More
on Douglas
Over the last
few weeks I have had an enforced rest and during that time I been
researching, still did ever Bosch make Douglas motorcycles under
licence from 1919 to 1923. It has kept me busy reading and going over
some old books like the “Best Twin” by JR Clew and, the more
recent Douglas, The Complete Story by Mick Walker. I found the
re-read of the Best Twin quite entertaining as there are descriptions
of some of the leading lights of Douglas that are amazing Characters
in themselves among them Freddie Dixon and Cyril Pullin and Walter
More. There are many others who helped make the Douglas brand in
trials and on the racetrack however my interest lies in the
technology that went with this and during World War One Douglas was
testing a leaf spring suspension frame and was in production until
1921 when it was withdrawn it possibly because there was an
infringement on the Coulson B patents. In the research I found the
Coulson B patents and also a reference to the Cushion Frame patented
by Charles Travis in 1899. Spring frames have been around forever and
a good site to look them up is at The Online Bicycle Museum. Moving
on to the hey day of Douglas and 1927 and the “first” Speedway
event was organised by Camberley Motorcycle Club near Camberley that
was on a hard surface and a difficult track to ride around the same
time Lionel Wills had seen Speedway in Australia and thought it would
do well in the UK so he organised the first dirt track race at High
Beach in Epping in February 1928 and at Easter there was one at
Greenford Park. There is a Pathe News film of one such event. Greenford Park, not far from the Museum, was the site
for horse racing that had ceased to become a “Gentlemans' Sport”
and had become the Gypsy domain with horse and buggy racing. This did
not go down too well with the local population and when dirt track
racing arrived it was received with open arms as bringing a “Better
class of people to the area” (Somewhat different from the current
thinking about motorcycling). Speedway was an instant success as was
the Douglas dirt track bikes based on the RA model, first used in
Australia and up until the early 30's when the reign was ended by JAP
engined bikes. The Douglas had been ideal having a long wheelbase and
excellent handling it was the bike of choice. At the outset the art
of broadsliding was new to Britain and was aptly demonstrated by a
New Zealander Steven St George winning everything he entered. By the
end of 1928 the Brits were getting the hang of this technique and Jack
Barnett got his Douglas up the front and started winning too!
After the this
golden era for Douglas finance and family problems got it the way of
producing motorcycles, but that didn't stop some very interesting
bikes being produced. By 1935 Douglas had come up with their first
transverse flat twin, the Endeavour although not a success at the it
set the trend time at what was going to happen later. Even during
World War Two development did not stop even though Douglas did not
produce any motorcycle, they still did other things for the war
effort that included 100cc engined portable generators and pumps,
some used in Halifax and Lancaster bombers as a standby power source
in the event of a failure of the hydraulic system. Also the bigger
engined generators that were used for portable radar equipment used
on the south coast as the first line of defence and such was the
reliability of those systems. Post was things looked up and Douglas
had an opportunity for a military motorcycle contract. An equivalent
to an ISDT held at Aldershot for Triumph, BSA and Douglas. Douglas's
entry was the DV60 a 600cc transverse twin and not unlike the
Endeavour, however on the day the DV60 failed as did BSA's entry
leaving the Triumph the only survivor and that as the TRW!
In the
50's Douglas's fortunes, as with many other motorcycle manufacturers,
were not too good and just after their new bike the Dragonfly was
introduced the official receiver came in, the company was bought by
Westing House and all production ceased with any remaining
motorcycles being assembled from parts by Pride and Clarke and sold
on at silly low prices. This is not the end of the story Douglas
Vespa come on the scene and keep Douglas in the picture for a few
more years. Now it is time to read Robin Spaldings book about British
Scooters!
