Douglas Dragonfly

Once upon a time there was Douglas, a family firm based in Bristol. That time was 1900 or so. The three brothers, William, Arthur and Edward, started out as blacksmiths but soon turned their business into a foundry, and that concern then took up with the new-fangled forms of motorised transport. Douglas were building some components for a company which failed, Light Motors Ltd, and Douglas took on Light's projects and its designer, Joseph J Barter, when it finally folded. For 50 long years after 1906 Douglas built opposed-twin engined bikes - flat twins that is, boxers, like those modern beefy Bavarians - around the designs of JJ Barter.

Douglas built a range of sidevalve twins and (mostly) ohv twins, dedicating themselves to the pursuit of quality. The flat-twin engine configuration provided a low centre of gravity, was evenly balanced and well cooled. Douglas machines proved themselves in competition, and so the company won big chunks of the WW1 supply contracts, making thousands of motorcycles for the military which also found their way onto the civilian market once de-mobbed.Douglas experimented with the first type of disc brakes on a two-wheeler in the 1920s. They were even the first British marque to try their hand a purpose-building a speedway machine.

The bikes were generally good performers, although quality control was patchy and reliability was something to be striven for and not necessarily achieved. Didn't stop King George V owning a Douglas in the 1920s, which rather boosted the bike's standing as a status symbol. The Douglas concern broadened during these years to take on aeroplane engines, tractors, trucks, cars. Then came the Great Depression (which was an historical period, you understand, and not merely an understanding that Nothing Good comes out of a judicial enquiry) and the Douglas family exited stage left, c1932.
The Douglas company was taken over by BAC and reorganisation and a touch of streamlining followed, which allowed prices to be reduced somewhat. The range stabilised to incorporate standard models at 250, 350, 500 and 600cc. There was also a remarkable beastie of 498cc, the Endeavour, which was a transverse mounted flat-twin, with a unit construction engine and shaft drive. It bristled with unusual touches - a hand gearchange when everyone else was swapping to foot; a clutch which was so light you could operate it with one little finger. There was a huge kerfuff about this model when it was first seen in 1934. But the Endeavour was nearly twice as expensive as the normal 500cc Douglas, so you can imagine what came of it in the long run. Maybe 50 were built and sold - wonder how many are left today? (The 148cc 2-stroke of the same period didn't go down a storm, either).

After WW2, financial restraint forced Douglas to concentrate on their 348cc flat-twin design, with its ohv motor mounted transversely across the frame, pots cheekily poking out into the cooling breeze. Douglas bikes weren't unusual in this respect alone; they employed ingenious approaches to motorcycle suspension in their quest for 'higher touring speed and less rider fatigue.' Their torsion-bar spring frame and Radiadraulic forks were supposed to even out all the lumps and bumps of 1950's road surfaces, and give the rider an armchair to relax into. For a stunt, factory riders bounced the current model up and down kerbs at 30mph - although we can't recommend that you try this at home, children!
(Although the torsion-bar suspension seemed impressive it came with its own drawbacks, not least the need for frequent greasing. It was also undamped so, while things were fine with a pillion on the back, reports from the time suggest that it was rather like taking a trip on top of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo when riding solo).
Douglas also became the British importer / constructor for Vespa scooters as the 1950s took off - a sideline which eventually developed into the company's only connection with the two wheeled world. But for the 1951 Motor Cycle Show, Douglas presented a new 498cc twin. Its cycle parts were developed from those of the existing Mark V 348cc model - torsion bar rear suspension and Radiadraulic forks. The huge difference was the monster motor which seemed to have been barely squeezed into the duplex frame. Although under the skin it shared many characteristics with the 350, it looked wildly different as it had a be-finned casting under the tank, encompassing the magdyno and air cleaner. The shape of the cylinder heads and rocker covers changed too, becoming sleeker and streamlined. It was a bold attempt at a handsome, touring motorcycle for the heyday of the British bike industry, but Douglas weren't in a financial position to actually build it.
Like other manufacturers of the time - Velocette with their LE and BSA with the Sunbeams - Douglas believed the public when they said they wanted something practical, sturdy and solid to get them to work and back. At the start of the 1950s the feeling was that a motorcycle for Everyman would be a bestseller. The quest for ultimate speed wasn't so important - the common man needed instead low maintenance workaday wheels. Hence the craze for bathtubs and other enclosures, all foretelling the future success of the scooter and the Honda Cub and - oh dear - the Mini. Before the bike-buying public deserted in droves, however, the British bike industry recorded its best ever sales, reaching a peak in 1959. But by then Douglas had been and gone. Their little Dragonfly didn't stand comparison with the sleek speed machines which Edward Turner was turning out. When it came down to it, riders wanted high-speed glamour and performance after all.