1957 Douglas Dragonfly 350cc Motorcycle

Description

Powered by a modified version of its existing transverse four-stroke 350cc flat twin, Douglas' Dragonfly was introduced at the 1954 Motorcycle Show held at Earls Court and featured an entirely new open duplex frame developed by the Reynolds Tube Company. The bike had particularly distinctive styling, with a fixed headlamp nacelle faired into the fuel tank that contained an 80 mph speedo, a small ammeter and the ignition switch as well as the headlamp itself. The Dragonfly certainly had a comfortable ride thanks to Earles-designed front forks and Girling suspension front and rear, giving a ride level comparable with that of a car. The flat twin was updated with a strengthened bottom end, Duralumin heads and pushrods, modern coil ignition plus an AC generator and distributor. Douglas reverted to chain final drive instead of the shaft-drive used on the preceeding T35 and a bevel-gear system was employed to link the four-speed gearbox with the front sprocket. Developing a healthy 17 horsepower at 5500 rpm, the Dragonfly certainly didn't lack for performance, with a top speed of 70 mph, something not all riders were capable of handling and sales were slow as a result. Douglas with in slow decline by this stage, concentrating instead on importing and manufacturing Vespa scooters and, following the sale of the company to Westinghouse in 1956, production of motorcycles at the Bristol factory ceased for good in 1957. All told just 1,457 Dragonflys were built, making the final Douglas production model very rare indeed.