The Featherbed Name
Harold Daniell was a successful Isle of Man TT racer with three victories and several placings in the Tourist Trophy races and the Manx Grand Prix. After testing the new Norton frame in 1950 he declared that it was like "riding on a featherbed" compared with riding the "garden gate" — and it has been called the featherbed frame ever since.
The term feather bed was used in the 1933 to 1938 Brough Superior catalogs in their press section. As printed in the 1933 Brough Superior catalog:
The "Brough Superior" Rear Spring Frame, to quote "Castor" of "Motor Cycling," renders "pitching or wobble non-existent, impossible. A feather bed could scarcely be safer" -- and this in relating his experience on a Special "Brough Superior" S.S. 100, on which he did 106 m.p.h. in second gear on the road !
Read more about this topic: Featherbed Frame