With the explosion of cycling during the late Victorian and early Edwardian days, leading to huge businesses yielding gargantuan profits, it is not surprising that many entrepreneurs quickly latched onto motorcycling from the outset as another engineering adventure.
Unfortunately, many ‘chancers’ saw the potential for another cash cow.
From the outset of motorcycling – initially viewed as a leisure pursuit rather than a means of reliable transport – in the backyards of major cities across Europe and beyond, cycle shops, redundant farmyard buildings, corners of large cycle factories and countless other premises, there were visionaries creating their first motorcycles.
Read more in June’s edition of TCM
