Unknown Belt Drive Frame

[MMasa]

Fork 3

[MMasa]

Rear frame bit, view 1

[MMasa]

Rear frame bit view 2

[Tommo]

Is this some sort of quiz or something?
The first two pictures show a pair of lightweight New Imperial forks from about 1916.
The next two show a set of Druids from about 1912 that have a bit of flat steel bolted to the spring perches.
Around about 1913 Druids dropped the headlamp spade off the top.
Quite a few makes fitted Druids so as to exactly what they came off would depend on all the links and head stem that you don't appear to have.
The next set have me stumped but surely those two ears at the top are a giveaway to somebody.
The gearbox mount cum rear chain stays are C1916 vee twin Ariel
I see they are marked Abingdon King Dick which are very similar but these are definately Ariel and the giveaway are the two pads that the rear stand rests on.
Hows that?
Tommo

[AdminGuy]

Congrats. You just won a t-shirt... AND! a box of kleenex tissue. Awesome knowledge. I'm truly in awe. Much thanks.

It's a very sad that they can not a least get the correct years for the bikes in the Nat. Museum England. A few wrong parts -OK. But the years? What do the boys from the VMCC think of this? I'm certain ther must be some heat over the entombing of machines.

[MMasa]

How's that? In a word - AMAZING!
I'm pretty good with 1915-1929 Harleys J's and can pretty much identify ANY part as to year and model from 10 feet, but the breadth of your knowledge is astounding.
No it's not a quiz. Just a few bits that I had NO IDEA at all on. My problem is that I have all of this prewar British stuff and have little to no idea what it is or what it fits. If there's enough of a bike in the dis-assembled pile to put together a near complete project, then that's what I'd like to do with those bits. If not then I just want to be able to ID it so I can sell or TRADE it to someone who really needs it to get a bike together. I usually prefer to trade since if I sell a part, then I'll probably just end up wasting the money on something frivolous like food or the mortgage.

Do you think that the Druid fork with the spade on top could be for the Humber? It looks similar to the fork pictured in the museum photo.
Mark

[Tommo]

Yes they would be suitable for that frame. I'll include some Humber info with the other stuff I'm sending you.
You'll be able to see how 1909 has a completely different set of forks to 1910 and how the frame on a 1911 differs from yours.
After further studying some of my period magazines I'm almost 100% certain that your frame is 1910 Humber.
Regards Tommo

[chenard]

Could the first set of blades be Saxon (English)

[Tommo]

Chenard,
You could be right, I have sent Mark a picture of a New Imperial with the exact same forks fitted but I've also since found an advert in a 1914 "Motor Cycle" magazine that advertises "Saxon Spring Forks" and they also look very similar.
The bottom links look like they are two piece in the 1914 ad and the New Imperial one piece like Marks posted set. Maybe that is just development progress and the forks are of Saxon manufacture and were like Bramptons, Druids, Simplex, Traffault, Webbs, etc that were marketed for use by who-ever wanted to fit them.
You've got me interested now as I only considered Saxon to be the maker of a cyclecar or light car as they called them in those days and didn't associate them with motorcycles at all so with the fire going and a storm roaring across NZ dropping snow to low levels I intend doing a bit of flicking through period magazines in the warmth of the lounge to see what I can find on Saxon.
I just wish I could post pictures as it does make it a lot easier to describe. You know the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" and how true that is.
If I find anything interesting I'll let you know.

Regards, Tommo

[Tommo]

Chenard and Mark,
I spent most of Friday looking at 1914/15/16 issues of "The Motor Cycle" magazine and gleaned the following.
The first mention in 1914 that I could find of Saxon forks was in the April 2nd issue and it was stated that 3 models were available.
Then in the April 22nd 1915 issue the range of models was increased to 4 but by August 12th 1915 there was no mention of a choice of models just that "The Saxon Spring Fork" was available.
The July 23rd 1914 issue of "The Motor Cycle" contained a "Buyers Guide for Two-Stroke and Lightweight Machines" of which there were 55 makes covered and four of these were advertising Saxon Forks fitted.
The makes were: Alldays, Dayton (English), Grandex Precision and New Ryder.
In the same issue Dot and New Imperial also appear in ads fitted with Saxon Forks.
In the period 1914-16 I could find no mention of a complete Saxon motorcycle.
Chenard do you know if they made a complete motorcycle?
The company making the forks was "S.R.Ridgeway, Coventry Road, Birmingham" so the next step for me is to get my issues of "The Cyclecar" magazine out and see if this was the same factory that made the Saxon car.
I have sent photocopies of all the stuff I found to you Mark and if you think any of it warrents posting you can put it on this thread because quite frankly it's beyond me.
Chenard thanks for the input because unless you had questioned my answer I would have still be believing they were New Imperial as this is the only bike I have ever seen them fitted to.
Just shows you, we are never too old to learn.
Regards, Tommo

[Tommo]

I'm not a car man, just know enough to get into trouble but I did think that the Saxon car was American not British and sure enough a bit of research tells me it comes from Detroit and I can find no mention of an English Saxon so it looks like it was forks only from S.R.Ridgeway in Birmingham and that company was not connected in any way to the Detroit company
Anyone know if Ridgeways produced anything else for motorcycles?

Tommo.

[chenard]

Nothing special, just another proprietory supplier of parts.
The 2nd pair of blades are interesting as these appear to be concentric tubed (Peerless) type druid.
A local (Australian) made druid fork.
Often fitted to Big 4 precisions.

There was one on Ebay last week, so chck this out.

Vintage Beardmore-Precision "Australian Big Four" 600cc Item number: 160119803219

Hope this helps