ABC motorcycles

Last updated

ABC Motors Ltd
IndustryManufacturing and engineering
Founded1919
Defunct1923
FateWound up
HeadquartersLondon
Key people
Ronald Charteris and Granville Bradshaw
ProductsMotorcycles

ABC motorcycles was a British motorcycle manufacturer established in 1914 by Ronald Charteris in London. Several British motorcycle firms started up with the name "ABC", including Sopwith. The All British Engine Company Ltd. of London was founded in 1912 and later changed to ABC Motors Ltd. [1] With chief engineer Granville Bradshaw, Charteris built a range of engines throughout the First World War. From 1913 ABC produced motorcycle engines. [2]

Contents

In 1918, ABC made a motorcycle with a 400 cc flat-twin engine mounted with its cylinders across the frame, several years before BMW adapted the design. Bradshaw challenged BMW's use of his patented design in 1926. [3] In 1919 ABC also produced the Scootamota – an early motor scooter. The company stopped producing motorcycles after 1923 because of competition from cheaper manufacturers. [1]

Development

Preference Share of the A.B.C. Motors (1920) Ltd., issued 7. June 1920 ABC Motors 1920.jpg
Preference Share of the A.B.C. Motors (1920) Ltd., issued 7. June 1920

ABC had always had a close association with the Sopwith aircraft company. They were both at Brooklands and in 1912 a Sopwith with an ABC engine flown by Harry Hawker had won the Michelin Endurance Prize. [4] In December 1918 it was announced [5] that ABC had transferred the rights for manufacturing and selling motor cycles to Sopwith Aviation Co Ltd, allowing Granville Bradshaw of ABC Motors to focus on design. In 1919 they jointly exhibited the Sopwith 390 cc horizontally opposed twin-cylinder overhead valve (OHV) machine at the annual Motor Cycle show. It aroused a lot of interest with innovative front and rear leaf springs and "expanding" brakes, wet sump lubrication, and a four-speed gearbox. It was also one of the first motorcycles with a duplex cradle frame. One thing it did not have, however, was any form of starting mechanism; the rider had to "paddle" or bump start to get the engine going. [1] The ABC 400 was made under licence by the Sopwith Aviation & Engineering Co in Kingston-upon-Thames and 2,200 were produced. Later models had improved valve gear, speedometers, and electric lighting. Sidecar outfits were also produced as optional extras.

In 1920 a new company, ABC Motors (1920) Ltd was formed to make aircraft engines, light cars, and motorcycles, all with a flat-twin engine designed by Bradshaw. [6]

Models

ABCFIREFLY 250cc

Only one prototype was made in 1916, the original engine and gearbox where found and used to make an exact copy. See here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaFHanJ4FD0

ABC 400 cc

1920 ABC 400 cc ABC 3 pk (400 cc) 1920.jpg
1920 ABC 400 cc

Produced between 1919 and 1925, the ABC 400 had a 398 cc horizontally opposed twin-cylinder overhead-valve four-stroke engine, four-speed gearbox with an H-gate and was fitted with an advanced (for the time) carburettor from Claudel-Hobson to give a top speed of 70 mph (110 km/h).

ABC 500 cc

French manufacturer Gnome & Rhone produced an improved 493 cc version of this machine under licence until 1925. [3] Between 1920 and 1924 they produced over 3,000 of the 'French' ABC but relatively few have survived.

ABC Skootamota

The ABC Skootamota ABC Scootamota 2.jpg
The ABC Skootamota

The Bradshaw-designed Skootamota was an early scooter built by Gilbert Campling Ltd. [7] and sold as the ABC Skootamota. [8]

The Skootamota handled well and was very stable despite small wheels. The single-cylinder 123 cc engine was located above the rear wheel and drove it by chain. [7] Early Skootamotas had exhaust over intake (EOI) engines but later versions had OHV engines. [7] [8] The Skootamota had external contracting band brakes on both wheels. [9] The saddle and spacious footboard provided rider comfort. The Skootamota, quickly imitated by competitors, had a top speed of just 15 mph (24 km/h). It ceased production in 1922.

