Rudge 1938 “Special” 495 cc four-valve two-port single frame # 62605 engine # S5791 The Rudge-Whitworth company was an established bicycle factory that entered motorcycle production in 1911. Their first machines were 499 cc IOE singles. They developed the famous Multi gear, with a possibility of up to 21 gear positions. In 1924 the factory introduced a new range of four valve singles. In 1928 Graham Walker managed to win the Ulster Grand Prix on a Rudge, after a heroic handlebar-to handlebar bat ...
Indian 1921 “G.E. 21” Scout 596 cc side valve V-twin frame # 2961954 engine # 51 S 881 video: https://youtu.be/-IJu1XJ4lnQ After WW I the Indian factory decided it was time to market a somewhat lighter model than the 1000cc PowerPlus. The new model, christened “Scout”, was designed by Charles Franklin and it created a sensation when brought out at the end of 1919. The strong points of the new design were easy handling, lightness, ample power for the 1920s roads and unbeatable reliability. The en ...
Crypto Bantam 1895 ca. Crypto gear # 6794 The Crypto Bantam occupies a very important place in the history of cycling. Its revolutionary epicyclic hub was a superb feat of engineering, enabling the machine to bridge the gap between Penny Farthings and safety bicycles i.e. the design we know as bicycles today. The Bantam was the very last of the original style of bicycle. The Ordinary (also known as the High Wheeler or Penny Farthing) was a machine for athletic young men. It was considered danger ...
‘Calcott-pattern’ 1892 ca. safety bicycle frame # 4155 This early safety has a cross frame with steel rod bracing and solid rubber tyres that are somewhat perished. Both wheels are 30-inch diameter with opposed radial spokes. The handlebars have turned pear-shaped grips; the rod brake is not present. Chain and chainwheels have one inch pitch and the pedals are adjustable, with perished rubber blocks. The curved seat bracket is fitted with a spring seat pad that lacks the leather cover. Both fron ...
Indian 1913 7 HP T.T. Two-Speed Model 988 cc IOE V-twin frame & engine # 70E691 By 1913 Indian becomes the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world; the 1913 production amounts to almost 32,000 machines. There are 2,000 dealers all over the world and Indian controls some 42% of the domestic American motorcycle market, as the factory claims. Four models are catalogued, a single speed single and twin and a two speed single and twin. The Indian engineers have done their best to make the machine ...
Norton 1945 “16H” 490cc side valve frame # W92993 engine # W93345 In 1911 James Lansdowne Norton entered a side valve 490cc single in the new 500cc Senior Class race of the Isle of Man TT. He was unplaced but the following year the motorcycle had been improved and won the Brooklands TT and set three world records. A drive chain was developed to replace the belt drive and although production was delayed by the First World War the Model 16 as it became known gained a Sturmey Archer gearbox and had ...
Abingdon King Dick 1912ca 3 ½ HP Standard Model 499 cc side valve single frame # 1346 engine # 2447 Founded in 1856, Abingdon King Dick is to this day an established manufacturer of quality engineering tools, see https://www.kingdicktools.co.uk/info/index.asp?page=history-of-abingdon-king-dick-100 Originally called Abingdon Engineering, the company made a variety of goods, such as gear boxes, chains, tools, cycles and motorcycles. The latter were produced from 1903 to 1925 under the Abingdon nam ...
Terrot 1913ca 2 ¾ HP “Motorette No. 3” 317 cc side valve single engine # 23525 The foreman of a French-owned textile machine factory based at Cannstatt, Germany, Charles Terrot left to go into partnership with merchant Wilhelm Stücklen in 1862, founding ‘Stücklen & Terrot’. The firm made machinery for the textile industry and in 1887 opened a plant at Dijon in France. When this venture proved unsuccessful, Charles turned the factory over to making bicycles, which at that time were an increasingl ...
NSU 1907ca 5PS 662 cc IOE V-twin frame # 159434 engine # 10558 The company started as a knitting machine manufacturer ( Neckarsulmer Strickmaschinen Union) and went into the bicycle trade in 1886. It was a logic step to move into motorcycle production and in 1901 the first motorised NSU bicycle with Zédel clip on engine was produced. Soon the development and production of the company’s own engines were taken up and within a few years NSU was making its own power units and was one of the first ma ...
New Crescent 1912 4 ¼ HP 598 cc Precision with wicker sidecar frame # 281 engine # 4421 This New Crescent combination, a rare survivor from Britain’s pioneering motorcycling days, was manufactured by Arthur Richardson of 185, Shaftesbury Crescent, Derby, from whence the name ‘New Crescent’ derives. Richardson’s career neatly illustrates the transition from cycle building to the motor trade: recorded in the 1901 Census as a cycle builder (aged 23), by 1911 he was listed as a motor and cycle mecha ...
