AJS had been bought by Matchless's owners, the Colliers, in 1931 and Sunbeam was added in 1937 from Imperial Chemical Industries.

For 1954 Jack Williams, the works team manager, developed the bike further, lowering the engine in the frame, and making some tuning changes that gave 40 bhp (30 kW) @ 7800 rpm.

AMC withdrew from the world of works and one-off road racing at the end of the 1954, with the death of H.J.

In the sixties, with sales declining AMC made the commercial decision to focus on the Norton twins and the Matchless/AJS singles but they were not to be successful and the factory ceased production shortly afterwards.

The Americans were desert racing, so Berliners sent AMC an example custom bike using a Norton 750 motor in a G80CS frame, and asked them to build them some.

Matchless/AJS built predictable handling, comfortable, well-made, reliable and economical motorcycles, for their day.

Continuing poor sales led to AMC becoming part of a new company, called Norton-Villiers in 1966.

The more race-worthy Matchless G85CS[6] replaced the G80CS having a purpose-built frame, alloy fuel tank, ultralight hubs, 12:1 compression ratio and GP Amal (carburettor).

Vic Eastwood,[7] Chris Horsfield,[8] and Dave Nicoll[9] were signed to race these Matchless Motocross bikes.

[10] By the late 1960s, competition from Japan had driven the British motorcycle industry into a precipitous decline.

Norton was reformed with financial assistance from the British government as Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT) actually incorporating the majority of BSAs motorcycle concerns but omitting the BSA name for Triumph.

The company, AJS Motorcycles,[12] still owned by the Brown family, now imports and retails small capacity motorcycles manufactured in China under the AJS name, whilst maintaining the spares supply for the Stormer models.