950 Thunderbird, and what I liked about it, that it appeared to be slender - not heavy - and the lines seemed to be in near perfect symmetry. Those were the principles I was looking for in the project I had in mind to restyle the 1969 Rocket 3.

Craig says: This is just what I wanted to hear.

Don continues: At the office we talked about the project and what sort of agreement was on the table. I explained that the job was to restyle the Rocket 3 along the lines of our discussion and that the project was to be done in secret. I didn’t want anyone to know about the project until I was ready. After all, I wasn’t sure at this point whether this fellow Craig Vetter would deliver what I expected, something worse, or maybe something brand new that wasn’t expected. No one at BSA Group was told about the project, not even my boss Lionel Jofeh, and certainly not any of my American colleagues. Only three members of our staff were told about it and they were admonished not to discuss it with anyone except each other.

Craig agreed to do the job as the styling engineer. He also agreed to be paid weekly for materials used and expenses for his assistant only, except he would keep track of his time and, should the styling ever be accepted by the factory and eventually put into production, he was to be paid at the rate of $27 per hour. (Craig says $15/hr) He agreed to send snapshots, a brief report each week, and to record the number of hours he had accumulated on the job. I would send him any parts available from our company plus reimbursement for materials. There was mutual agreement and I gave him the keys to a Rocket 3 (engine number KC-00197 A75R), rumored to be one of the Rocket 3s that had just set speed and long-distance records at Daytona.
Page posted Jul 12, 2008

Updated Nov 7, 2012
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