Can anyone help id my grandfathers bike pls?

[Juzip]

Hello all!
I've been searching for pictures of my grandfather with some of his bikes and this one came to light only recently. I always said that when I found an interesting bike he used to ride I would look at re-building / restoring one.....so this could be it!
All I know is that this picture was taken in 1936 in Margate just before he and my grandmother set off back home to Coventry. She told me that he had bought the bike in Coventry a year or so before but I note from the registration prefix of AXH that the bike was probably registered in Gt. London.
The only other things I know about the bike are from the picture...big single cylinder, perhaps a parallel twin by the slope of the cylinder head, what looks to be a suicide shifter on the side of the tank??
Can anyone more learned than myself assist please?

[cardan]

Hi,
The bike is a Panther from the mid-1930s - I'm not much of a Panther man, but if you look on the internet you'll find plenty of info. Try, for example, The Panther Page http://www.pantherownersclub.com/PantherPage/p-m-4slw.html#M40 .

Luckily Panthers of this era are not particularly rare or expensive, so you should have no trouble finding one to restore or ride.

Leon

[RichP]

Isn't it a 'Red Panther' exclusively marketed through Pride & Clarke's in South London ? That would account for the registration. It would therefore be a 250cc or 350cc. Hand change was pretty normal prior to 1936.

Dealer adverts of the period regularly quote prices inclusive of delivery to nearest mainline station (motorcycles could be carried in the goods van) so it was not that unusual to have a machine sent some distance.

[Juzip]

Thanks Cardan. Its certainly a Panther and the site you pointed me in the direction of is certainly full of good info and links.
Looking into it in a bit of detail, it certainly looks like its a Red Panther as Rich P suggests (either 250 or 350 4 stroke) although the colour scheme of the tank in the picture is puzzling if this is indeed a stock 'Red' Panther. Although its difficult to tell with any black and white pic, you can defo see that the tank is either silver or painted up white....an after market mod perhaps?

[RichP]

I hope that it's not against forum rules to link to another site but here's a nice picture of a restored example showing a silver nose to the tank.

http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/classic_bikes/panther_m120.jpg

Perhaps the secret of the model's success is that it doesn't look to much like an 'economy' model - and a two-up ride from Kent to Coventry is more than a lot of owners of modern bikes would consider so it must have been quite a competent tourer as well !