A couple of pictures I recently stumbled across

[graeme]

While sorting through some stuff recently I came across these old pictures of Australian speedway riders from newspapers of the late 20s. The quality isn't fantastic, but I thought I'd post them anyway. It looks like the machines on which Dick Sulway and Paddy Dean (in fact I wonder if it is the same machine) have the "experimantal" brakes fitted - though I would assume they wouldn't have been operational for speedway racing. I would hope that they wern't left waiting at the the starting gate too long, with the shortened exhaust exiting in front of the left leg - it would get mighty uncomfortable very smartly!
As an aside, I love the winged helmet - it looks like something straight out of a Wagnerian opera!

Cheers, Graeme

[eddie]

Graeme,
              Do you think these machines could predate the DT models? Dick Sulway's bike looks to have the sloping top tube of the TT model, so could be a stripped down 'TT' - hence the brake 'disc' but no caliper. There is only the mounting bracket for it, between the fork tubes. Paddy Dean's bike also looks a bit special - it appears to have an extra tube bracing the rear triangle on the drive side. I guess, at this stage, all sorts of experiments were taking place to get the right balance between handling and flexibility! Often improvements were only persieved - if you thought it handled better, then you rode faster!
                       Regards,
                                     Eddie.

[Doug]

Graeme,

They both seem to be stripped down RA models, with the front brake system partially removed. There are a few RAs in Australia that have the extra horizontal strut in the rear chain stay; both depicted in period photos, and surviving to this day.

I have seen two very early DT models that still had some of the RA frame features such as the lugs for the RA brakes and the leaf spring saddle mounts. One had a SF prefix, immediately predating the Dirt Track TF frame prefix. The other had the TF prefix, but was a very low, low number. Otherwise the frames seemed standard DT fare.

-Doug