DE HAVILLAND DENE

De Havilland was another Coventry manufacturer and, like so many, one which lasted just a couple of years. The man behind the company had built motorcycles privately for a few years – the first when he was just an 18-year-old student – but launched commercially in 1911 with a machine which had a unique overhead inlet valve engine with a push rod running through a tube and an outside flywheel. If you’re a regular reader of the A-Z of British Motorcycles and cast your mind back to

Part 4, this might sound a little familiar to you; when we say that the young man who started the firm was Geoffrey De Havilland, you will probably be ahead of us. Young De Havilland was far more interested in aeroplanes than he was in motorcycles and, in 1913, he sold all the castings, patterns and manufacturing rights of his motorcycle to fellow students Cecil and Edward Burney who set up Blackburne. That left De Havilland free to design the Mosquito, the DH106 Comet and become one of Britain’s greatest aviation pioneers.

Now forgotten by many (unless you’re from the North East!), Dene motorcycles were produced from 1903 to 1924, a decent lifespan in comparison to many of their contemporaries. The company started in the late 1800s as the Jesmond Cycle Company, initially making motor bicycles with Fafnir and Precision engines. The Jesmond came to a halt and ceased production and, in 1903, the Dene Motor Company was started in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Dene Motor Company was run by James Moore, a man who saw the potential of these new-fangled machines and introduced many advances in design. Rather than simply put a small engine in a bicycle frame (as the Jesmond had done), he designed frames specifically for motorcycles and also held, among other innovations, the original patent for ball race headstocks for motorcycles.

The first Dene used a 3½hp Fafnir engine and direct belt drive, although, within three years, all-chain drive was in use with a Dene two-speed countershaft gear and a clutch. Its four-stroke singles were very competitive in motorcycles trials and proved themselves to be rugged and reliable. In 1908, Jim Moore patented a two-speed hub gear and also began offering V-twins as well as singles, both using Precision engines.

The First World War halted production and although, after the Armistice, Dene returned as a retailer of parts for Douglas, Triumph, Rex-Acme, Zenith and BSA among others, it doesn’t appear to have produced another motorcycle until 1922 when it listed an 8hp JAP. Although that was applauded as a fine touring machine, the post-war slump caught up with Dene and it made no more motorcycles after 1923.

There are believed to be three post-war Dene twins in existence, one of which is on display at the Beamish Museum in County Durham, along with a pre-war Dene single and paraphernalia from the Dene shop in Haymarket, Newcastle, which has been used to recreate the company’s original 1920s workshop. Dene actually continued in business until 1972 as a retailer, selling many different marques.

Later Dene was a retailer of other marques’ machines – note the big BSA sign on the roof of its Newcastle shop. The Beamish Museum’s beautifully recommissioned 1912 Dene single, outside a recreation of the company’s original shop. [Thanks to the Beamish Museum]

A gentleman motorcyclist with his Dene. The Dene workshop in around 1923. The combination dates from a decade earlier and shows that the workshop undertook servicing and repairs.