New Member searching for Motorcycle

[sidsson]

Hi.

I have just joined and to be completely honest I know little to nothing about Motorcycles.

The reason for my Joining is fairly simple, I am hoping to track down the whereabouts, if still in existence, of a Douglas 350 cc that belonged to my Father during the late 1950's.

My Father was a Serviceman in the Royal Signal Corps up until around 1958/9. I know very little about him as he passed away when I was 3 years old, but I have a few photo's of him on various Motorcycles, something he loved, Motorcycles and Cars.

The Douglas in question shows a registration mark of NE 234 in the Photo's. I cannot say any more than that, as I am not that well versed in Motorcycles. It looks like a Mk 4 or 5 model, judging by images I have seen online.

I know that this is a long shot and the chances of teh Bike still being in existence are very slim, but I figured if you don't ask you will never know 

As well as the Douglas, he had also owned a Vincent Comet and later a Norton, The Vincent he gave to his Brother, who was so pleased with it he named his first born Son Vincent  I haven't been able to decipher the registration on that yet as the Photo is over 50 years old and looks very tatty 

If anyone has any info or indeed knows of the whereabouts of NE 234 I would be eternally grateful, or if someone can help point me in teh right direction to find info about this particular Bike ie a Register etc

I will try and upload a picture to Photobucket to link here.

[David Lawrence]

Hi,
Sorry can't guess your name from from your posting one.
Regarding the bike you are looking for, are you certain that the number is just the two letters, most marks of the ers were three letter, I have recently passed on my job as Club registrar so do not have all the info to hand, I will check with Len the new registrar and if we can locate the bike come back to you. Please do not hold your breath, sadly many of the marks were broken up in the lean years when very few of us loved the oil leaking rattly Dugs. also I am sure that you are aware that bikes that have been registered with age related numbers are untraceable without the frame number, and I am sure you do not have that.
Hope to see the photo if you can post it.
Dave

[sidsson]

Hi and thanks for your response David, my name is Carl btw 

These are the only two I have of this particular Bike at the moment, I am hoping to get more, but won't be holding my Breath too long.

I appreciate how difficult this search is, as you said too, the Bike may have been scrapped / broken many years ago etc.

The Two pictures below are from a Magazine article my Auntie wrote, I think the bike may have been LNE 234 looking at the pictures, not too sure.

My Dad :



and again in the Middle:



Regards,

Carl.

[David Lawrence]

Hi Carl,
Like the pictures, I doubt we have many Douggie Club members that could still do the trick riding!!
I have looked through the old registrar records and sadly we cannot find any trace of the bike, I did try searching with various first letters in the registration as the "L" was not particularly clear.
In the event you do manage to turn up any further info please do not hesitate to contact me.
Dave

[ccew350]

Carl. I don't know if it will help, but i found on the net that Registration LNE 234 was a Manchester registration. It might be worth contacting Old Bike Mart with the pictures and any information, they or their readers may be able to help. Contact tbritton@mortons.co.uk
Good luck Colin.

[Mike of Woking]

Carl,

I suggest you go on the DVLA website and try to tax the vehicle on line without a renewal note. If it is still on the road then its details will be registered with DVLA. Now assuming that you have the first letter missing from the plate / registration no, then you will need to make 25 attempts to tax a vehicle by entering the assumed number using the prefix of A.....Y, but probably not Z as I don't beleive this was used. Given that each search takes a few minutes, then you will need to allow a couple of hours to try out all of the variants.

Have a go. If it is in there then the DVLA system will find it and tell you that it is a Douglas and also if it is currently taxed on on a SORN. If the DVLA website doesn't recognise the plate or the 25 variants of it, then the chances are that it was scrapped long before the computer records were created, or it is still tucked away in a barn somewhere and waiting to be found.

Assuming that the DVLA system does recognise the plate, then it won't help you find it, but at least if it is still on the road.

Regards,


Mike of Woking

[sidsson]

Hi again, sorry for the late response. Thanks for the suggestions, I will follow up on them and see where I get

Carl.