Holy Grail!!!

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NickM

Veteran
Hilldodger said:
There's a picture of an English recumbent from 1934 here
http://www.cyclemagic.org.uk/heritage.html
Thanks - hadn't seen that one before :smile:

When the Mochet Velo-Velocar appeared, there was a brief period in which it looked as though recumbents would become mainstream. Several English makers imitated it, including Holdsworth and Freddie Grubb. The one illustrated by Patterson may have been designed by the then technical editor of Cycling and built as a one-off for that magazine's advertising manager.

The brief flowering of the recumbent as a racing machine ended with the notorious UCI ban of 1934. Its acceptance as a touring machine was hampered by unsympathetic, but ill-informed reviews in the cycling press* which suggested that although the machine was fast, the extra exertion it allowed the rider to put into forward motion would lead to rapid exhaustion. Nonsense, of course - you don't have to go fast... The fact that the early machines were very heavy (45lbs for the touring version of the Velocar) can't have helped their cause, though.

*repeated on the "horizontal bicycle" card in the 1939 Player's cigarette card series
 
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Hilldodger

Hilldodger

Guru
Location
sunny Leicester
The Woodward recumbent was very similar to the designs published in Cycling in early 34 and was announced in the very same issue as Freddie Grubb's version.

I keep thinking about building a replica of the Woodward version, but it's a long way down the list of things to do.
 
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Hilldodger

Hilldodger

Guru
Location
sunny Leicester
Maz said:
Whereabouts in Leicester, Hilldodger? I'm out Oadby way.

The recumbent is on Nedham St (not Needham street as on the web site - I must change that) in Highfields.

WA Bates and Co were at St Mary's Mills next to the canal - almost opposite to the footie club.
 

Maz

Guru
Hilldodger said:
The recumbent is on Nedham St (not Needham street as on the web site - I must change that) in Highfields.

WA Bates and Co were at St Mary's Mills next to the canal - almost opposite to the footie club.
Cheers. What website?
And can I possibly have a go on your recumbent?
 

Maz

Guru
Maz said:
Cheers. What website?
And can I possibly have a go on your recumbent?
Hello? That last comment scared him off, didn't it?
 
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