classic motorcycle forum

The passage of time lends a different perspective on most of these events, and the book "Whatever happened to the British Motorcycle Industry"" was seen as a bible when published but since then has been criticised as one bitter old boy's take on things, and not entirely accurate or unbiased.
One thing which sticks in my mind is the aborted BSA Fury/Triumph Bandit bikes which were seen as possible life-savers by some (though I rather doubt that personally).
Nice looking bikes for the time, but then someone must have pointed out that there was 5000 ex-Bantam Lucas headlamp switches left in the stores, and they could be used to save a few bob on each bike.
The Germans and later the Japanese both proved that electrics didn't have to be expensive to work well, but good old Reginald Bleckinthorpe (chief accountant) must have his say, and saddle the new model with sh*t switches which had been proved never lasted in use.
Petty accountants over-riding designers and engineers...it can only ever end in tears, and it often did (and would have done here, had the launch not been aborted).
The upper echelons British attitude to industry has always been bad (like Thatcher and her disparaging comments re "tin-bashing industry") and sadly hasn't changed much it seems, and the Dockers with their silver-plated(?) Daimlers epitomised the "suck the juice out and never reinvest" attitudes.
A pox on them all, the parasites.

"The French perfected motorcycles"? I think that grain must be very small in that instance.
After all, how many were sold outside of the French sphere of influence and how many international (TT etc) race winners were there? They were still fitting little push-bike belt driven gennies up to the war, and exposed valves and total-loss oiling systems were common-place too. Many French manufacturers used JAP engines, or Villiers made under licence.
As to the OP's question, there's no easy two-line answer, and if an in-depth thesis (or whatever) is intended, then lots of searching and Googling will be needed.
Finally please disregard all the old jokes which have now assumed a mantle of truth with the advent of the 'Net; a perfect example is the good old "piece of wood levelling the mill at Bracebridge St and lost or disregarded by the time it reached Plumstead" story.
Passed on as the "truth" by people who've never been nearer to a "workshop" than the local council's LBGT Collective.

Doesn't look original (too long) so you need to check the little "damper shoe" is in place inside, too. Lots were discarded over the years.

A few times I've broken my own Golden Rule, which is, never import a British bike from the US or Europe.
They don't seem to have (or can't be arsed to find) access to the wonderfully arcane world of British threadforms, so a nice bit of SAE or Metric thread mullercation is always the easy(?) way out for them.
Reliving the nightmare right now as it happens- an old RE with UNF nuts whanged on the head and barrel studs, but that's an easy fix. I wonder what awaits as I get further into it?
{Most bodged bike ever? Not mine, but a bloke I used to share a lock-up with had an A65 chop, and just a cursory look reminded me that some people really aren't cut out to use their hands in a manual occupation of any sort, and I still detest choc-blocks and Dexion to this day... but the wonderfully long shiny whippy curly-steel springer forks would have made any passing Hippy cry with joy..}

Looks for all the world like yet another DKW copy to me.

...at the moment. Not  a "what's this bike grandpa is sitting on in this 1920 photo" or even a "where can I get a manual for this 1932 45cc Garlic-Sniffeur I've just been lucky enough to prise out of some Frenchman's ownership".
Must be all out riding, or something.

Hey,
I did find the reproductions on the web. I was wondering
if there are stil originals going arround that can be restored.
Tim

Bound to be, and they'll be sold at one of the Bonham's estate sales when the old hoarder dies off, but by then you'll have wished you'd paid for a repro.
Search Ebay or innumerable tat sales (which used to be known as "autojumbles") and see that the low-hanging fruit has been picked decades ago. Unless you have the luck of a lottery winner you'll never see one at a price you'd want to pay.

Or even attempt to find some info, like a manual or service sheet?
It's all just poke and hope otherwise.