Leonard Gundle Motor Co
Leonard Gundle Motor Co of Hockley, Birmingham
The firm originally made butchers' bicycles and ice-cream tricycles.
1928 LGC were motorcycles produced by the company from 1928 to 1931, and in 1949.
1928 Motorcycles were added to the list of products when the company built three JAP-engined models. These were of 300cc sv and 346cc ohv, and the latter came in single or twin form. All drove either an Albion or a Burman three-speed gearbox, had a diamond frame and girder forks.
1929 A model fitted with a 247cc Villiers engine was added.
1930-1931 The small range continued, but then the company reverted to the production of bicycles.
1949 After the war, the name returned on tricycle powered by a 197cc Villiers engine with a three-speed gearbox. It had a conventional rear half, but the front had two wheels the same size as the one at the rear, and a seat was fixed between forecar from the early days. A commercial body was also available, but the project progressed no further.
1974 Acquired by Pashley. 'After more than 40 years of keeping the errand boys of the country on the move, Mr. Leonard Gundle, the Birmingham carrier cycle manufacturer, is retiring. At 73, he has decided to sell out to W. R. Pashley, of Stratford-upon-Avon, the only other British company specialising in carrier bicycles and tricycles. He said yesterday: "I am too old and I have no son to carry on the business." The Leonard Gundle Motor Company employed 30 workers in its heyday, when the Gundle name was emblazoned on most of carrier bikes pedalled round Britain's streets. Today it employs half-a-dozen, and they will finish when work is transferred to Stratford. "I began the business in '1926 making motor-cycles, but we moved over to carrier bikes in 1930," he said. The Gundle name will live on. Mr. R. C. L. Pashley, head of the Stratford firm, said his company would continue production of one of the Gundle carrier cycle lines. "We are turning out 600 cycles a month and hope to Increases this by 50 per cent next year." he said.'[1] '
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Birmingham Daily Post - Tuesday 03 December 1974
- The British Motorcycle Directory - Over 1,100 Marques from 1888 - by Roy Bacon and Ken Hallworth. Pub: The Crowood Press 2004 ISBN 1 86126 674 X
- The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle by Peter Henshaw. Published 2007. ISBN 978 1 8401 3967 9