Category: London Douglas Motor Cycle Club

One of the first challenges of an early Douglas restoration is dealing with the non-standard threads. Not just because you don’t have the right taps and dies, but because the last person to work on the machine didn’t either! An M7 x 1.0 metric thread is very close to Douglas’ 1/4 x 25 tpi – just not close enough.

So why did Douglas use 5/16 x 25, 3/16 x 27 etc.? The received wisdom is that the Douglas factory wanted to prevent owners buying what today we call ‘pattern parts’. Strange threads and odd spanner sizes ensured that owners had to go back to the dealers for their spare parts. It must have seemed like a great wheeze, 90 years ago …

We’re often asked, why is the Club called the ‘London Douglas Motor Cycle Club’ when it has members all around the world? Well, back in the late 1920s, the Douglas factory encouraged owners around the UK to set up local clubs including, of course, one in London. Activities declined during the war years as young men were called up and fuel was rationed. Post-war, however, seven or eight enthusiasts reformed the London section – and from that small acorn, an oak tree grew! Read more about The Club

We wish all our members, visitors and followers the compliments of the season and a fine year’s riding in 2020. May the sun shine and our machines prove reliable – as Douglases are, of course! Long-hidden machines continue to surface and even the slowest restorations (your webmaster speaks from experience) eventually see the light of day – we look forward to welcoming new machines into the ranks of the LDMCC in 2020.

 

Readers of Real Classic magazine will have seen an excellent eight-page article in the October 2019 issue about the discovery of three ‘barn find’ Douglases. While the term ‘barn find’ is rather over-used these days, particularly on auction sites, these three machines from 1930 appear to be the real thing! The article traces the discovery and return to use of a T6 and two S6 machines and includes an honourable mention for the LDMCC, for spares and advice. If 1930s machines are your cup of tea, its well worth searching out a copy of the magazine.