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The Norton Motorcycle Company is a brand of motorcycles headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands,, England. For some years around 1990, the rights to use the name on motorcycles was owned by North American financiers.
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.
Brough Superior motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road in Nottingham, England, from 1919 to 1940. The motorcycles were dubbed the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" by H. D. Teague of The Motor Cycle newspaper. Approximately 3048 motorcycles were made in the 21 years of production; around a third of that production still exists. T. E. Lawrence owned eight of these motorcycles and died from injuries sustained when he crashed number seven; the eighth was on order. Moving forward to 2008, vintage motorcycle enthusiast Mark Upham acquired the rights to the Brough Superior name. In 2013 he met motorcycle designer Thierry Henriette and asked him to design a new Brough Superior motorcycle. Three months later a prototype of a new SS100 was shown in Milan.
Vincent Motorcycles was a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1928 to 1955. The business was established by Philip Vincent who bought an existing manufacturing name HRD, initially renaming it as Vincent HRD, producing his own motorcycles as HRD did previously with engines purchased as complete assemblies from other companies. From 1934, two new engines were developed as single cylinder in 500 cc and v-twin 1,000 cc capacities. Production grew from 1936, with the most-famous models being developed from the original designs after the War period in the late 1940s.
J. A. Prestwich Industries, was a British engineering equipment manufacturing company named after founder John Alfred Prestwich, which was formed in 1951 by the amalgamation of J. A. Prestwich and Company Limited and Pencils Ltd.
Matchless is one of the oldest marques of British motorcycles, manufactured in Plumstead, London, between 1899 and 1966. A wide range of models were produced under the Matchless name, ranging from small two-strokes to 750 cc four-stroke twins. Matchless had a long history of racing success; a Matchless ridden by Charlie Collier won the first single-cylinder race in the first Isle of Man TT in 1907.
The Honda CB450 is a standard motorcycle made by Honda from 1965 to 1974 with a 444 cc (27.1 cu in) 180° DOHC straight-twin engine. Producing 45 bhp, it was Honda's first "big" motorcycle, though it did not succeed in its goal of competing directly against the larger Triumphs, Nortons, and Harley-Davidsons in the North American market at the time. As a result, Honda tried again, leading to the development of the four cylinder Honda CB750 that marked a turning point for Honda and beginning of the "superbike" era of motorcycles.
HRD Motors Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturer in the 1920s. It was founded by Howard Raymond Davies. He had worked in motorcycling, and had raced with some success in the mid-twenties, but often not finishing due to unreliability. This inspired him to build a reliable performance motorcycle, using the advertising slogan "Built by a rider". Others also aimed at a similar market, like George Brough of Brough Superior motorcycles.
Motorcycle Grasstrack is a form of track racing which typically, in its current form, takes place on a flat track consisting of two straights and two bends usually constructed in a field. It is one of the oldest types of motorcycle sports in the UK with the first meetings having taken place in the 1920s.
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.
Robert Leslie Graham was a British motorcycle road racer who competed in the 1930s and 1940s. He won the inaugural Grand Prix motorcycle racing 500 cc World Championship in 1949.
Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle, motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co. of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pugh and his two sons Charles Vernon and John, and Rudge Cycle Co. of Coventry.
The motorcycle sport of racing includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and land speed record trials.
Peter Williams was a British former professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle road racing from 1966 to 1973. He also competed at many levels on home short-circuit races. He raced many times on the Isle of Man TT course from 1966 to 1973. His father was Jack Williams who ran the Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) race department. Williams trained in mechanical engineering and introduced via racing alloy wheels, an innovation which is commonplace on today's road bikes, and was also an early pioneer of solo-motorcycle disc brakes.
Chris Vincent was a British motorcycle sidecar road racer who was very successful in short-circuit (tarmac) racing in the 1960s and early 1970s. He entered Grands Prix using BSA, BMW and URS engines. He also rode solo motorcycles, particularly in the smaller race classes and production-machine categories.
The featherbed frame was a motorcycle frame invented by the McCandless brothers and offered to the British Norton motorcycle company to improve the performance of their racing motorcycles in 1950. It was considered revolutionary at the time, and the best handling frame that a racer could have. Later adopted for Norton production motorcycles, it was also widely used by builders of custom hybrids such as the Triton, becoming legendary and remaining influential to this day.
The Dunstall Norton was a Norton motorcycle made by Paul Dunstall, a specialist tuner of the 1960s and early 1970s twins originally using some parts from Norton's Domiracer project when the Birmingham factory was closed in 1963. In 1966 Dunstall Motorcycles became a motorcycle manufacturer in its own right so that Dunstalls could compete in production races, and set a number of world records before sales of the Dunstall Nortons declined in the 1970s consistent with the demise of the British motor cycle industry and a corresponding rise in Japanese imports.
The Healey 1000/4 is a British motorcycle made by the Healey brothers between 1971 and 1977. Fitted with an improved Ariel Square Four 1000 cc engine, the Healey was cheaper than a Honda Gold Wing, but only 28 Healey motorcycles were ever built.
Colin Jordan Seeley was a British motorcycle retailer who later became a motorcycle sidecar racer, motorcycle designer, constructor and retailer of accessories. In 1992 he was involved in running the Norton Rotary race team.
George Brown was a motorcycle racer, known as " the father of British sprinting". Brown raced a variety of bikes but is most closely associated with the Vincent brand. For a time he worked at Vincent, where he headed up their Experimental department and raced the factory-backed single and V-twin bikes. Brown left Vincent to establish his own motorcycle shop and as a sideline built high-performance sprint bikes that he rode to several national and international records.
References
- 1 2 3 "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ↑ Bamford,R & Shailes,G (2007). “The Story of Oxford Speedway”. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0
- ↑ "Rider averages 1929 to 2009" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
- ↑ "Alf Hagon". trakbytes.co.uk. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- ↑ Motor Cycle, 9 September 1965, p.383. 2nd International Dragfest advert, Blackbushe 25/26 September, RAF Woodvale, 3 October, 1965. Accessed 1 April 2017
- ↑ Motor Cycle, 23 September 1965, pp.452-453. Americans get ready;Statesiders get going. "...Anglo-American practice session at Graveley, Cambs, last Saturday. A year ago the British Dragfest contingent managed to put it across the two visiting East Coast Americans, Don Hyland and Bill Wood ". Accessed 1 April 2017
- ↑ Motor Cycle, 27 August 1964, pp.458-459. One Gear Wonder Accessed 9 April 2017
- ↑ 'Sprinting', Motor Cycle Racing, Peter Carrick, 1970, Hamlyn, p.121. Accessed 30 March 2017
- ↑ Shock absorbers for any bike. Classic and Motorcycle Mechanics, September 1992, pp.34-35. Accessed 28 April 2020