Most people will no doubt have heard the reply from the American author and humorist Mark Twain, when questioned by a reporter from the New York Journal about his health. He is reported to have said: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” or there is another version which uses the words ‘grossly exaggerated.’
So what has that got to do with Dresda Motorcycles? Well, for many years after the closure of their factory in Longford, many people thought they had gone the way of many dealers and just shut up shop and become just another name in the history books. People with an interest in building café racers, or race bikes, knew differently.
Dave Degens, racing legend and the driving force behind it, was still in business, basically working from home in Rusper Sussex, still building the frames and engines that he was famed for during his racing heyday. But even those people may have thought that was the end when news broke two years
