WD Motorcycle forum

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Jan 9, 2012 - 10:42PM

Speedo faces

Hi all, could anyone tell me if the design of the speedo face on WD machines changed, and if it did, when.
Cheers, Mick.

email (option): mick@motorbikemike.org.uk

douglas

Jan 9, 2012 - 10:46PM

Re: Speedo faces

I only know they had no hole for the trip meter, because they didn't have one!

Jan

Jan 9, 2012 - 11:14PM

Re: Speedo faces

Mick Holmes

Hi all, could anyone tell me if the design of the speedo face on WD machines changed, and if it did, when.
Cheers, Mick.

Hi Mick,

The early WD/Cs had an “S114B” speedometer, with “slide on” speedometer-cable fixing and with “Eng. Jaeger Patent” text on the dial face. According to the parts catalogues, from contract C/8732 (late 1941) onwards the WD/Cs had an “S433B/EX ” fitted (with screw-on speedometer cable and “Eng. Jaeger Patent “ plus “S423M OR S433B/EX OR S434B/EX ” text on the dial face).

Hope this helps

Cheers,
Jan

email (option): wd.register@gmail.com

Rik

Jan 9, 2012 - 11:21PM

Re: Speedo faces

I'd pretty much go along with Jan on his dating. It seems to me that all the wartime production had the 'Smiths MA' logo and the plainer dials seem to be post-war.

Mick Holmes

Jan 9, 2012 - 11:54PM

Re: Speedo faces

Thanks guys. The faces I have are marked S433M OR S433B/EX OR S434B/EX. The only difference is the size of the lettering-

Henk has just sent over this one. is it earlier?

Cheers, Mick.

email (option): mick@motorbikemike.org.uk

Jan

Jan 10, 2012 - 6:50AM

Re: Speedo faces

Mick Holmes

Thanks guys. The faces I have are marked S433M OR S433B/EX OR S434B/EX. The only difference is the size of the lettering-

If you look closely you'll see that the numbers on the second dial are closer to the scale ring as well. Were they made by another subcontractor I wonder? They both look "wartime" to me!

Mick Holmes

Henk has just sent over this one. is it earlier?

Cheers, Mick.

I think that's the postwar logo, isn't it?

Jan

email (option): wd.register@gmail.com

Bruce

Jan 10, 2012 - 10:45AM

Re: Speedo faces

Was a non-trip speedo in fact ever used post-war? I recall that the post-war CO parts list indicated a speedo with a trip.
I presume that the post-war refurbished WD/CO's made available to the civilan market would have retained their WD speedo's, but I wonder what the the policy was for any WD/CO's that were built up post-war? Assuming that there were some built up from spares? Jan?

email (option): brucekirby@telkomsa.net

Ron Pier

Jan 10, 2012 - 11:51AM

Re: Speedo faces

Bruce I think Jan will agree. A lot of WD Royal Enfield's were taken back to the factory at the end of war and re-manufactured as civy bikes. Of course the nice refinements would have been added. My 1939 BSA C10, although military, still retained it's speedo trip and illumination. I think the trip was a feature on a few early WD bikes and just a follow on from the pre war civy bikes with war economies taking over very quickly.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Jan

Jan 10, 2012 - 12:33PM

Re: Speedo faces

Bruce

I don't think that non-trip speedos were used on post war civilian bikes. But I think that this one is post war Army spare part, hence the post war logo and the military (non-trip) specification... but I'm not positively sure about that...

Jan

email (option): wd.register@gmail.com

Rik

Jan 10, 2012 - 7:14PM

Re: Speedo faces

I'd suspect that the two 'Jaeger patent'dials are simply variations on a theme. They must have made multiple sets of screening equipment from the original artwork. Those differences are up there in the realms of stamp collectors.

My feeling too is that the plain dial is post-war as the art-nouveau MA logo doesn't seem to have reappeared post-war and the 'modern' screw on connector can't be a pre-war feature. It would seem entirely logical that most of the NOS stock in existence is from post-war spare parts production and that the spec for the WD component would have remained non-trip.

Prior to WW2, buyers could specify whether they wanted to pay extra for the trip feature or not.

The pre-1941 Jaeger drive instruments had steel dials and a yellow 30mph line.

WD16Hs were specified, according to the Norton records' as having an 80MPH N/T Non-illuminated speedo right from the first fitments in 1937 (when it was made compulsory to have one) - 1936 bikes had no speedo.

This seems to have been the norm for 'proper' WD contract bikes rather than civilian types ordered at short notice in 1939.