Dot Cycle and Motor Manufacturing Company
British motorcycle manufacturing company established in 1903
The Dot Cycle and Motor Manufacturing Company was a British motorcycle manufacturer. The company was established in 1903 by Harry Reed in Salford, Lancashire, a city near Manchester. By 1906 they had built their first motorcycle, using a Peugeot engine.
History
Harry Reed years (1903–1926)
Dot Motorcycles were a northern manufacturer founded by Harry Reed in the pioneering days of motorcycling, famed for a succession of sporting machines which gave many a clubman the opportunity to ride on a competitive basis with every prospect of success. Reed was initially involved with the manufacture and sale of pedal cycles in Salford, and the early association with motorcycles is unclear, although he won an international motorcycle sprint at Blackpool in 1906 on a "Swallow-Peugeot" and is recorded on a "Dreadnought" before the first mention of Dot motorcycles in 1907, by which time the company had relocated to larger premises in nearby Manchester. It was on a Dot motorcycle that Reed competed in the first motorcycle races at Brooklands in 1908 and, in September 1908, won the Twin Cylinder Class in the Isle of Man TT beating international competition from larger and better-established manufacturers. Although Dot never repeated that TT win, there was considerable success in the TT and other road racing events over the next 20 years. Reed actively rode in top-level competition until 1924, when he took part in the sidecar event at the Isle of Man TT meeting.
Depression and World War II (1932–1945)
In 1932 motorcycle production ceased, and did not resume until 1949. Contract engineering work allowed the firm to survive.
The public source identifies “Dot Cycle and Motor Manufacturing Company” as british motorcycle manufacturing company established in 1903. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cycle, Motor and Manufacturing.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5299383. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1903, 1906, 1926 and 1907.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dot Cycle and Motor Manufacturing Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.