A-Z of British motorcycles
From the moped made by the largest bicycle company in the world to Great Britain’s forgotten superbike, the letter H is, like all its colleagues, throwing up surprises and interesting facts. And despite starting this letter last month, we’re still not at the end of H! HAZLEWOOD
In 1876 the Hazlewood Cycle Company was established by James Hazlewood in West Orchard, Coventry, for the purpose of making the newfangled bicycle. This it did with quite some success and, in 1888, it was amalgamated with another local company to form Warman and Hazlewood. In 1895 John Warman emigrated to America and the business was renamed Hazlewoods Ltd. In 1905 the company turned its attentions to making sidecars but it was another six years before it ventured into producing complete motorcycles. The first models, launched in 1911, were 2¾hp JAP-powered machines which had increased to 3½hp and 5hp by 1913. In mid-1914 the design was updated with the addition of a three-speed ‘countershaft’ gearbox complete with integral kickstart. This involved an extra rear downtube and, as well as selling the new model, Hazlewoods also offered the option to retrofit this to older machines. Opinions vary as to whether motorcycle p‘roduction continued during the First World War. As much of Hazlewoods’ output was exported to the Colonies, particularly South Africa, it is possible, but it is far more likely that the factory was turned over to the manufacture of munitions and the like.
It re-emerged after the war, offering a 654cc JAP V-twin and then a 976cc version, but, like so many others, production had ceased by 1924.
There was an attempt to resurrect the company under the name of the New Hazlewood Cycle Company Ltd in 1928 but that failed almost immediately.
HB
Although most people will not have heard of HB, it survived for a number of years, which is more than can be said for many of its contemporaries who came and went in the twinkling of an eye.
HB was an acronym of Hill Brothers and the three Hill siblings – Walter, Thomas and Roland – set up business in Walsall Street, Wolverhampton. The brothers’ first offering was a 1¼hp engine which may have been intended as a bicycle attachment; opinions vary on whether this appeared in 1910 or 1914 but what is known is that the first HB motorcycle wasn’t launched until 1919 with the company seemingly in mothballs for the intervening years. This may have been because production was turned over to war projects or, more likely, that the Hill brothers were serving their country in the armed forces in the First World War.
However, in 1919, HB unveiled a machine using a 348cc Blackburne single and a twospeed Burman gearbox. The Motor Cycle of September 4, 1919 wrote: ‘During a visit to the works we had a short trial run on the machine, which was found to be very handy in traffic and remarkably quiet, and at the same time speedy on the level.’ This machine sold for £73 10s and the potential customer would have been advised to buy one there and then. By 1921, just two years later and thanks to galloping inflation, the price had increased to a whopping £99 15s.
That didn’t deter HB from adding a 499cc three-speed version to its range in 1921 and then, in the following year, 550cc and 248cc models. In 1922, Roland Hill rode one of the 348cc HBs in the Isle of Man TT and, during practice, achieved an average speed of 50mph on the 27-mile course. Given the fine showing of the HB, he was hopeful of a win, but a change of tyres the day before the race scuppered his chances. The tyres failed and the following year so did HB.
HCL
HCL was a short-lived enterprise by the rather wonderfully named Hezekiah Close; the ‘HC’ standing for his initials and the ‘L’ for his home town of Leigh, Lancashire, where, at 52 Railway Road, he set up business in 1922. He was already a keen motorcyclist who liked nothing better than packing his family into his sidecar and going for a day out. With the 269cc Villiers two-stroke engine readily available, he designed his motorcycle around that motor, although he cleverly ensured that the frame would also accommodate a JAP 2¾hp 350cc should that be the customer’s preference.
The fact that Hezekiah was an experienced motorcyclist also showed in other elements of the design. The quickly detachable wheels were admired by the press of the day, while the ease with which the engine could be removed to be stripped down was a decided advantage in these pioneer days. As with many models, a number of proprietary parts were used, including Saxon forks (which were topped with ‘semi-TT’ handlebars although other options were available) and a Burman or Sturmey-Archer gearbox.
While the HCL was very much like other motorcycles of the time, it was well made – although, according to Hezekiah’s grandson, Ian Johnson, only six were ever produced.
However, in late 1922 the Deva Bakery of Leigh went out of business, owing Hezekiah £800. It seems likely that most of the output of six machines may have been ordered by the Deva Bakery in Leigh, presumably to deliver its wares (otherwise £800 is an awful lot of bread rolls and Eccles cakes!). That debt also put HCL out of business.
