Thumper Club Forum
Club House => Chatter => Topic started by: johnr on January 28, 2011, 12:51:11 PM
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ok ive posted this over on the classic bike forum, but as the bikes are thumpers, albeit old ones, i thought id just lift the whole text and post the same thing here. what stuff has been built where you live?
we all know about the myriad of brit bikes in the west Midlands area, the big names of bsa triumph etc, and we all associate stevenage with vincents, cleckheaton with panthers, etc etc, but im always amazed to hear of the tiny backstreet bike makers in the rest of the uk. a couple of years back, i often passed a car shop in preston called riding and cok (snigger but its true!) selling one of the big brand names, but in his window was a line of old bikes. two of which id never seen or heard of. one was called a toreador the other a matador. having never heard of them, i assumed they were some nondescript spanish effort. however, it seems that both were built in my home-town of preston, by a bert houlding and sons, not only that, but we also had bond, the carmaker who also produced as well as the threewheelers(though not the bug, which was built in tamworth im told) the bond minibyke. and whilst looking though some unrelated site for some other local stuff, i came across a reference to a motorcycle engine built in preston called a bradshaw ohv engine, built by, walmsley engineering in preston. i looked this up and it seems that the matador and toreador used this same engine. so its sparked an interest in me to try and find one of these machines built in the town that bore me. and i wondered what was you guys own local bike manufacturer?
houldings became in later years specialist carburettor makers and repairers, this it seems is the man himself,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbar ... otostream/
and he later moved to other premises in the town and built cars under the brand name 'moveo engineering'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/4437159120/
he and his brother apparently also raced in the isle of man!
here are some flickr links to the pictures of the bikes ive found so far, and a link to the advert for walmsley engines i found in the same place.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbar ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbar ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbar ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbar ... otostream/
one of the great things about the www is how you can go off on a tangent when looking for one thing and end up somewhere else completely. i started off looking for aerial pictures of the river ribble to plan a forthcoming canoe trip, and now im scouring the web looking for old motorbike pictures!
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Hi,
The first and some of the second paragraph of "Motor Cycle Cavalcade" by "Ixion" of The Motor Cycle list a huge amount of early motorcycles and where they were made, could be a starting point.
Furry
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Not wanting to start an argument between the nations ;) ;) ;)
but this thread should be interesting, we might find some new names; everyone says "Brit Bikes", when surely they mean "English Bikes", old chap. :D
Were there any bikes (post-WW2 for me) built in Wales, Scotland, North of Ireland/Northern Ireland ???
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This site has a big list of 'British' bikes
http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/euro/british.htm
Oddly enough the first link I clicked mentioned bikes built in Wales
http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/euro/brands/alta_uk.htm
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Not quite Bike builders, but Queen's University, Belfast had an engineering professor who worked on 2-stroke design. Was there a Greeves with a QUB developed Villiers motor?
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Not wanting to start an argument between the nations ;) ;) ;)
but this thread should be interesting, we might find some new names; everyone says "Brit Bikes", when surely they mean "English Bikes", old chap. :D
Were there any bikes (post-WW2 for me) built in Wales, Scotland, North of Ireland/Northern Ireland ???
Yes the Bown, built near Cardiff, using a little Villiers engine (didn't all those small maunfacturers?).
* Bown of Tonypandy, Wales
* Bown were motorcycles produced from 1950 to 1957.
* Until 1949 they built the autocycle for Aberdale of London, and in that year adopted the Bown name.
* 1950 Having revised their autocycle design, they used a 99cc Villiers 2F engine with a cradle frame fitted with blade girder forks and enclosing side panels below the petroil tank.
* 1951 The firm added a small motorcycle to their list. It had a 99cc two-speed Villiers 1F engine, neatly fitted into a frame with duplex downtubes and tubular girder forks.
* 1952 Those two models were joined by their Tourist Trophy which was fitted with a 122cc Villiers 10D engine and telescopic forks.
* 1953 The range continued in that form.
* 1954 Production stopped.
* 1956-1957 The name returned for only two years. It was used for an imported German moped with a 47cc Sachs engine.
And don't forget the Featherbed chassis was designed in Northern Ireland.
GC
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Link for the QUB and late designer, not Villiers after all.
http://www.donsmithtrials.co.uk/greeves.html (http://www.donsmithtrials.co.uk/greeves.html)
But were any "ground up" bikes built outside England ?
I was born in the Potteries (now Royal Doulton comes from Indonesia!) I don't think any bikes came from there.