Demise

The shift from producing aircraft to making motorcycles was more difficult than ABC expected, and their costs – and prices – were higher than the new competitors emerging after 1920. [1] They stopped producing motorcycles after 1923, although some production continued in Germany until 1925. Another company called ABC, unconnected to Charteris or Bradshaw, produced 247 cc and 269 cc motorcycles with Villiers engines in Birmingham between 1922 and 1924. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Velocette</span> English motorcycle manufacturer, 1904–1971

Velocette is a line of motorcycles made by Veloce Ltd, in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. One of several motorcycle manufacturers in Birmingham, Velocette was a small, family-owned firm, selling almost as many hand-built motorcycles during its lifetime, as the mass-produced machines of the giant BSA and Norton concerns. Renowned for the quality of its products, the company was "always in the picture" in international motorcycle racing from the mid-1920s until the 1950s, culminating in two World Championship titles and its legendary and still-unbeaten 24 hours at over 100 mph (161 km/h) record. Veloce, while small, was a great technical innovator and many of its patented designs are commonplace on motorcycles today, including the positive-stop foot shift and swinging arm rear suspension with hydraulic dampers. The business suffered a gradual commercial decline during the late 1960s, eventually closing in February 1971.

ABC Motors Limited of Hersham, Surrey, England was a manufacturer of cars, aircraft, motor scooters, and engines for road and air. Established by Ronald Charteris in Hersham, Surrey in 1912, its chief designer was the young and talented Granville Bradshaw. It was absorbed into Vickers in 1951 and the factory finally closed in the 1970s. Last occupied by Ian Allan Publishing as Hersham's Riverdene Industrial Estate, the factory was demolished around 2017-2018 and redeveloped as a Lidl supermarket with flats above.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brough Motorcycles</span>

Brough Motorcycles were made by William E. Brough in Nottingham, England, from 1902 to 1926, after some earlier experimentation with motorised tricycles. The Brough Superior company was a separate company created by his son, George Brough.

The Calthorpe Motor Company based in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, England made a range of cars, motorcycles and bicycles from 1904 to 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Hudson (company)</span>

The New Hudson Cycle Co. was originally started in 1890 by George Patterson, and manufactured 'safety' bicycles in Birmingham. In 1903 they produced their first motorcycle, but times became tough for Patterson after one of his sons died in WW1 and the other lost a leg. The family sold the factory to HJ Bructon after WW1, and in 1920 the company was reformed as New Hudson Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IOE engine</span> Type of combustion engines

The intake/inlet over exhaust, or "IOE" engine, known in the US as F-head, is a four-stroke internal combustion engine whose valvetrain comprises OHV inlet valves within the cylinder head and exhaust side-valves within the engine block.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cotton (motorcycle)</span> Former British motorcycle manufacturer

The Cotton Motor Company, was a British motorcycle manufacturer of 11a Bristol Road, Gloucester, and was founded by Frank Willoughby Cotton in 1918. F.W. presided over the company until his retirement in 1953. The company was reconstituted as E. Cotton (Motorcycles) Ltd, and traded until 1980. The marque was later resurrected in the late 1990s by a business which manufactured replicas of earlier machines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unit construction</span>

Unit construction is the design of larger motorcycles where the engine and gearbox components share a single casing. This sometimes includes the design of automobile engines and was often loosely applied to motorcycles with rather different internal layouts such as the flat twin BMW models.

The Janoir was a French motorcycle manufactured from 1919 until 1922 in Saint-Ouen. The few that were made were 965 cc flat twins.

Rex, Rex Motorcycles, Rex-Acme, was a car and motorcycle company which began in Birmingham, England in 1900. Rex soon merged with a Coventry maker of bicycles and cars named Allard and then later in 1922 the company merged with Coventry's 'Acme' motorcycle company forming 'Rex Acme'. The company existed until 1933, and, in its heyday, was considered one of the greatest names in the British motorcycle industry.

