1953: And that, finally, is a wrap.

~ motorcycletimeline

Blimey that was a slog. All the material I’ve accumulated from 1953, when ERII was crowned and your ‘umble scribe rolled off the production. line, awaits your attention. I (more accurately countwordsfree.com) have just checked, and am mildly surprised to find nigh on 200,000 words as well as oodles of pics. It was a busy year. Before ploughing into 1954 I’ll take some time out to whittle away at the many (many!) hundreds of pics, most from mon ami Francois, in the swollen pending files and will also indulge myself down a number of rabbit holes—starting with letters written in 1927 by Oily Karslaske giving a blow-by-blow history of the Dreadnought. I might even find time to work on at least one of the four Brits that are languishing in the reserve fleet. Meanwhile, here are a couple titbits from that glorious year. As always…enjoy!

“Another surprising Chinese exhibit was an auxiliary ‘motor wheel’ for a bicycle which bore every resemblance to the British 32cc Cyclemaster. The only apparent difference was that the manufacturers’ nameplate had been replaced by a likeness of Piccasso’s Dove, which also appeared on the 350cc twin…it has a two-cylinder horizontally opposed sv twin engine of 350cc with unit-gearbox, shaft final drive and a pressed-steel frame; it is somewhat reminiscent of the German Zündapp.”
“Described as the ‘most powerful dragster in motorcycledom’, ‘this monster has two 1,300 Harley-Davidson engines. While a speed of 150mph is anticipated, so far the machine has attained a mere 129mph.” “Margaret Hood, wife of the co-builder of the ‘Brute’, is herself an ardent dragster.”
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Published by motorcycletimeline

One thought on “1953: And that, finally, is a wrap.”

  1. Well done, Oh Timeline Lord…….hope all OK on home front.

    I am in seclusion having to keep out of the sun for 4 weeks whilst letting some corrosive cream loose on my face to deal with sun damage arising from 50 years of riding in hot winds and sun.

    I am using the time to rebuild my overly packed laptop by deleting all the apps and starting again, plus I am working through all the A-Z marques to expand on the history.

    Like you wordcount is troubling…..letters A&B so far are over 500,000 words………..I might need to do some more editing. Adding graphics is going to take a lot of time. Might be a miracle if I ever finish this write-up.

    Cheers Muzza

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