DID YOU KNOW?
One of the early British motorcycle manufacturers
British bicycle manufacturer and motorcycle enthusiast Harry Reed founded DOT Motorcycles in Manchester in the year 1903. The name of the company was an acronym of the phrase ‘Devoid of Trouble’.
DOT launched its first motorcycle in 1906. It was powered by a Peugeot engine. A motorcycle racer himself, Reed’s creations gave a reliable weapon to clubman racers and they even proved themselves on larger platforms.
Reed himself raced a bike at Brooklands in 1908 and in September that year he won a race at the prestigious Isle of Man TT in the twin-cylinder class. DOT motorcycles also won a few podiums in other classes of TT over the years.
Reed left the company in 1925 and was succeeded by Thomas Sawyer. However, Sawyer’s stint as the head of DOT Motorcycles proved short-lived since motorcycle production was hit by the Great Depression and eventually ceased in the year 1932.
The company managed to survive the years of trouble thanks to Bernard Scott Wade who took over from Sawyer. Wade continued to produce spare parts for the bikes already sold and found alternative product lines such as a pedal-powered three-wheeled delivery truck that won military contracts during the Second World War and thus ensured DOT’s survival.
After the War, DOT re-entered motorcycle production. Their first bike was a utilitarian motorcycle with a 200cc two-stroke engine from Villiers that satisfied the need for cheap transport in many European countries facing financial hardships in the wake of the Great War.
However, DOT soon went back to its old ways by producing sporty motorcycles. Only this time, they made road-legal bikes that were fit for off-road competitions after removing unnecessary parts such as the headlight, turn indicators and numberplates. DOT also made a few successful bikes for road racing during the 1950s but the trials and scrambles remained their main focus.
The landscape of the British motorcycle industry had changed again towards the end of the decade. Competition from foreign manufacturers, the Japanese ones in particular, had made it difficult for domestic players to survive, especially niche bike-makers like DOT.
Motorcycle production was ceased by the company in the mid-1960s and although Wade kept the brand alive by making motorcycle spares and taking engineering contracts for two decades, DOT never produced another motorcycle.