WW2 Armoured Motorbike

Hi Guys
I've been meaning to post this for a while now. A friend of mine is really into his motorbikes and likes to do things a little diffrent so he came across some photos of a prototype bike from WW2 and he thought I'll make one of those just for fun.
Attached are the original photographs and the information on the bike and idea behind it.
　
During the invasion scare which followed the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, the officer commanding one of the Reconnaissance Battalions stationed in the Hastings/Pevensey sector thought it would be helpful to have some faster way of moving a Bren gun , plus ammunition, over short distances than was possible by an infantry section on foot. This was normally a job done by a Bren gun carrier but they were not available.
What he visualised was a solo motorcycle which could nip in and out of hedgerows , were a sidecar outfit would tend to be more confined to roads.
Using the HQ Triumph 3SW as it was available, the machine shown in the photographs was produced by the workshop company in less than a week. The gun and ammo being removed from the motorcycle on arrival and fired from natural cover . In the case of no natural cover the machine was fitted with an armoured shield for protection to form a temporary Pillbox.
To offset the weight of the side armour the tool box was repositioned to the opposite side of the motorcycle and filled with about 50lbs of lead. The original machine was sent to join a 3 day exercise at Thursley (UK) where it performed without any major problem.
Now the project passed into the military system where it was slowly bogged down due to lack of motorcycles to convert and other more urgent projects . In October 1940 with the threat of invasion dwindling the project was quietly dropped.
The converted motorcycle was probably stripped and returned to general use.

This is his bike before and during the project.
In 2005 we acquired a Triumph 3HW from a batch repatriated from Greece and as this shares many of the same parts it was decided to covert it a 3SW model , and the second Bren carrier was born.
Our machine is still a work in progress.
Standard Triumph 3SW, weight approximately 318 lbs, has a 350cc side valve engine driving through a 4-speed gearbox producing about 10 bhp giving a top speed of 55 mph.

The project as it is today.
With armour , gun , ammo , gun spares box and counter balance weight now the machine weighs over 600 lbs top speed now ?? mph.
Enjoy

That's one baaaaaad motor scooter.

Very nice!!

super cool!!!

That is one cool project! The end result looks very good. Thanks for sharing.

Awsome job ....... That bike looks Great .......... How dose it handle with that armour on it ??

Nice job!!!

thanks

I enjoyed the read. Thank you for posting such a great project.

Justin Wehring

Great pics! I should add some armor to my Ural. We can have an old fashioned shoot out!

Thanks for the post! Great looking bike!

Makes me wanna go pond hopping over to england. Awesome job and thanks for posting the pics.

Good looking machine. Thanks for the pictures.

Wild bike

Very cool motor bike!!!!!!!!!! Great pictures as well!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's things like this that keep me interested in history! Great build, thanks for sharing!

fantastic build. It's amazing how the bike started out and how it looks now. AMAZING!

hippiedude said:

Awsome job ....... That bike looks Great .......... How dose it handle with that armour on it ??

Click to expand...

The owner say riding the bike with the armour on gets interesting and bloody hardwork He says its only any good on the flat like riding around airfields etc
He's not brave enough yet to find out what the new top speed would be, think he's more worried about stopping without falling off

Hehehe ..... no doubt ...............