What Might Have Been
A “what if?” personal challenge becomes one man’s vision of what the pre-war BSA should have looked like
There must be something in the water. How else to explain the fact that within a 50 km radius of Melbourne Town Hall, there are no fewer than four different companies in the southeastern corner of Australia producing their own completely unique motorcycles, carefully crafted to stand apart from any others made elsewhere in the world, complete with purpose-built engines they’ve developed themselves from the ground up?
One of these companies is Emu Engineering. Doug Fraser has literally created with his own hands, with minimal outside assistance, not one, not even two, but three completely different V-twin tributes to the historic BSA marque, in the form of motorcycles he’d like to have seen the British firm produce at one stage of its history.
Doug is a friendly person whose enthusiasm is infectious – he’s a person for whom the glass is perpetually half full, whose passion and energy for every task deliver an enviable sense of positivity. He’s a toolmaker by trade who today is an electrical engineer focusing on heavy-duty industrial electric motors, and the design and manufacture of related switchgear. His large but crowded suburban factory, on the road to Phillip Island, is packed with an array of lathes, grinders, milling machines and related equipment, all of which can also be used to make a motorcycle from the ground up.
A Fan of British Hardware
It’s fair to say that the sixtysomething Melbourne native is somewhat smitten by vehicles “Made in England.” Tucked behind a 1970s Hillman Hunter – with more than 900,000 km on the clock – and a V12 Jaguar E-Type Coupé of the same vintage sits a Norton Rotary racer that Doug built himself 15 years ago to compete against Ducatis and Aprilias in local racing. The rotary engine came to Doug after the West Midlands police put 120,000 km on it. Doug concocted a five-speed gearbox from mainly Triumph parts to attach to it, built an ignition system, and designed a frame for it. He then took the resultant self-built special to the starting line in more than 40 races, winning most of them against far more thoroughbred opposition.
There’s a plethora of other British bikes of all types and every era spread around the extensive Emu Engineering workshop. So what’s the fascination with Brit bikes? “I was brought up in the era when the British motorcycle industry was well and truly flourishing,” says Doug. “I like the way that their bikes were built, because as a toolmaker I can relate to the machinery that was used to make them. And I think they’re pretty fine products, to the point that I’m a passionate believer in them. I especially like the style of pre-war British motorcycles.”
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