rewdco

This is a post war air filter, as fitted to the post war Model G - Model J. These filters were never used on WD bikes.

Just found this one...

Just found this rather nice advertisement for the James motorcycle. Thought you'd like it... 😊

The acceptance marking (a broad arrow over a letter M over a number 419) was made with one single stamp. Due to the roundness of the tube, the first or the last digit of the tube are sometimes so faint that you can't see them. Below another genuine Welbike acceptance marking, and one that I spotted on a fake Welbike. Jan

Here’s something else that I would like to add to this pillion seat thread: the vivisection of a 1942 Dunlop AC2001 "bum pad" style seat with genuine Dunlopillo material inside. First some original 1942 pictures: Here's a Dunlop AC2001 in excellent condition: For as far as I know, the war time pillion seats had a solid base plate, as in the pictures above and below: And here's a war time Dunlop seat that has been used to do a vivisection. Please note the Rexine cover and Dunlopillo foam: And for as far as I know, the post war base plate was made of two sheetmetal strips and two crossbars:

Maybe this article can help you out? Jan

Indeed, as used on Royal Enfields. Jan

Here we are... 😁 Ron is correct, (duplicated) frame number 20099 comes from military contract S/1546. It was despatched from the factory on 03/07/1944, destination War Office Slough. After the war it was factory reconditioned, (this may only have been a civilian respray...?), and it was sold to Jempson in Eastbourne on 01/09/1947.

Just found these two...

See also this post… Jan

There's a whole story about how the Model RE was introduced to the military. Arthur Bourne played a distinctive role in this. The idea was that the bike would have been ideal for the newly formed Air Landing Brigade. And they did a lot of dropping tests. It looks as if an RB was used for one of these tests. Another quote from my Report: 1942: The first dropping tests In the M.o.S. contract ledgers (Source: National Archives), I have found a contract S/831 for “(item 1) one 125cc Royal Enfield motorcycle and (item 2) one special container for item 1”. Demand date is September 1st 1942, “delivery by end September 1942”. This contract fits more or less with the story below: The Air Landing Brigade also made two dropping tests on 17th and 18th September 1942. A December 26th 1942 dated report (called “Dropping tests on D.K.W. motor cycle”) details these two parachute descents by a “R.B.39 D.K.W.”. This name is strange: the motorcycle that was used for the tests was a Royal Enfield, not a D.K.W., but the RB39 abbreviation suggests that the contract S/831 motorcycle was an obsolete “Dutch specification Royal Baby” from late 1939... The dropping crate for these tests was developed by the A.F.E.E. (Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment), and built by Royal Enfield (contract S/831). Both drops were made from an AVRO Lancaster at 500 ft. and 145 mph. The first drop resulted in the spotwelds on the motorcycle’s toolbox breaking and minor damage to the insulation of the lighting. The second dropping test had a heavier landing, resulting in a somersault, but the damage was limited to bent rear mudguard stays and two of the front suspension rubber loops snapping (later found to be perished). Both drops left the “motor cycle serviceable for starting and riding”. Under “Further developments”, the report also stated that “The motorcycle and cradle have been forwarded to Messrs Enfield Cycle Ltd, Redditch, for use as a pattern for preparing a production type of cradle. Further drop tests will be made when the production model cradle is available.”

