A day out with Douglases

A pair of shiny Douglases (Dougli?!)  The front bike is very special, a 3.5hp ohv touring model with disc front brake. the first motorcycle to be fitted with a disc brake. Im not 100% certain but I put the year as 1921.

The owners are obviously well to do with these smart bikes and their stylish dress. Both bikes are fully accessorised with lighting kits, etc. Note the pillion backrest on the bike in the top photo, it was sometime around this period that female pillion passengers moved from sitting side saddle to straddling.

Harley Model J in Papua New Guinea

 

Bit beaten around this photo but it's a cracker. The bike is a Harley Model J which looks to have had every bit as hard a life as the photo itself. I genuinely would be at a total loss as for the location but for the fact that someone has written Kokopo, New Guinea April 1919 on the reverse.

Kokopo was part of 'German New Guinea' until the start of the First World War when in 1914 it quickly fell to Australian forces. Presumably these chaps in the photo are Aussie military.

Meguro J Junior model 1951

Some decent pics here of a very rare motorcycle. The Meguro Model J Junior was apparently Japan's first 250cc motorcycle and only 800 examples were produced between December 1950 and December 1951. At the bottom of the page are a few links to a nice Japanese enthusiast website for Meguro motorcycles.

https://meguroworks.konjiki.jp/mini-e.files/j-e.txt

https://meguroworks.konjiki.jp/meguro_photo/j.htm

https://meguroworks.konjiki.jp/english.htm

Twenties group

So much going on in this photo. First bike on left is an AJS, next up a Triumph H (note the leather strap around the forks to mitigate against spring failure and the soft toy mole on the sidecar is cute!). I wish I could identify the next bike, it looks sporting, Druid forks and a very distinctive wide flat petrol tank shape. Final bike on the right side is another Triumph H.

London floods of 1964

My father passed away recently and in going through his effects I came across this image of a BSA Bantam. It looks like the bike is a Post Office BSA Bantam, at best guess the year is 1964 as this roughly corresponds to when he was living in London and there was flooding in South East London nearby where he was living.

Post Office Bantam negotiated floodwater.

Royal Enfield Model A

Here's a picture of a humble Model A Royal Enfield. A development of Enfield's long line of 225cc two strokes built for the budget end of the market. This is an early thirties one with sloping cylinder as was the fashion of the time. Note also the pressed blade girder forks.

1904 Rex

Another lovely early veteran era image. The machine is a Rex, a fairly distinctive bike of which the identification was further simplified by the bike and year being written on the reverse of the photo. Like all these photos, if only we knew the story behind them... the gent is rather fashionably dressed, though perhaps not for motorcycling. Anyone who had a motorcycle back in these days was well off. Just as a fun aside, note the 'stumpery' in the back ground - a very fashionable garden feature of the Victorian and early Edwardian era.

 

1901 Minerva

A very early moto photo this one. Identification was thankfully easy as a close look will reveal. A pity that a family's personal album got broken up but if there are no relatives or those that are aren't bothered then what is to be done?

I'm not sure who this chap is, he seems rather distinguished and certainly wealthy. The building looks quite academic in style, I am wondering if it is in Cambridge? There was a prominent naturalist by the name of Charles Swinhoe in Cambridge but he would have been 62 or 63 when these images were taken. Perhaps his son (or sons - looks like the same chap in each photo to me but the initials are different..)

Either way, nice photos and an unusual early photo that uses the motorcycle and rider in the composition of the image rather than as the subject.

A C Swinhoe with his 1901 Minerva.

M C Swinhoe in 1901.

Veteran Triumph

Apparently there are more veteran Triumphs on the Sunbeam MCC's Pioneer Register of pre-1914 machines than there are of all other marques put together. That's got to go a long way to explaining just why there such a disproportionate number of photos of the era feature Triumph motorcycles.

This particular image of a veteran Triumph is however a very good one. Very sharply focussed and quite artfully composed. As ever if you want to see a larger resolution of it then right click and open in a new window and then enlarge to original size (1200dpi).

Neat features on this particular Triumph are an aftermarket clutch, a rather unusual mounting for the acetyline lighting generator on the top tube above the petrol tank. Also note the very long leather flap in front of the engine to keep the magneto dry and perhaps a little bit of mud away from the riders feet too.

Artfully shot veteran Triumph.

Baruch Blaker and his BAT

 

Baruch Blaker with BAT motorcycle c 1902.

I have no more details about this superb postcard other than the caption. You've got to assume that the postcard was produced as a promotional tool for BAT motorcycles. BAT were named after the company's founder, Samuel Batson, and from the start were prominent in competition. Following competition success the company in 1903 adopted the logo, 'Best After Test'. The BAT in this image has a De Dion Bouton engine which should date it as 1901 or 1902.

