Picture of the month
Already from the childhood of the motorcycle designers and manufacturers have extensively used their imagination to think of brand- and type names for their products. Often they refer to the superior quality of the product: think of Matchless, Triumph, Invincible, Ace, (Brough) Superior, (Ariel) Leader or Perfecta. In this series also "Omega" fits, the "big O" which, as last letter of the Greek alphabet, symbolised the highest achievable.
William James Green started to produce his Omega motorcycles in Coventry in 1914. Before that time he had been working for Humber in Beeston and Premier in Coventry. With this last company he made his way to member of the board. At first Green built only two-strokes but after the first World War also models with JAP engines were produced. Omega did not get widely known, and the production was terminated in 1927. Only few still existing Omegas are known. In the archive of Yesterdays we find a nice piece in original condition and at www.motorpaul.nl, the website of Paul Essens which is certainly worth a visit, we find quite some info about the brand. Paul gives amongst others info about his own Omega, and he links to an article by Hans van Dissel in the Dutch magazine "Het Motorrijwiel" of June 2009. There Hans describes the Omega history and states that the brand was also imported in the Netherlands by the company G.F. Bakels in Amsterdam.
When studying our picture of the month (with thanks to Conam member Jan Bakker) I had some trouble to determine the brand, but when I focussed on the tank I could soon decipher the word "Omega". This brand name was familiar to me, as in the 80-ies Theo Jansen from Den Bosch had told me that he had been Omega agent for some time. There was even a brochure left with the model line-up for 1925, see below.
For me this was the 2nd Dutch Omega picture that I saw. The first was of a two-stroke model that is depicted on page 85 of the red VMC's 40th anniversary book (from 1995), with the Frisian license number B-2110 (see www.tresoar.nl).
The Brabant license number N-3041 has been handed out in 1916 to J.H. Althuizen in Boekel. At www.deautovanmnopa.nl there are pictures of a Gillet from the early 20-ies and a lorry with this number (note of the translator: at that time Dutch licenses were personal, not connected to a vehicle). According to the picture's legend Harrie Althuizen and his sister are sitting on the Gillet. The man on the Omega is clearly much older than Harrie and not really dressed as motorcyclist. Therefore I suppose that he is not the owner of the machine. The Omega is equipped with the JAP side valve engine and my estimation of the year of construction is around 1925.
In the advertisement above from "Het motorrijwiel en de Kleinauto" from March 23rd 1925 we see an identical model. The import has changed in due time from Amsterdam to Musselkanaal. There were 2 models with JAP side valve engine and when I compare the picture with the model images in the brochure I think that our Omega is the 350cc model 2.
Ruud van Bijnen
Here the part of the picture with the motorcycle in a larger format and improved details:
