Wooler 1949 catalogue - Vintage and classic motorcycle

Here's the brochure for the 1949 Wooler motorcycle, a machine that never made it beyond prototype stage. Whether it was ever meant for production even is not clear.

Engineer John Wooler entered the motorcycle trade in 1909 and right up until his death in 1956 continued to come up with unusual designs that never met with commercial success, or were even perhaps intended to be commercially viable. It seems rather that he was a gentleman who enjoyed creating motorcycles that tended towards the unusual in both styling and engineering. Some worked well and others didn't. His first postwar design as pictured in this brochure is sadly one of those that didn't. A pity as it could have been magnificent - a flat four with an unusual rocking beam arrangement for the crankshaft, shaft drive and plunger box front suspension.

I suspect Wooler enjoyed the attention that his creations drew as he seemingly did not shy from publicity and liked to make a splash at shows with new designs and plenty of brochures to give away for machines that were not production ready. This 1949 machine was developed but never to any success and in '54 Wooler exhibited at the Earls Court show with a completely new design of flat four of which apparently five were built.