Before the trade had a press of its own, Britain's motor cycle industry was built by tinkerers, chancers, and engineers. Eric W. Walford tells how it began.
Walford's short, well-illustrated survey follows the British motor cycle from its first stuttering experiments to the machine that finally took hold. He traces four distinct eras – the pioneers who bolted engines to pedal cycles, the financial adventurers who saw a fortune in them, the brief reign of the motor tricycle, and the arrival of the motor bicycle proper – drawing on the trade's own memory of the small workshops of Coventry, Birmingham, and beyond.
Written for an industry looking back at its own beginnings, Early Days in the British Motor Cycle Industry is a compact and affectionate record of a period that left few written accounts behind it. It is a useful starting point for collectors and restorers, and for anyone curious about how two wheels and a small engine became a British institution.
This edition features:
- A concise account of how the British motor cycle industry took shape in the years before it had a press of its own
- Four chapters covering the pioneers, the financial adventurers, the motor tricycle, and the motor bicycle
- Illustrated throughout with the machines, makers, and workshops of the industry's earliest years
- Useful for motor cycle collectors, restorers, and historians of British transport