Made in the Midlands — Motorcycle Heritage

Some motorcycle companies are remembered for a single machine. Ariel left us several: the Square Four, Red Hunter, military W/NG, Leader and Arrow all belong to very different chapters of British motorcycling.

Every motorcycle factory likes to celebrate the moment a finished machine rolls through its doors. The paint shines, the badge is fitted and another British motorcycle is ready for the road. Yet it cannot travel a yard without something made elsewhere.

Ask riders to name the great British motorcycle manufacturers and the familiar badges arrive quickly: BSA, Triumph, Norton, Royal Enfield and perhaps Matchless or Ariel.

Villiers may take longer.

Yet for decades, countless motorcycles existed because Villiers supplied the component their manufacturers could not afford to design and build themselves—the engine.

The dates beneath it—1880 to 1938—cover almost six decades of industrial change. During that period the people connected with Rudge made tricycles, bicycles, motorcycles, patent spoked wheels and ammunition. The list reads like a miniature history of the Midlands: specialist skills moving from one product to another as technology, markets and national needs changed.

Why were so many British motorcycles made in Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and the towns surrounding them?

It is tempting to answer with a list of famous badges. BSA and Norton belonged to Birmingham; Triumph and Rudge to Coventry; AJS and Sunbeam to Wolverhampton; Royal Enfield to Redditch. Ariel, Velocette, Clyno, Francis-Barnett and Villiers add still more names to a remarkably crowded map.