Bicycle Detectives

BICYCLE DETECTIVES IDENTIFICATION IMPOSSIBLE? – 1886-1900 is my favourite era of bicycle manufacture and I’ve spent many years learning about the various features introduced at this time. 1890-1898 was the ‘bicycle boom’ era. So many British companies made bicycles that if a survivor has no obvious identification, it’s usually impossible to find its maker. Most …

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King of Scorchers

I managed to buy this 1892 bicycle receipt in France. It mentions the model as K.O.S which is the ‘King Of Scorchers.’  In 1894, George Hendee, founder of Indian Motorcycles, bought a batch of ‘King Of Scorchers’ bicycles from Centaur, and rebadged them as the ‘Silver King’ for his first year of cycle sales. You …

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1914 Chainless Rover Roadster

Chainless bicycles were popular in America, where they were supplied by a variety of manufacturers, with Columbia the leading exponent. France’s leading brand was Metropole. The Belgian FN chainless was also very well constructed, and Durkopp copied that system to produce their own chainless gear for the German market. Quadrant made a chainless bicycle in …

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Dating Identifying Pre-1900 British Bikes

BICYCLE DETECTIVES: IDENTIFICATION IMPOSSIBLE? – 1886-1900 is my favourite era of bicycle manufacture and I’ve spent many years learning about the various features introduced at this time. 1890-1898 was the ‘bicycle boom’ era. So many British companies made bicycles that if a survivor has no obvious identification, it’s usually impossible to find its maker. Most …

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