Douglas frames

 In the 50s Douglas Dragonfly frames were constructed by the Reynolds Tube Co. They were delivered by the truckload to the Douglas factory in Bristol. Douglas closed in 1957, Reynolds is still in the tube business.

Ethyl is your friend

Tetraethyl lead that is... 

RAF Flying Review, March 1962

Vertical takeoff and landing is all the rage.

Baker Electric car, 1912

Sophisticated and refined, Baker electric cars were the epitome of the type in their day. Many were sold in the pre-electric start days, mostly to women. The range was pretty good at about 100 miles. The company was in business from 1899-1914 but could not compete with the cost and range of the gasoline engined cars. More here.

Mystery Monday

Here we have an intake system, a Solex carburetor attached to a intake manifold, probably for a inline twin of some type. Any guesses as to what it might be from?

 It's been sectioned and handpainted to illustrate the various functions of the assembly, or it's a piece of folk art...

thanks, Rolf!

Another job you wouldn't want to do, mechanic on radial engine

In this case, the supercharged 28.9 litre 9 cylinder Pegasus XVIII fitted to a Wellington bomber. You'll need this.

Sidecar Sunday

IOM 1973

Cast iron dumbbells

Manufacturer unknown

B-17 sub-assemblies

Edward Jablonski, Flying Fortress. Doubleday 1965

The things we build... motorcycle trailers

  Many years ago Kevan Welch and I decided that having a trailer for touring would be a good idea and keeping it as narrow as the bike was a better idea.  To me, one of the advantages of a motorcycle is their narrowness- the widest point being the handlebars.

We hit upon the ideal shape of the old pickup truck wheelwell storage box as a body for a trailer. It had to be made a few inches wider and would need a proper-shaped lid so I made a form out of wood and we vacformed a lid that matched the shape of the box. We used Rosta suspension units and tried two styles of aluminum frames and a couple of different hitches.

The trailers worked remarkably well, the only disconcerting thing was watching a lightly loaded trailer spend more time in the air than on the road when it was bumpy. The biggest disadvantage was that toll stations frequently charged for the extra axle! 

We entertained the idea of producing and selling the trailers, but we were well into the single shock suspension era, and the idea of trying to come up with a universal mount for various subframes put an end to that.