Strictly speaking, this is not a military bike... But without the RB, the Flying Flea wouldn't have existed. A quote from my Report: 1934 – 1939: The pre-war history of the model RE In 1934 DKW launched a new small motorcycle at a very moderate price, the 2.5-horsepower RT 100 (for ReichsTyp 100cc). The power output was increased to 3 horsepower in 1936, and the bike was now called the RT 3 PS. This was not only a reliable, straightforward motorcycle for day-to-day riding but it was also quite successful in competition. By 1940, almost 62.000 RTs had been sold. The RT was also very popular with the Hitler Youth. Quite a lot of the RTs were sold in Holland. But in the autumn of 1938, the Dutch importers “Stokvis en zonen” were facing a problem: in the board of directors of Stokvis there were some Jewish people, so the Nazis arranged that Stockvis lost their DKW (and BMW) motorcycle franchise overnight. “Hart, Nibbrig en Greeve N.V.” from Den Haag did already have the DKW car franchise and they now became the DKW motorcycle importers as well. Needless to say that the people at Stokvis weren’t happy about that... So they started looking for a replacement for their best seller... “Stokvis en zonen” was also the Ariel and Velocette importer for Holland. Stokvis’ company director Eriksson contacted the Ariel factory in search for a replacement, but Ariel wasn’t interested... And according to a letter from Phil Irving in the October – November 1981 issue of The Classic MotorCycle, “... it was to Veloce that they brought a little DKW to see if we could make them something similar. I was in the drawing office at the time, but after we reduced the Deek to its component parts, some of which were very small, Eugene Goodman (the Velocette director, ed.) decided that it could not be made on our existing machine tools at Hall Green. Instead he suggested that they should put the proposition to Tony Wilson-Jones at Royal Enfield.” (P.E. Irving was working at Velocette at that time, but would go back to Vincent HRD in 1943 to design the Vincent series B). There Mr. Eriksson was luckier, and in a relatively short time (less than 6 months) Enfield had measured up the whole motorcycle and built a prototype for approval by Stokvis en Zonen. The frame was an exact copy of the RT3, but the capacity of the engine was slightly bigger (125cc instead of 100cc). This was due to the complexity of the Schnürle scavenging system that DKW was using in its engine. Enfield had no experience with this system and opted for a conventional layout, which was less efficient... On April 7th 1939 Stokvis pays a lot of money for a two-page advertisement in “Motor”, the Dutch motorcycle magazine. It was the “birth announcement” of the “Royal Baby”! (The abbreviation was “RB”, and in Dutch that sounds very much like “RT”...). Also in April 1939, two hand built prototypes were shipped to Rotterdam to show them to the Dutch public. The orders started to come in... In July 1939 the Royal Enfield factory in Redditch starts with the production of the RB. During July – August ’39 they despatch 50 “Deluxe” and 70 “Standard” models to Holland. After this RB-batch they start producing the RE, for the Home Market. But in-between the REs they still produce the odd RB as well. Enfield announced their new lightweight on October 12th 1939. All the big Royal Enfield dealers (Comerfords, King’s of Oxford, Renno’s, Millars Motors, Marble Arch, Claude Rye, ...) start advertising in the “classified” sections of the November 2nd 1939 issues of MotorCycling and The MotorCycle. Both weeklies did an article on Redditch’s newest in their January 11th 1940 issues. And the little RE was of course also included in Enfield’s 1940 catalogue, which came out in February 1940. Approximately 2.000 REs and approximately 190 RBs were made from July 1939 until the spring of 1940, but on May 10th Germany invaded the Low Countries...

This is the works RAF contract picture Ron. Looks like a rubber band. And considering that the WD/CO has a conical downtube, pointing to the bottom, I can't imagine that the leather strap will stay in place for a long time...

Nice job Sam! FYI, these leather straps have also been used on the late-war WD/CO (probably the bikes that were produced parallel to the WD/RE production)...

Hi Alan, Noticed your plea for information in the other thread. Think it's better to send you an answer in this specific thread... Your bike (#18873) was part of the RAF contract C/14219 (2826 bikes, #17001 - 19826). It was despatched from the Redditch factory on 19/08/1943, destination War Office Sheffield. This will have been a depot, from where it was later sent to a specific unit, this specific information however is impossible to find out. As Ron already mentioned, the "original" C/14219 (RAF) bikes did not have pannier frames or pillion seat. I've added the two official factory photographs for this contract. But I must admit (and Ron will be pleased to hear this... 😉 ) that about 50% of the war time pictures of RAF WD/CO bikes do show this equipment. These may have been ex-Army bikes that had been transferred to the RAF...? Or RAF contract bikes with retrofitted equipment? Don't know... The problem is that there are no records for the RAF census numbers (the number which is displayed on the tank). Any RAF picture is always a bit of a mystery... After the war, under the UNRRA scheme, a lot of ex military equipment was sent to the countries in the Eastern Block. Rather surprisingly, a lot of the motorcycles appear to come from the RAF contract! It looks as if yours was one of these. Jan

Just found this one...

There are (at least) two versions of the WD silencer. The oldest version (as on Lex' bike) is made of 1.6 mm steel, with (conical) welded endcaps, and the complex labyrinth interior (with two perforated tubes and a longitudinal S-shaped baffle plate), as in Lex' picture. Later versions were made of 1 mm steel, with (convex) brazed on endcaps (silver soldered actually), and had a much simpler interior (see pictures below). It should indeed be possible to cut the endcap off, slip in the new interior, and weld the endcap back on.

I've just sent you a PM Paul!

Just discovered this nice postcard on Delcampe...

Some numbers close to yours... Liberation of Belgium. Please not the specific stencil font that Matchless used for the census number.

Hi Ant, The census number for 4818 is C5111818. Remember that you can order the correct style low tack stencils from Axholme:

Oh so nice! Well done Steve!

You've done a fantastic job on this engine Ron!

Aah... that's where your avatar comes from! 😃 Nice one!

Definitely a different church tower Lex, pretty sure this is not the same spot... Sorry...