File:Flickr - ronsaunders47 - THE "DOT" MOTORCYCLE. CLASSIC TWO-STROKE SINGLE..jpg

The name DOT stands for ";Devoid of Trouble";. The Burnard Scott Wade Years (1932 - 1984) In 1920 Thomas Sawyer joined the business and, after Reed departed from the company in 1925, Sawyer oversaw further success for the Dot marque in competition but with the onset of the 1930’s recession production slowed and eventually ceased in 1932 When Sawyer passed control of the company to a young Burnard Scott Wade. Burnard Wade kept the company going through the 1930’s with a line of pedal powered 3-wheel delivery trucks developed for the niche markets of milk delivery and ice cream vending. With the onset of World War II the Government awarded Dot a contract for the production of these economical delivery vehicles which were shipped around the world. During the tedious “fire watching ” duty during the Manchester Blitz Wade sketched out ideas for a similar vehicle powered by a small 2-stroke engine and successfully developed this into the Dot Motor Truck which could be produced in various guises to meet the particular requirements of the market for a cheap powered delivery vehicle. Such was the demand that a profitable Dot Company was able to re-enter the motorcycle market in 1949 with a utilitarian 2-stroke machine with a 200cc Villiers engine which sold well in the export market and many are still found today in Scandinavia, Canada and Australia. The temptation for Dot to produce a sporting machine was too strong to resist and Wade developed a small, cheap 2-stroke machine which could be ridden on the road on an everyday basis but, with minor alternations such as taking off the lights, could compete in the popular scrambles and trials events of the day. The “Trials Scrambler” was introduced in 1951 and in a short time riders of the calibre of Bill Barugh and Terry Cheshire and hundreds of club riders had realised that such nimble lightweight machines had the beating of the larger machines previously predominant in the sport and ushered in the modern lightweight competition bikes. By a coincidence of fate 1951 was also the year that the Dot founder, Harry Reed, died. Dot also put some effort into developing a lightweight Road Racing machine, again entering the TT and won the Team Award in the 1951 Ultra Lightweight 125cc TT, the only such win by a British Manufacturer. The real demand however was for Trials and Scrambles and throughout the Fifties and into the early Sixties Dot were a considerable force to be reckoned with in Scrambles and Trials events both in the top events with Works Riders such as Eric Adcock, Jonnie Griffiths, Ernie Gree and pat Lamper and in a myriad of local events where the ordinary clubman could afford and ride similar machines to those campaigned by the Factory Team. Eventually however Dot found it increasingly difficult to compete with the larger Motorcycle Factories and the demise of their main engine supplier, Villiers, and the increasing number of foreign imports spelled the end of large scale production.