Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

I was doing some searching this morning on various local brands and about the only comprehensive list out there is the one on the Canberra Bicycle Museum website, which may not be around much longer and is definitely not complete anyway. So i'm going to have a crack at getting a list up here, separated by state to make it a bit more manageable. If there are any mistakes or omissions please feel free to chip in. .

Ok Queensland first.

Beretto- made by Brett Richardson in Albion

Hoffy, also sold under the maker's name Eric Hendren (Hoffy Cycles was established in 1928)- Sandgate

Rocket- made by Jack Pesch in Normanby

Joco and Frezoni- made by Joe Cosgrove in Brisbane

Tom Wallace, most often branded as Tom Wallace Special, some were not made by him but were other bikes repainted/rebuilt by him. The store in Lutwyche was established in 1927.

Van Werkhoven- made on the Gold Coast by Andrew Van Werkhoven

SorenSon- made on the Gold Coast

Advance- sold by Advance Cycle Traders in Brisbane (I don't know much about them but I learnt to ride on an Advance kids step through of 60s-70s vintage)

The King- made by Syd King in Brisbane

Llewellyn- made by Darrell McCulloch in Brisbane and most are painted by Joe Cosgrove

Guthries Bicycles- This company was located at Stafford during the seventies, and sold bikes under the Guthrie name, as well as Local and Ashby. I know Ashby and Local go back further than that (Ashby to around 1930) but don't know if they were separate businesses that were bought out by Guthries. Sometime in the late 70s the business was sold and then traded as Cycles Australia (they were distributors for Peugeot bikes at some stage) and the Guthrie name was replaced by Madison.

Kangaroo- apparently made by a Tom Sheppard in the 30s?

There is a transcript online of an interview with Vic Loetzsch who owned Silver King Cyclery in Ipswich, he states that he sold Bannit Cycles (along with Malvern Star and Guthrie bikes) and that they made bicycles themselves at one stage, but doesn't mention what name they were sold under. He also mentions Golebys and Bobby Dowse as the othe cycle dealers in Ipswich.
EDIT: added link to interview http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/documents ... istory.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎


As for the rest of the state, I haven't been able to find any information on local builders but I would have to assume there would have been some, especially in northern queensland due to the tyranny of distance.

Moreton Star - Ipswich
Bon Ton - Ipswich??
Cobra - Toowoomba
The Burnett - Bundaberg
The Bridge or Bridge Bicycles - were made under the story bridge??

Will add more soon

I dont know how many lists are out there already, there is the Bicycle Museum one , the Ozpushies one.... there are probably others, the sheer number of "brands" could take a lot of space listing them all. Every bike shop in Australia in the 40's to 60's for example had their "own" brand, even if they never actually made anything.

edit.... also this list on here viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20607

Torana68 wrote:I dont know how many lists are out there already, there is the Bicycle Museum one , the Ozpushies one]

Well like I said, the Museum one might not be around much longer, and the ozpushies one (which I didn't know about) is only visible if you join the group.

I had seen the Sydney list, though it didn't show up when I tried searching earlier today. You can never have too much info on older bikes, it's only a matter of time before the people with first hand knowledge aren't around anymore.

ldrcycles wrote:

Torana68 wrote:I dont know how many lists are out there already, there is the Bicycle Museum one , the Ozpushies one]

Well like I said, the Museum one might not be around much longer, and the ozpushies one (which I didn't know about) is only visible if you join the group.

I had seen the Sydney list, though it didn't show up when I tried searching earlier today. You can never have too much info on older bikes, it's only a matter of time before the people with first hand knowledge aren't around anymore.

I agree, too much of our cycling history is lost forever already.

Better to try and record some of it now while there are still people around with memories or connections to the cycling past.

Once it's gone, you'll never have the chance to get it back.

Look at a major brand like Malvern Star as an example, all it's records were lost and all that's left is a few people trying to piece together it's past through serial numbers provided by cycling enthusiasts.

Keep up the good work!

Alami (spelling?) I think were on Orange Grove road at Salisbury which is on the south side of Brisbane.
Tony

not saying dont, saying be aware of the size of the job at hand. Specalising in something like maybe NSW bikes (or Vic etc) makes it a lot easier to suceed. If a few keen people in each state had a go it would be awesome.
Roger

There is undoubtedly value in recording this information. As Torana68 has said the task is challenging to say the least...

There are already people all over the country with partial lists. In my limited experience many of them are dedicated retirees with great powers of memory but little print or internet know how. The chances of these lists being consolidated and published in any form are low.

The 'net provides some useful and cheap tools for creating and publishing data. A forum, while free, is a profoundly inappropriate place to compile a list. The data simply gets polluted by conversation and ultimately it just doesn't make a useful reference.

Wikipedia seems like it would be a great place to collect the information. The great benefit is that submitted information can be refined by other users. The downside is that creating a sortable table would take some energy and the user experience for contributor is a bit of an obstacle. Referencing entries would be difficult in many cases as well.

