VETERAN CYCLE & MOTORCYCLE GUIDE
In recent years , we ’ ve invited intrepid owners of veteran cycles and motorcycles to take part in the Run . Here are the marques you ’ re likely to see in 2024 .
Selection of Cycles finishing the 2023 Run .
Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd ( BSA ) Although the Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd ( BSA ) began supplying munitions for government contracts from 1861 , it turned to making bicycles , albeit briefly , during the mid-1880s . However , from 1892 it reentered the cycle trade , specialising in producing precision parts for cycles which were sold to the retail and wholesale bicycle makers . The quality and reputation of its components were second to none and they sold well in the domestic and overseas markets . Surviving examples of BSA fittings machines can be identified from the distinctive components often marked with the trademark ‘ piled rifles ’ but are difficult to attribute to its builder unless the original transfers or head badge survive . The example in the Run was made in 1903 and has a rear Bowden cableoperated brake which was also made in Birmingham in Tyseley , not very far from Small Heath where BSA components were made .
Columbia Manufactured by The Pope Manufacturing Co , the founder being Albert Pope who originally imported Singer bicycles from the UK , but in 1878 contracted the Weed Sewing Machine Co of Hartford , Connecticut to make machines he could market himself . Columbia bicycles were well made , and the Pope Manufacturing Co became the largest bicycle manufacturer in the USA by the 1890s . The company built a full range of machines , beginning with high wheel machines and tricycles in the 1870s and 1880s and then introduced their safety bicycles . The machine entered is a nice example of a solid-tyred bicycle from 1892 , by which time the pneumatic tyre was beginning to get a foothold in the tyre market .
Coventry Cycle Company Ltd Although claiming to trace its entry into cycle production back to 1871 , the Coventry Imperial Bicycle
64 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run