Martinsyde was a British aircraft and motorcycle manufacturer between 1908 and 1922, when it was forced into liquidation by a factory fire.

Blackburne was a trade name of Burney and Blackburne Limited a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1913 to 1922 at Tongham near Farnham, Surrey. They were also a major supplier of engines to other motor cycle and light car makers and continued to make these until 1937. Burney and Blackburne also made small aircraft engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria (motorcycle)</span>

Victoria was a bicycle manufacturer in Nürnberg, Germany that made motorcycles from about 1901 until 1966. It should not be confused with a lesser-known, unrelated Victoria Motorcycle Company in Glasgow, Scotland that made motorcycles between 1902 and 1928.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humber Motorcycles</span>

Humber Limited was a pioneering British motorcycle manufacturer. Humber produced the first practical motorcycle made in Britain by fitting one of their Humber bicycles with an E. J. Pennington two-horsepower motor in 1896.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Comet</span> Type of motorcycle

The Vincent Comet was designed and built at the Vincent works in Great North Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. It was one of four 499 cc single models. As well as the sports Comet, Vincent produced a TT racing model, the Comet Special and the standard Vincent Meteor which shared many of the same cycle parts.

Granville Eastwood Bradshaw OBE, AFRAeS (1887–1969) was an English engineer and inventor who designed motorcycle, auto, and aero-engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meguro motorcycles</span> Japanese motorcycle brand

Meguro motorcycles were built by Meguro Manufacturing Co motorcycle works (目黒製作所), founded by Nobuji Murata and a high-ranking naval officer, Takaji Suzuki, in 1937. One of the first Japanese motorcycle companies, it became a partner of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, and was eventually absorbed. Named after a district of Tokyo, Meguro had its roots in Murato Iron Works, which was established in 1924. Meguro Seisakusho, which had once developed a copy of a Harley-Davidson V-twin, was established to design and build gearboxes for the nascent Japanese motorcycle industry. Abe Industries, which had once produced its own motorcycle, merged with Meguro in 1931. The brand is being revived by Kawasaki with a new K3 model to be introduced in Japan on February 1, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Motorcycle Manufacturing Company</span> Former American motorcycle manufacturer

The Cleveland Motorcycle Manufacturing Company, sometimes called Cleveland Motorcycle, was a motorcycle manufacturer in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1902 to 1905 and again from 1915 to 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triumph 6/1</span> British motorcycle

The Triumph 6/1 is a motorcycle that was made by Triumph at their Coventry factory from 1934 to 1936. Designed by Val Page, the 6/1 was the first Triumph motorcycle to use a parallel-twin engine. A sidecar-equipped 6/1 won a silver medal in the 1933 International Six Days Trial and went on to win the Maudes Trophy for 1933. The 6/1 was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 600 in two years on the market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BSA motorcycles</span> Former British motorcycle marque

BSA motorcycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA), which was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 De Cet, Mirco (2005). Quentin Daniel (ed.). The Complete Encyclopedia of Classic Motorcycles. Rebo International. ISBN   978-90-366-1497-9.
  2. "ABC Motorcycles" . Retrieved 15 August 2008.
  3. 1 2 "Bradshaw Motorcycle Engines". Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  4. "The ABC Motor Cycle. A New Development", Motor Cycle magazine, 19 December 1918, p541
  5. Full page announcement, Motor Cycle magazine, 26 December 1918
  6. "ABC". Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 Wilson, Hugo (1995). "The A–Z of Motorcycles". The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle . London: Dorling Kindersley. p.  170. ISBN   0-7513-0206-6.
  8. 1 2 Wilson, Hugo (1995). "The Directory of Motorcycles". The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle . London: Dorling Kindersley. p.  212. ISBN   0-7513-0206-6.
  9. Partridge, Michael (1976), "1919 1 hp ABC Skootamota", Motorcycle Pioneers: The Men, the Machines, the Events 1860-1930, David & Charles (Publishers), p. 78, ISBN   0-7153-7-209-2
  10. "ABC". Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008.