Spencer motorcycle

The Spencer motorcycle embodies the well-known saying that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In a partnership with the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland, an assortment of parts from the museum’s collection have been used to recreate a motorcycle of national significance.

Between 2020 and early 2023 the museum worked with a group of volunteers from the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland on the Spencer Project. The volunteers applied their knowledge and experience of veteran motorcycles to breathe new life into an assortment of original Spencer parts to create a bike that could have been wheeled out of David Spencer’s workshop in 1906.

A selection of spare parts, tools and one partially complete motorcycle had languished in Spencer’s backyard workshop in Milton for three decades after his death. Two members of the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland - Paul Reed and Dave Dettmar – bought the items from the Spencer Family Estate in 1986. The loose parts were later donated to the museum by Dave.

In 2019 the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland approached Queensland Museum with a proposal to use the parts donated by Dave Dettmar and recreate a Spencer as part of the club’s 50^th anniversary in 2020.

An agreement was reached where the parts would be released to the club and, where possible, as many original parts from the collection were to be used. The project volunteers assessed the museum’s parts for suitability, identifying what was usable and what was missing.

• Only one original handlebar grip was in the collection. A replica was lathed by Gerry Jolliffe and Dave Dettmar spun the ferrules (the brass fastening ring). The new grip was stained a different colour to visually distinguish it from the original.
• The assortment of original brake parts were in a mixed condition. The usable parts provided the patterns to fabricate the additional, required components.

It became apparent early in the project that the parts did not come from a single motorcycle. It appears that David Spencer may have kept them to use as spare parts for his motor engineering business.

• The rear wheel rim in the collection was too small for the frame used in the Spencer Project. The new wheel rims were based on the design of the collection item and spun by Steve Hood in his Kingaroy Workshop.

After hundreds of hours of work the Spencer was completed, made from a combination of original Spencer parts, sourced period parts and fabricated components. The completed Spencer was formally presented to Queensland Museum by the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland on 24 March 2023. In attendance were fourteen descendants of David Spencer.

The Spencer Project highlights that museum collections do not just preserve significant records of the past – static and lifeless things on shelves. They remain entangled with contemporary life and are powerful tools that can inspire, enlighten and connect.