Where I live now the only vehicles that are produced are by putting a donkey with a horse to make a mule.
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But were any "ground up" bikes built outside England ?
Benelli (rhymes with Llanelli) according to Mr. Morgan ;D
Andy
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I used to own an A.J.W foxcub they were made in Exeter
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Apparently (I'm far too young to remember) there's an old Douglas factory in kinsgwood in Bristol, about 5 miles from me
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im from the potteries to, i think the closest manufacturer to me was the pre war sunbeam factory at wolverhampton. now they made some good thumpers(the gentlemans ride) post war sunbeams were made in reddich
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I am from Nottingham,home of the Brough Superior ;D
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I am from Nottingham,home of the Brough Superior ;D
All well and good but I bet you ain't got one :D
Talking of which, I was round Furry's last night looking at his lovely Manx Norton and I told him that I'd considered having a T shirt made with a picture of a manx and the strapline "When do I get MY fucking Manx?"
GC
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I am from Nottingham,home of the Brough Superior ;D
All well and good but I bet you ain't got one :D
Talking of which, I was round Furry's last night looking at his lovely Manx Norton and I told him that I'd considered having a T shirt made with a picture of a manx and the strapline "When do I get MY *******ing Manx?"
GC
When you've won the ****ing lottery? :D ;)
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* 1956-1957 The name returned for only two years. It was used for an imported German moped with a 47cc Sachs engine.
[/i]
GC
I remember my dad buying a Bown moped many years ago. It was two tone blue ....it never did run properly and he GAVE it away to a lad down our street....I dont think I ever forgave him for that :(
Ian
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http://www.ozebook.com/ausmc/australia.htm
There are a couple or so of Perth bikes here eg Alchemy and Alron.
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This is probably more use to you over there. it covers nearly everything. You may even be able to supply Murray with info too. Interesting site, check out the Ugly Fat Old Bastards Motorcycle Club! ;)
http://www.ozebook.com/a-z.htm
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Still on the go! :)
Perthshire manufacturer! (http://www.chopperz.co.uk/index.htm)
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I am from Nottingham,home of the Brough Superior ;D
Also from Nottingham and still working on the fund towards a Brough ;)
Don't forget that Nottingham was also the home of Raleigh who built horrid little mopeds right up to the 70's but also made proper motorcycles in the 20's and 30's.
Campion (originally a cycle company aswell) made motorcyles in Nottingham in the early days too.
Kinda makes you wish this country still had an industry doesn't it :-\
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I did actually work on the street that the Panthers were made on. I was there in the mid '80's and my brother had a 650 sloper at the time so he told me about the place.
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I am from Nottingham,home of the Brough Superior ;D
Also from Nottingham and still working on the fund towards a Brough ;)
Don't forget that Nottingham was also the home of Raleigh who built horrid little mopeds right up to the 70's but also made proper motorcycles in the 20's and 30's.
Campion (originally a cycle company aswell) made motorcyles in Nottingham in the early days too.
Kinda makes you wish this country still had an industry doesn't it :-\
[/quote]Raleigh mopeds were made by a french company called Motobecane....this company is now part of the Yamaha empire and go under the name of MBK (so Im reliably informed)
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This thread sent me looking for the Spagthorpe page. Looks to have gone :(
Andy
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Not quite Bike builders, but Queen's University, Belfast had an engineering professor who worked on 2-stroke design. Was there a Greeves with a QUB developed Villiers motor?
indeed jeremy mcwilliams raced a qub 250 in gp's for a couple of seasons. iirc qub (queens university belfast) were front runners in two stroke development, i even saw pictures of a ford fiesta fitted with a qub developed 2 stroke that was claimed to be more powerful than the fiesta petrol motor and more frugal than the diesel.
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i started by googling 'bike manufacturers lancashire' and 'bike manufacturers preston' and just scrolled through them till i found the flickr link. im told there was another bike maker in town but ive not got the name yet.
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Not quite Bike builders, but Queen's University, Belfast had an engineering professor who worked on 2-stroke design. Was there a Greeves with a QUB developed Villiers motor?
indeed jeremy mcwilliams raced a qub 250 in gp's for a couple of seasons. iirc qub (queens university belfast) were front runners in two stroke development, i even saw pictures of a ford fiesta fitted with a qub developed 2 stroke that was claimed to be more powerful than the fiesta petrol motor and more frugal than the diesel.
IIRC QUB were also heavily involved with Dr Joe Ehrlich and EMC.