Vintage Thing No.17 - Dirt-track Douglas
Of all the motorcycles at Wiscombe last weekend this was the one that I liked the most. And there were a lot that I liked very much. It's a much modified dirt track Douglas and it's one of those bikes that the more you look at it, the more you notice interesting details about it. I also had the chance to talk to Malcolm Herwin who was campaigning it. Malcolm (wasn't he Ogri's mate?) only recently put the bike together. It had been chopped around a bit for grass track racing but that has subsequently added to its specialness. Dirt track Duggies were incredibly popular from the earliest days of speedway. Their long wheelbase and low centre of gravity suited the new craze and in 1929 alone over 1200 were sold. But the JAP 500 single soon rivalled Douglas' early success and riders adopted a different style to suite the more top heavy vertical single. Douglas DT5 500s grew obsolete as the company lurched from one financial crisis to another throughout the 30s. DT5 e...