Coventry's Cycle Industry

Have been looking at this link by Dutchman. I really enjoyed it, people must have seen it, but just in case not, here it is.

Interesting Dougie.

Just come across this article about the cycle industry, plus a little local history - Coventry cycle companies.

The first cycle's wheels were steel bands, and across Coventry's cobbles almost unbearable to ride. It wasn't until a man from Dublin called Dunlop invented the rubber tyre etc around 1900 that they became bearable to ride.

The mural dedicated to James Starley at Pool Meadow bus station, done by Angry Dan.

Just imagine this rattling down St Agnes' Lane!

In the 1950's there was a man who lived in our road who used to ride a pennyfarthing up and down the road . He and his son used it in the Godiva procession, his son was John Goldby and all of us youngsters would come out to watch.

Lovely to see that John Goldby has made it on to HCF. He was my form teacher at Freddie Birds, a very funny man.

'lo mick, Nice to know what happenened to John Goldby. When we lived in Prince of Wales Road I was quite friendly with him but never got to ride the pennyfarthing. Didn't know he took to teaching. If I remember right he went to Wheatley Street School. Good memories of him.

Hi argon. I'm assuming it's the same John Goldby, as there can't be many people of that name that rode pennyfarthings in the Coventry Carnival. He was quite a big, thick set man as I remember.

mickw. It could well be, he was tall, random images bubble up from my poor memory and I now think that he and his dad had two bicycles and I think that they both rode them in the carnivals. I recall his dad as a short man whilst John was a bit of a bean pole.

The photo shows cycles which, for 1902, are remarkable. Were they solid rubber or pneumatic? J Dunlop had only recently arrived in town.

Dunlop pneumatic tyres are being advertised in the Cycle Magazine as early as 1891

Yes, you can tell from the "grain" on that photo that probably no more detail would be available at higher scanning resolutions. However, the "safety" bicycle was well established by that time, and the bikes in the photo appear to be of the "modern" design (Sturmey-Archer hub gears also became available in 1902), so with the pneumatic tyre having been around for well over a decade, I would say that these bikes almost certainly have them, and not solid tyres.

Kaga, I don't know how quickly inflatable tyres were phased in, rapidly or very slowly? I had a solid tyre bike aged around 8, and solid tyres are still available even today, heavier but impossible to get a puncture.