A bit of instrument information from the Velobanjogent...The earliest use of a tachometer on a racing motorcycle?

I posed a question on a Facebook group site I run...Motorcycle speedos,tachos and other instruments  .... the earliest use of a tachometer on a racing motorcycle...? 
 I illustrated it with a French Jaeger tacho on Roger Loyer's 1933 KTT Velocette during the IOM Junior TT, but Andrew Rachstraw found a 1922 photo from Brooklands with a 494cc Douglas using what looked like a Smiths governor instrument clipped to the handlebar... well I searched though my 1919-20 and 1924 Smiths catalogues featuring the governor speedo and tacho...the only type Smiths offered at that time as it was not until the late 1920's they acquired the rights to make the chronometric from Jaeger (Paris) by purchasing the newly formed UK, Jaeger E.D. ( and renaming it British Jaeger around 1930). And there was the tacho drive..as illustrated and the tacho, obviously with likely a special dial face made probably to around 6000rpm. Illustrated is a dial from my master catalogue of when I printed dials for a 5000rpm gnvr tacho, My artwork was done from an original dial I had.

Roger Loyer astride his 1933 KTT Velocette at the IOM TT races of that year... the Jaeger tachometer is visible mounted low down near the front of the petrol tank and it is driven by a bronze tacho drive from the bottom magneto chain sprocket...

T.Eve on his 494cc Douglas in 1922 at Brooklands, UK...the tachometer is a Smiths governor principle tacho, unsure of the ratio or dial scale...

The tacho drive from a 1919-20 Smiths catalogue.... 

The Smiths "domeback" type governor tachometer and clip mounting to a motorcycle handlebar...

Tachometers from the 1919-20 Smiths catalogue...the latter mounting is for a car and attaches to the car dashboard.

 Illustration of the internals of the Smiths governor instrument showing the rotor which operates in the same way as a steam governor...the weights swing out as the cable speed increases and the collar at the top of the rotor moves down, and via a rocker arrangement swings the pointer around the dial face.

Above is an original Smiths governor dial face from the 1920's ...and the scale is non linear, which is a characteristic of the Smiths governor instrument. It makes calibration difficult.

Another post from early copies of Australian Motorcycle magazines , this from 1938 ... featuring advertisements from the dealers of the time for new motorcycles and other products....

 This second post features advertisements from "The Australian Motor Cyclist”, Vol.3 No.5, which is September 1938..... a continuing series from a selection of the many of these Australian motorcycle magazines I have from 1936 onward... looking at dealer adverts for the various motorcycle brands available at that time...likely of greater interest to my Australian blog followers, but I'm sure the rest of you will get something from them... Interesting the use cover for the front cover, inner front and inner rear covers illustrated, even if they only used red and blue!

Read on...!

The Velobanjogent's off on a different tack for this and several posts... I've early copies of Australian Motorcycles magazines from around 1936 through to the later 1950's...so I'm going to feature advertisements from the dealers of the time for new motorcycles and other products....

This post will feature advertisements from "Motorcycling in Australia", Vol.1 No.11, which is February 1948.....
It will be part of a series from a selection of the many of these Australian motorcycle magazines from 1936 onward...
We'll look at dealer adverts for the various motorcycle brands available at that time...likely of greater interest to my Australian blog followers, but I'm sure the rest of you will get something from them...
Interesting the use cover for the front cover, inner front and inner rear covers illustrated, even if they only used red and green!
Read on...!