Sunbeam 1918 4hp French Military Model 545cc side valve single frame # 7444 engine # 134 7291 gearbox # 8777 A Sunbeam with a difference! Over the years we have handled over 80 Sunbeam motorcycles, but this is the first to enter our premises that is fitted with belt drive. She’s a pretty rare bird, the Marston Sunbeam Register knows of only six survivors, including this one. When WWI broke out, some civilian 3½hp Sunbeams were used by the British Army but the biggest user of military machines on ...
Minerva 1907 4 ½ HP 577 cc side valve V-twin frame # 2081 engine # 30627 Mr Sylvain de Jong, born in Amsterdam on 5 January 1868, moved at the age of 13 with his parents and two brothers to Brussels. After working for some years as a journalist, he went to the U.K. to study the safety bicycle production. In 1895, S. de Jong, his brothers and other investors started a factory in Antwerp, to produce and repair bicycles. For these bicycles, they chose the name “Mercury”. Only two years later, after ...
FN 1925ca. “M50” 748cc four cylinder overhead inlet valve frame # 839 engine # 1756B Responding to demands from sidecarists for more power, FN introduces a 748cc, 7hp four – the Type 700 – for 1914. This new engine is a side valve of ‘T’-head layout, with mechanically operated valves and a mechanical oil pump, which drives the three-speed gearbox via a steel, multi-plate clutch. Pedal starting is dispensed with on the Type 700, a kick-start mechanism is added at the right-hand side of the engine ...
AJS 1933 model 33-7 Camshaft “Trophy” Competition Model 474 cc OHC single frame # 7/573 engine # 33/7 522 In 1931, in the middle of the economic depression, The Matchless Company takes over AJS Motorcycles and moves production from Wolverhampton to London. AJS machines keep their identity for some years, but from halfway the thirties rationalization is the keyword and Matchless and AJS models become almost identical, even to the engine numbering system, in which first the year and then the model ...
Norton 1959 Model 99 “Dominator” 596cc OHV twin frame & engine # P14.80933 “Powerful, good looking, comfortable to ride, the Dominator 99 is a big machine with a big performance. The 600cc vertical twin engine is the most powerful in the Norton range. This model has a large following of enthusiasts who demand, not only high performance , but the built-in stability of Norton roadholding and braking qualities”, says the introduction of the Dominator 99 in the 1961 catalogue. The model is first int ...
Velocette 1954 “MSS” 499cc OHV frame # 10974 engine # MSS 10413 The firm of Veloce Ltd. was formed in 1905 by Johann Goodman. It was a family business that concentrated on sound motorcycle engineering principles. Their first machines were lightweight four strokes; after that a line of top-class 250 cc two strokes was brought out. In 1924/25 Percy Goodman designed the 350 cc overhead camshaft model K, a machine destined to win many TTs and other races, starting with the 1926 Junior TT that was wo ...
Indian 1913 “4 H.P. Single Cylinder 30.50. Regular Model” 500 cc IOE engine # 42E142 Oscar Hedstrom and Oliver Hendee, both active in the cycle racing world, got together to found the Hendee Manufacturing Company and build the first prototype Indian motorcycle in 1901. That first machine was powered by a single-cylinder, ‘F-head’ (inlet over exhaust) engine that formed part of the ‘diamond’ frame, in the Indian’s case it sloped rearwards to act as the seat tube. An advanced feature in motorcycli ...
Norton 1958 Model 88 “Dominator” 497 cc OHV twin frame # N122 77652 engine # 76767 14P Inspired by the popular success of Triumph’s pre-war Speed Twin and aware that other factories were working on their own versions, Norton realised that if they were to have any future after World War 2, they too needed a twin engine. The job was undertaken by Bert Hopwood, who had worked on the development of Edward Turner’s original Speed Twin design and had vast experience in the industry. Chief design point ...
Norton 1930 ES 2 490cc OHV single frame # 38791 engine # 43580 The ES 2 is Norton’s second OHV model; the Model 18 was brought out in 1923 and for the 1928 season a new model OHV is presented, based on the successful new OHC racer that will be marketed as the CS 1. The new OHV basically uses the Model 18’s overhead-valve engine with its pushrod return springs enclosed in the cradle frame of the CS 1, and from then onwards the ‘Enclosed Springs2’ designation is always applied to Norton’s top-of-t ...
Moto Guzzi 1971 Falcone Nuovo 498 cc OHV single frame # CF*11460* engine # A5443 Moto Guzzi recommenced production post-WW2 with a range of updated pre-war designs, the ultimate expression of its classic, vintage-style single not arriving until 1950. This was the legendary Falcone, which took over as Guzzi’s top sports model, its tuneable engine being closely related to that of the Dondolino racer. Offered in Sport, Turismo and military/police specifications, the Falcone outlived all its fellows ...