classic motorcycle forum

Yes it is a James ML (Military Lightweight) but it is an immediate postwar model. James continued to make the ML after the WWII and it sold very well. In fact the majority of ML were made immediately post war in the 46-48 period. The postwar models were more or less identical regardless of the year of manufacture so it is very difficult to say exactly what year it is.
They are very popular and quite a few survive although not in such good original condition as yours.
Cheers,

I'm pretty sure that's a Parilla Slughi.
I've only ever seen photos but its hard to forget a bike that looks like that isn't it.
Cheers,

Its definitely a Matchless RS. The Model R Matchless first appeared for the 1926 season and was Matchless' first 250. It was steadily updated each year and the RS was a "sports" version of the same bike catalogued for the 1928 & 29 seasons. It looks a lot smarter than the original R but the engines are identical. Slowly Matchless developed this engine bringing out an OHV version, the R/3, in 1929, then adding dry sump lubrication in 1930.
This same 250 engine was steadily developed until WWII stopped production in 1940 and by then it was being used in AJS as well.
All prewar Matchless 250 are descended from the Model R but I don't know what year they started using them in AJS.
Cheers,

This bike looks remarkably like an Excelsior.
Could the D in the engine prefix be a badly stamped B?The engine number prefix 051B (not D) was used by Excelsior in 1961 on their Excelsior Universal model U10.
I'm afraid I have no frame number info for this model.
Cheers,

This is turning out to be a hard one but that is common for this type of machine. Several manufacturers made them and all bought in the major components from the same suppliers. They are hard to differentiate. Excelsior made a very similar machine with the same underslung tank and pressed steel forks but as with the Gloria, the frame is quite different around the saddle area. I'll keep looking.
Meanwhile you need info on engine maintenance, fuel and oil,etc because I'm sure you want to go for the odd ride.
Firstly, this engine has a cast iron piston, no compression seals in the crankcase and plain bush main bearings. This means using a lot more oil than a modern two-stroke. You are not doing the engine a favour running it on a 50:1 mix of modern synthetic racing two-stroke oil. The original petrol/oil mix was 20:1, you can safely drop this to 25:1 using ordinary two stroke oil. The cheapest two stroke oil of today is far, far better than the best oils available when the engine was new.
If it starts to run a bit smoky take it on a fast non stop run for an hour or so and it will clean itself out.
Same goes for petrol(gas?), cheapest unleaded is best.
Tell us how you get on,
Cheers, Bob

We can't do much until the photo appears but meanwhile precise identification relies on the frame and engine numbers. If you could tell us those it would be terrific.
Cheers, Bob

What's going on? This question originally had a photo of a feller with his girl on a Raleigh. Now it is a different photo of everyone having a close look at a Wooler.
I can understand why everyone would get very curious about a Wooler, they weren't exactly common at the best of times.
Cheers,

It's a Dunelt fitted with a Sturmey Archer engine.
The Dunelt, made by Dunford & Elliot used a unique style of front fork of their own manufacture which makes it easy to identify.
In the very late '20s they ceased building their own two stroke engines and started to use proprietary Raleigh/Sturmey Archer engines. What Raleigh did was sell their own Raleigh engines but re branded them as Sturmey Archer. The only difference between the two is that they removed all external Raleigh identification on the Sturmey Archer variant.
Dunelt ceased manufacture somewhere around 1934 or so.
There are several survivors around the Sydney area in NSW so they must have sold reasonably well.
Cheers,