The ideas man

To date, this series has looked at Granville Bradshaw’s motorcycles and engines which entered production. Outside motorcycling and cars, he was involved in the design of much more, from amusement machines to aero development, and screws to marine components. Again, some went into production, others were patented but got no further – and lots remained as sketches. Alongside this work, lecturing and writing, he was called upon by makers to improve and/or modernise existing designs.

In this final part, we look at some of Bradshaw’s often advanced designs which never progressed, and an example of his design improvement work.

The GB Radial

In his correspondence to the motorcycle press readers’ letters pages and commissioned irregular technical columns, Mr Bradshaw regularly expressed the notion that motorcycle designers and development engineers should forget the needs of racing, sporting and competition riders and design machines for the everyday rider. His ideal motorcycle needed to be light, durable, easily maintained and comfortable. He was convinced such would sell in huge numbers, providing cheap transport to the masses and huge incomes for makers.

Although Granville Bradshaw’s work elsewhere took him progressively away from the motorcycle and automotive worlds, he continued to fill motorcycle press column inches with his flow of letters, ranging from praise to ridicule, and other offerings including his thoughts on engine cooling, lubrication, and both car and motorcycle ideal weights. Along with occasional contributions to Autocar, he supplied irregular features to The Motor Cycle’s Technical Topics column.

Despite his stated levels of work, he continued to think of and sketch motorcycle designs, from