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Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22594, 27 December 1938, Page 14

British motor-cycle _ manufacturers are receiving many inquiries from foreign governments for military machines. A Birmingham firm was asked by a Near East Power to submit its catalogue of “armoured motorcycles.” The question is—just what is an armoured motor-cycle? Is the engine or the rider, or both, to be protected, or does it mean that the machine is to be armed with a gun? Up to the present, the only protective measure which has been taken on army machines is the fitting of a light steel wind-shield, and some side-car combinations carry a rifle in clips. Although prepared to follow specifications, the manufacturers believe that the motor-cycle’s chief use in war should be for the fast transport of messages and light loads of ammunition. A side-car machine properly designed for travelling over broken ground and with a crew of two or three, can be man-handled and driven anywhere at a speed far in excess of anything possible with a heavy tractor or a tanktype vehicle.