Hindsight is always 20:20 though. We'll have to agree to disagree.
Hind sight ?
His contemporaries
Irvin, Hopewwod, Heele, Munro & Davis all said Turners designs were full of basic engineering flaws
That is not hind sight that is a critique from THE TIME.
Page did not join in in the critism but of course Page worked under Turner & wanted to keep his job
Read some of the motorcycle publications from the day
Hind Sight is things like the failure of the BSA /Triump group to market the triple & 4 cylinder the instant it was designed being attributed to Turners refusal to allow any one to tamper with his perfect design , HIND SIGHT is attributing things to Turners massive ego that is hind sight
Top ends ripping out of crankcases & engines seizing is real time not hind sight.
And I was not going to mention the rear wheels of the Sq 4 that could not take the torque of the engine in the rare times that it could deliver full power .
However you can not reationally argue religion with a devout believer who refuses to accept FACTS
So you can believe what ever you want to but it does not change the actual unargeuable facts that Turner was a shit engineer .
PS his father was a good engineer and I often wonder how much of the early work attributed the Edward was really the work of his dad.
And do not forget that BSA bought Triumph because Triumph, under Turners management was bankrupt for the second time.
Now attributing the massive number of warranty failures in the USA as being a prime cause is hindsight but noting that the speed twins had the highest failure rate of any British motorcycle imported into the USA is a fact .
So hindsight is wondering why BSA allowed Turner to join BSA rather than giving him his marching orders
And when he finally was asked to go & became freelance name a single product that he designed that actually went to market .
Bet you can not
To quote the real engineer who turned the Comet into the Rapide one PE Irvin
"Turner made the speed twin with a 360 deg crank because he was not capable of working out the resonant vibrations and rocking moments of anything more complicaed than a single and even then he got them wrong . "
Now if you want to read what I believe is the truth about the state of British motorcycle engineering in the era, get a copy of Irvin's autobiography .
It is a difficult read because it is written like an engineers diary with way too many fine details .
And he does not belittle other engineers of the time in order to elevate his own status.
This is the opinions of a man who went on to design a world beating F1 race car ( repco brabham) that was still winning races 20 years latter .
The man who quadrupled the torque from Chamberlain Tractors
Invented the wire rolling method of making piston rings which is still in use today.
So that is the sign of a competant engineer, a person who can make successful things over a wide range of uses
A stylist usually is limited to a single item
And name a book on motocycling design or engineering written by Turner
or even articles in period publications under Turners name or any nondeplume attributed to Turner .
Tuning for Speed is still in print because it was written by a competant engineer who knew what he was doing .