Although it took him years, Hezekiah Close paid off all the creditors to whom HCL owed money but he didn’t return to the motorcycle industry. Instead, he became a well-regarded theatrical musician, specialising in the drums, although he also played the xylophone. He ended his career as the landlord of the Spring View Inn in Leigh which he ran until his death in 1950.
The pub is now gone but 52 Railway Road still exists and is still a shop selling electrical goods and also, no doubt to the late Mr Close’s pleasure, theatre PA equipment.
HEALEY
There has been Hesketh and there has been the Ariel Ace, but one British superbike that got away was the Healey.
George and Tim Healey had raced Ariel Square Fours in the 1960s, achieving some success with their supercharged sprinter. When Ariel ceased production of the Square Four, the brothers started stockpiling parts, at first simply to ensure that they had enough to continue their racing hobby. But even that stockpile wouldn’t last forever and, with other Square Four owners in need of parts, they began manufacturing their own components and opened their own business, Ariel Sq4 Specialists, in 1967. But the brothers felt that the Square Four’s story was far from over and so much more could be done with the bike. That would lead in due course to their decision to make their own updated Squariel; the Healey.
They turned to Roger Slater who had obtained the UK manufacturing rights to Fritz Egli’s spine-type frame and was making frames for Vincent. Between them, they adapted that design as an oil-in-frame chassis for their own machine; the prototype frames were built by Slater and then production versions fabricated at the Healeys’ factory in Redditch (the entire staff of which was just four people, including the two brothers). They used swinging arm suspension rather than the Anstey Link plunger suspension common to the Ariel Square Fours. A Mk II Square Four engine was suspended from the frame, Metal Profile forks were fitted up front and wire wheels with Italian hubs fore and aft. Roger Slater also designed the petrol tank although a modified and more elegant version eventually made its way on to the Healey.
The first Healey 1000/4 was shown at the Earls Court Motorcycle Show in 1971 and generated much interest. The brothers made improvements to the lubrication of the engine, adding an oil cooler, an upgraded oil pump and a large capacity oil filter. Power was increased from 45 to 52bhp through the use of a special camshaft and a 7.5:1 compression ratio.
Over the next few years more improvements and modifications were made. Disc front brakes were fitted in 1973 and cast alloy wheels and a rear disc brake followed in
1976. The Healey brochure read: ‘Whether for relaxed commuting, luxury touring or fast sports riding, the Healey 1000/4 covers the entire motorcycling spectrum as only a thoroughbred can. Each motorcycle is hand built by craftsmen with a complete understanding of the machine they designed and the men who ride them, yet all are supported by a full scale spares and servicing system.’
The Healey also had the advantage of being much lighter than many of its contemporaries. It weighed just 355lb (80lb less than the Square Four) and cost less than a Honda Gold Wing. But the problem was it was essentially a bespoke machine and so expensive to produce – and the Honda CB750, soon to become endemic in the UK, was cheaper and quicker… If major concerns like BSA and Triumph were struggling to compete against the onslaught of Japanese imports then the tiny Healey concern had little chance of survival. In
1976 the Redditch factory was closed and Tim went to work for Laverda. Estimates of how many Healeys were actually built vary, depending on who is making the estimate, but, including prototypes, it was probably no more than two dozen and they are consequently now extremely rare.
But the Healey 1000/4 was special. Roy Bacon wrote of it: ‘In its final form it was not too far removed from Turner’s original concept – light, lively and exhilarating to ride.’ It was the motorcycle that the Ariel Square Four might have become had it continued to be produced and developed.
Its looks have stood the test of time and one has to wonder, given different circumstances, what might have been…
HEC POWER CYCLE
Not to be confused with HEC of Somerset (which made a few motorcycles from 1923-1924), the HEC Power Cycle was produced by Hepburn Engineering and lasted an equally short time, although for different reasons. The HEC Power Cycle used an 80cc twostroke engine made by Levis; unlike many other autocycles which utilised a Villiers unit, this was Levis’ own motor which was rather superior to that of Villiers. That led to excellent reviews in the motorcycling press when the Power Cycle was launched in 1939. The Motor Cycle reported in May 1939 that ‘the HEC … provides acceleration well above the average. Response to the throttle was immediate and a speed of 25mph was attained comparatively rapidly. Higher speeds are available if required; indeed, under favourable conditions the speedometer registered 35mph, which is remarkable for an 80cc power unit.’
