Rolling Thunder

In the 1950s and mid-1960s BSA and Triumph ruled the world in motorcycle sales. Then it all collapsed. Bolton, UK-based CCM was born out of the closing of the BSA Competition Department in 1971. Alan Clews, founding father of Clews Competition Motorcycles, wanted a better motocross bike. He bought e [...]
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In the 1950s and mid-1960s BSA and Triumph ruled the world in motorcycle sales. Then it all collapsed. Bolton, UK-based CCM was born out of the closing of the BSA Competition Department in 1971. Alan Clews, founding father of Clews Competition Motorcycles, wanted a better motocross bike. He bought everything left at BSA and started building motocross bikes in his garage. There were no engines, so Clews developed his own and his four-stroke bikes would compete with the then dominant two-stroke. In the mid-1970s, the John Banks achieved respectable results in the 500cc Motocross World Championship aboard a CCM.4,000 plus CCMs reached North America licensed as Can-Am motorcycles. Initially powered by CCM-built but BSA-based engines, Rotax engines came in the 1980s and 1990s with production peaking at 3,500 a year.Harley-Davidson bought the production rights to the military MT-500 (Rotax) in 1987 when NATO chose the machine. The company was sold twice before being re-purchased by Clews in 2004 to launch a new range of motorcycles in 2005, and to enter once more the World Motocross Championship fray in 2008.