Some of us in the Douglas club do some weird things, but a Dragonfly for trials? - even I'm not that daft!
Seriously though, when the Dragonfly came out, it was a heavier machine than the previous Mark model, but had slightly higher gear ratios, so getting away from a standstill required a little more slipping of the clutch. If this was combined with living in a hilly area, the owner may have fitted the lower ratios for 1st and 2nd to give the clutch an easier time. The only disadvantage would be the resulting wide gap between 2nd and 3rd which dictates a lot of revs in 2nd if the engine is not to go 'off the boil' on changing up.
The change of ratios should be straight forward, providing there is room in the box for the larger pinions (genuine Comp boxes were machined to give more clearance than a standard Mark box). Also,the depression in the top of the gearbox (to clear the bottom of the carburettor) could make assembly more complicated, as the complete gear cluster probably wont feed in from the front end, requiring the gears to be stacked against the rear bearing before inserting the main shaft.
It would be interesting to find out the real reason for this modification - so Doug, can you give us any more details?, such as where this meet took place (the US covers a large area), then we can do some detective work and, hopefully, find the owner and the reasoning behind the mod. It would seem that it was done methodically, as the owner had marked the box up with the details and date - perhaps this was only one of many experiments!!
Eddie.
P.S. Could G V E refer to ********* Vintage Engineering?