But it was not a propitious time to be embarking on such a business venture and even less so for Hepburn Engineering. With only a few hundred autocycles sold, its factory was bombed on
May 3, 1940 and that was the end of production. The existing engines were used in the war effort and the stock of autocycles sold off after the war. Hepburn Engineering took over the Levis facility at Stechford, Birmingham, and continued to make the little engines for powering generators and air compressors for a few more years, but no more Power Cycles were made.
HENLEY
Henley was another product of the burgeoning Birmingham motorcycle industry, starting life in Spring Hill in 1920. Its first model was powered by a 269cc Villiers two-stroke with the choice of either single or two-speed via a Sturmey-Archer gearbox. The next year two JAP-engined machines – one a 293cc, the other a 677cc – would join the range. However, by 1922 Henley was concentrating on a single model with a 348cc side-valve Blackburne engine. In most cases, companies winnowed their ranges down to a single model in times of trouble, but Henley actually seems to have been relatively successful and was, perhaps wisely, choosing not to spread itself too thinly. A sign of its prosperity was that, in 1922, it moved to larger premises in Doe Street where it then produced machines with 249cc, 348cc overhead-valve and 545cc side-valve Blackburne engines as well as having some success in the Isle of Man TT.
In 1926 the company was sold to Arthur Greenwood and John Crump. It was then, presumably, a going concern. The two new owners changed the name to New Henley, moved the firm to Oldham and also dropped the Blackburnes, using only JAP engines from then on. Greenwood dropped out of the business in 1930 but John Crump carried on for another year, adding three Villiers lightweights to the New Henley range. But, by 1931, he was out of money and that was the end of his venture into motorcycle manufacture.
He worked for a number of companies thereafter, including Rolls-Royce, the Bristol Aeroplane Company and was works manager of United Wire Works when he died in 1950 aged 52.
HERCULES
The name Hercules is more readily associated with the German company that manufactured motorcycles for more than 90 years and produced the world’s first production rotary-engined model. But Birmingham also had a Hercules – this time the Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Ltd – and its lifespan was (at least on paper) almost as long as that of its Teutonic counterpart. Hercules was founded in 1910 by Harry and Edmund Crane as a bicycle firm with premises in Coventry Street. This wasn’t without event. The Crane brothers’ father had made bicycles as the Petros Cycle Company but was declared bankrupt in 1906. So the family came up with a plan in which new cycles were bought in Mrs Crane’s name and then sold to Harry and Edmund (Ted) who sold them at auctions around the country. It was very successful until the law caught up with them and declared their business activities illegal; all of the family were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Birmingham Assizes in 1911.
But they escaped jail on an appeal and the Hercules venture soon became quite successful. The company moved to a larger workshop in Conybere Street where, in 1912, it started making motorcycles. In common with many machines of the time, a variety of engines were used, including MMC, Minerva and White and Poppe, with Precision and JAP engines joining the range in 1914. In addition, Hercules was manufacturing 10,000 bicycles a year, having increased its output by ninefold in just four years. During the First World War, Hercules turned its attentions and machines to making armament but it returned to bicycle manufacture in 1921 (it seems that it did not, at this point, resume making motorised machines), turning out some 20,000 cycles that year. It moved to a factory in Aston which was named Britannia Works. If the company’s output of 20,000 bicycles in 1921 was impressive, it was nothing compared to 1927 when a quarter of a million cycles were wheeled out of Britannia Works. Six years later, under the eye of special guest Sir Malcolm Campbell, the three-millionth bicycle rolled off the production line.
And that latter feature was key to the success of Hercules. Britannia Works and a second factory, Manor Mills, were run using mass production (the Daily Herald described Edmund Crane as ‘the Henry Ford of the bicycle industry’) with virtually everything produced in-house enabling more than a thousand bicycles to be produced every day. By 1937 Britannia Works, now sprawling over 13 acres, was the biggest cycle factory in the world and Hercules the largest cycle company, while Ted was now Sir Edmund Crane, having been knighted in 1935 for his services to British industry.
In 1946 Hercules was sold to Tube Investments and in 1955 that company launched the Grey Wolf, a moped with a 49cc JAP engine. The name almost immediately changed to the Hercu-motor and it was advertised with the selling point that it was all-British. Unfortunately, when Villiers stopped supplying JAP engines in 1958 that was the end of the Her-cu-motor.
However, in 1960, a new moped was unveiled. It was a simple model with a 49cc French Lavalette engine and was called the Corvette. (One wonders what Chevrolet, whose Corvette car was already established, had to say about that.) It was not a success. A year later production came to an end and now only seven Hercules Corvettes are known to exist. Incorporated into Raleigh, the original Hercules company was not dissolved until the end of 2003.