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 2025.
CYCLES
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.
Chater Lea Manufacturing Co. Ltd. This company was founded by WB Chater Lea, a former apprentice at Linley and Biggs, who began as a maker of cycle fittings and components circa 1891 in Clerkenwell in London. By 1896 the business had expanded and Chater Lea Manufacturing Co. was supplying many small cycle builders across the UK. The company also made components for tandems, triplets and machines used for pacing riders on the track and on the road and for early motorised cycles. The machine entered to this Run is a 1901‘ Man over Back’ triplet tandem often referred to as a‘ donkey back’, with the rear rider sitting over the rear wheel to reduce the overall length of the machine.
Dursley Pedersen Cycle Co. Ltd. This distinctive machine was the invention of Mikael Pedersen, who patented it in 1894. It used a woven suspended saddle on a triangulated frame made of thin tubes acting in compression which was very light and strong and was later found to be suitable to be used on a motorcycle made in 1903. Pedersen
64 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run