HISTORY: The wooden bicycle wheel was introduced by A.C Fairbanks, with patents 1893-1897. He was an American banjo maker, and the rim was actually a variation of the wooden rim used inside a banjo’s metal outer casing. You can see it here on the inside of my 1886 Fairbanks & Cole banjo. A.C Fairbanks set …
Tubular tyres on 1910 No 4 Aero Special Path Racer, with Fairbanks wooden sprint rims. Read More »
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 …
“Robert William Edlin… built the first bicycle for J. B. Dunlop in 1888. The pneumatic tyre industry started in Edlin’s small cycle business in Belfast, where Edlin, Finlay Sinclair and John B. Dunlop made the first pneumatic tyred bicycle, c. October 1888. This was followed by racing machines in 1889. By November 1889, Dunlop, Edlin …
BIGGEST MONSTROSITY: The Vim Tyres Tricycle, photographed in Brighton.“In no industry, perhaps, have manufacturers so sought to bring their particular wares to the notice of the public by such novel and startling devices as in cycle-making. Such intense earnestness for something entirely new and attractive has been the cause of many curious creations in cycledom… …
According to Michelin’s website, “Back in the late 19th century, in the early days of the company, the Michelin brothers were exhibiting their products at a fair in Lyon when one of them noticed that if you added arms and legs to the pile of tyres they were showcasing, it would look like a …
1891 was an interesting year in bicycle evolution. Penny farthings were now ‘old hat’ and the days of the tricycle (in the centre of the illustration below) were also numbered. The design of the new safety bicycle had improved in leaps and bounds, and in just five years the crossframe on the left had already …
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 …
16″ Wheels with Solid Tyres The first Triumph tricycle was not made by the Triumph Cycle Co, but by Warman & Laxon. That company built bicycles and tricycles in 1879, whereas S Bettmann registered the Triumph name in 1889. As a keen Triumph enthusiast, I was very happy to find this c1949 Triumph Junior tricycle …
1903 METEOR ROVER No 2 LIGHT ROADSTER. The handlebar is from the Rover Road Racer, but fitted with inverted brake levers, with Bowden cables to rim brakes. It still has its original Brooks B19 saddle. Just a few pics for reference after it arrived yesterday; now on its way into the workshop to be stripped …
I bought a 1914 Ladies Golden Sunbeam from a chap in N. Ireland in 2016. His photos weren’t brilliant, but i could see nice transfers on it. When it arrived i was pleasantly surprised to find a wartime front lamp with it, which still had its partially blacked-out lens. As you can see, I featured …
The Ultimate Quality Pneumatic Tyre made specially for Sunbeam Cycles Read More »
