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 2026.
CYCLES
Centaur The Centaur Bicycle Company was founded by Thomas Townsend in Coventry but was left in the capable hands of Edmund Mushing and George Gilbert who managed the company from 1876. They manufactured bicycles and tricycles through that period, of which a 56” Ordinary bicycle from 1886 features on this year’ s Run.
Coventry Machinists This company was the recognised pioneer of bicycle manufacture in the UK, beginning production in late 1868 when it diversified from its main business activity of making sewing machines towards producing twowheeled velocipedes for what was then a growing market in France and increasingly the UK. James Starley, a co-founder of the business, is considered the father of the UK cycle trade. Although in 1871 Starley left the company to form Starley Brothers, the Coventry Machinists Company remained at the forefront of the industry and developed the design of the velocipedes to become more practical machines, in line with the high wheel design of the Ordinary bicycle which grew in popularity during the 1870s to the mid-1880s. Being a major producer, quite a number of their machines have survived and two of these are represented today by an 1883 54” Ordinary and an example of a c1891 solid-tyred Safety bicycle.
Dursley Pedersen This distinctive machine was the invention of Mikael Pedersen, which he patented 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 also found to be suitable to be used on a motorcycle made in 1903. Pedersen traded as the Pedersen Cycle Frame Co. Ltd. and other manufacturers such as Humber and Co. Ltd. made them under licence. With financial assistance from RA Lister and Co. Ltd. of Dursley in Gloucestershire, the Dursley-Pedersen Cycle Co. Ltd. was formed in 1899. Although only about 8,000 bicycles were made
66 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run