I can't find much out about Baruch Blaker but he seems to have been quite a character. From what I can find he was a resident of Worthing in West Sussex and was a sporting cyclist from the earliest days. He was an early convert to motor bicycles and was a competition rider in the very first motor sport events. There is a record of him having competed at the first Brighton Speed Trials in 1905. He apparently ran a photography studio in Worthing from 1899 to 1904 and then later ran a shop selling bee keeping apparatus as well as wax and honey.

Zenith 680

The Zenith 680 was amongst the most stylish machines of the vintage era and one of the few British v-twins to be designed with solo riding in mind as opposed to lugging a sidecar.

A pity the full machine isn't in this photo but the focus and detail is excellent.

Early Norton Model 18

There's been a bit of a hiatus in posting on this blog but back again with this interesting image of an ohv vintage Norton. 

The bike is a bit of a conundrum to me and I don't have George Cohen's bible 'Flat Tank Norton' to hand to refer to, as far as I know the first ohv Norton appeared in 1922 but they all had drum brakes. This machine has stirrup brakes which theoretically dates it as 1921 or earlier? Perhaps this machine was a prototype or a special order for a chap who didn't trust the new fangled drum brakes in the catalogue? Maybe a Norton expert out there can shed some further light?

Early Norton Model 18

Handel House Salisbury Long Distance Trial

 A really fascinating image this one, a little bit of research reveals that the picture was taken in Fisherton Street in Salisbury and the bikes are in front of Handel House music shop.

It's obviously a competition event from the competitor number armbands that the riders are sporting and it's early too. Being front on it's hard to see details on the bikes but I don't see a machine there that I would date later than 1910. On the left is a forecar, the forecar format was dropping from favour by 1905 and the last machines were made around 1907. The highest competitor number I can see is on the forecar and is 33, so a fairly large event for the time.

The Motor Cycling Club's Exeter and Lands End Trials both passed through Salisbury, the London-Exeter being first held in 1910 on Boxing day and the London-Lands End began in 1908 over the Easter weekend. Given the size of the event and the clothing the riders are wearing suggesting that it is not the very middle of winter I'm going to speculate that this image is of competitors in one of the very earliest of London Lands End London trials.

Just as an aside on the bikes, note that several have mascots tied on to the handlebars. A reminder - as with almost all images on this blog - the scans are high res, so right click and open the link in a new window and you can see them in all their glory.

A very early image of the London Lands End London trial?

DR Douggie

Printed on to a French postcard this First World War image on a despatch rider on his Douglas.

The image is unusual for the uncleaned bike and ad hoc nature of the photo with the chap walking across frame in the background. It's almost as if the subject has just delivered a telegram and is about to depart. I wonder if he survived.

First World War Douglas mounted Despatch Rider.

Another veteran Triumph

It's just that, another veteran Triumph. The survival rate of veteran Triumphs versus other machines of the period and the number of period photos of them that turn up seem to suggest that they were rather popular at the time.

This particular snap is a nice one with very dapper riders and what looks like a new machine (at a best guess 1911) which is nicely accessorised with a curly horn and headlight.

Royal Enfield 570cc combination

Here's a factory promotional photo of the Royal Enfield 570cc combination. I believe it dates from 1939. The pressed steel girder forks are quite a distinctive feature, there was a vogue for pressed steel forks through the thirties. Several manufacturers used them on their smaller-engined models but, as far as I know, Enfield were the only ones to use them on their heavyweights.

The 570cc side-valve model was usually known as the Model L, Yesterdays in the Netherlands offered a similar combination a while back and referred to it as a Model H (which I had thought was normally the 500cc sv?) but on the Enfield promotional photo here there is no model designation at all bar 570cc... confusing...

Two up Lamby

Not enough scooters feature on this blog in my mind, perhaps too many in the eyes of others... To rectify here's a nice snap of a happy couple on their Lambretta. A model LD 150 if I'm not mistaken. In the background a typical family car of the forties and fifties, a Vauxhall 10 perhaps? Lovely old coach house too!

A jolly matching couple on a
Lambretta LD 150.

Alpine touring with a BSA Golden Flash

There's not been a photo from back in the day on the blog for a little while so here's a couple of shots of a well loaded alpine touring BSA A10 Golden Flash.

The alpine view pic is marked to the reverse '1954 Austria'.

Even though the photo is in black and white it is clear to see that this BSA is not Golden in colour. The Golden coloured edition gave the model its name but even if the bike was finished in traditional black it was still known as a Golden Flash.

Ariel Sloper

An unusual image and an unusual bike. From the surroundings and the bright sunlight this is fairly evidently not 1930s Britain, I believe the 'WBM' prefix number plate is from West Bengal.

And the bike? Obviously an Ariel, I believe an LB or MB either a 250 or 350 side-valve and most probably from 1931 or 32. Very rare bikes now, I've never seen one in the flesh. The first Ariel 'sloper' models had very radically canted forward engines before they move to a shallower angle as on this machine before up-righting the engines once more.

Ariel side-valve in 'British India'.

Rudge Multi

A Rudge Multi from the veteran era. Note the side saddle pillion