1938 OK Supreme, 348 cc. Registration number EAL 787. Frame ...

Hammer

£7,000

1938 OK Supreme, 348 cc. Registration number EAL 787. Frame number 25509. Engine number 10H 0 57186 S.
In 1882, Ernie Humphries and Charles Dawes founded 'OK' as bicycle manufacturers. They experimented with powered bicycles in 1899 and 1906 before making a two-stroke motorcycle using a Precision engine in 1911. Before the First World War, they had produced motorcycles with Precision, De Dion, Minerva, and Green engines. Their first entry in the Isle of Man TT, in 1912, led to a ninth place and mainly modest results came during the following years when OK-Supreme machines finished in every place from 1st, in the 1928 Lightweight TT, to 10th. In the 1922 TT the fastest lap was set by Wal L. Handley at 51mph on an OK-Supreme but he failed to finish the race. After the First World War, OK produced a 292cc two-stroke motor of its own but also produced models using Blackburne, Bradshaw, and JAP engines.
Charles Dawes and Ernie Humphries split in 1926, the latter continuing motorcycle production using the name 'OK-Supreme'. ln 1928 OK-Supremes filled four of the top six positions in the Lightweight race, Frank Longman scoring the marque's solitary TT victory.
In the 1930s OK Supreme produced a Lighthouse 250cc and 348cc model, so named because of the little inspection window in the cam tower, which was OK-Supreme's final model.
The engine numbers are interesting on OK's 1 = 350, 0 = OHV, H = high cam, O = 1938, S = Special (J.A.P. produced these especially for OK).
EAL was acquired by Frank Omerod of Hull in September 1989 and sold to our vendor in the December of 1995. He has rarely used it over the years, being stored in his heated garage, starting her up occasionally and enjoying the rarity of the machine. Very few have come on the market over recent years.
Sold with the V5C, a 2007 MOT and some photocopied literature on the model.