In helping get the WAHCC website up I used a Google Drive spreadsheet for a register of an important WA manufacturer's frames. The site itself has a submission form that reports to a second spreadsheet. Data is checked and a subset of submitted data is published (personal identifying data is excluded). You can see it in operation here. The number of submissions is low and the checking of data is easy to manage.

Based on the info in this thread I've set up a similar spreadsheet for Australian Bike Makers & Shops here. It has a submission form here. There is no checking of data so it's susceptible to garbage in. Apparently data sorting in google docs spreadsheets is buggy, I can't sort the sheet by shop name at the moment.

I think i'll stick with Queensland in this thread for the time being, as has been mentioned, it is a very big job.

Robert my reason for starting a thread on this is so that it will show up in google searches, it makes the info more easily accessible. The googledoc you linked to is a great layout, very clear and easy to read (certainly more so than posts on a thread) I think the best compromise is having a thread like this with links to that spreadsheet.

On the Queensland list, I've just remembered Technicomps on the Gold Coast. From what I can find, it was set up in 1989 by an engineer called Peter Schwarzel backed by the well known southern frame builder John Abeni (of Abeni and Europa cycles). When Europa went into receivership in late 91 Technicomps was bought out and renamed Genesis.

More info at this link (Peter Schwarzel's website, he is still an engineer) http://carbon-works.com.au/about/interests/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ldrcycles wrote:I had seen the Sydney list, though it didn't show up when I tried searching earlier today. You can never have too much info on older bikes, it's only a matter of time before the people with first hand knowledge aren't around anymore.

The real weakness of my list is that I often couldn't find the brand names the bikes were sold under. Still, my research punctured a few myths and firmed up a lot of dates. Nice to see other people plugging away at it. State-based research seems to work best as there was very little crossover between the different states, with the obvious exceptions of big brands like Malvern Sar, Speedwell, Healing, Repco etc.

Would be a hell of a long list, many bike shops made their own bikes. I remember I used to own an Alan bike made by Alan Cycles somewhere in the burbs of Melbourne (it was written on the bike but I can't remember the details). I also remember the bike shop in Elwood run by a Mr Peacock used to make up custom bikes for people. Where do you draw the line of what is included?

DS

Keith Davis - Pegaus
Seems to have mostly worked w/ Reynolds

Kerry Hopkins - "Kerry Hopkins"
Seems to have mostly worked w/ Reynolds

Both nice light frames

Could easily become a veeery long list At the moment it's a heap of short lists in a variety of formats with variable accessibility. A list on something like Wikipedia is super accessible for example. A handwritten list pinned to a garage wall in outer Mongolia less so.
Drawing a line between what's accepted and what's ignored is a harder question.

The rules for lists in Wikipedia demand that a certain percentage of the list items are referenced (is it 60%?, can't remember, shoulda written it down ) Referencing is work and it will only be done for valuable/popular data. Brain dumps don't make the grade. At the other end of the scale you just accept all offered data, store it in an accessible form and let someone else worry about what's useful. To be blunt grab the data before it's 6 feet under and worry about it's value down the track.

RobertFrith wrote: A handwritten list pinned to a garage wall in outer Mongolia less so.

and I was looking in outer Tibet last month for the list

I'm definitely leaning towards sticking to Queensland for the time being.

Just remembered another one, Hulme Industries of Clontarf, they made BMX bikes branded as H-I Racing.

From what I remember of what a bloke told me a few years ago, they made 6 junior race bikes (he believed there were 3 surviving, including the one I owned until recently), about 10 regular size BMXs and a dozen or so cruisers.

ldrcycles wrote:Ok Queensland first.

Beretto- made by Brett Richardson in Albion

Hoffy, also sold under the maker's name Eric Hendren (Hoffy Cycles was established in 1928)- Sandgate

Rocket- made by Jack Pesch in Normanby

Joco and Frezoni- made by Joe Cosgrove in Brisbane

Tom Wallace, most often branded as Tom Wallace Special, some were not made by him but were other bikes repainted/rebuilt by him. The store in Lutwyche was established in 1927.

Van Werkhoven- made on the Gold Coast by Andrew Van Werkhoven

SorenSon- made on the Gold Coast

Advance- sold by Advance Cycle Traders in Brisbane (I don't know much about them but I learnt to ride on an Advance kids step through of 60s-70s vintage)

The King- made by Syd King in Brisbane

Llewellyn- made by Darrell McCulloch in Brisbane and most are painted by Joe Cosgrove

Guthries Bicycles- This company was located at Stafford during the seventies, and sold bikes under the Guthrie name, as well as Local and Ashby. I know Ashby and Local go back further than that (Ashby to around 1930) but don't know if they were separate businesses that were bought out by Guthries. Sometime in the late 70s the business was sold and then traded as Cycles Australia (they were distributors for Peugeot bikes at some stage) and the Guthrie name was replaced by Madison.

Kangaroo- apparently made by a Tom Sheppard in the 30s?

There is a transcript online of an interview with Vic Loetzsch who owned Silver King Cyclery in Ipswich, he states that he sold Bannit Cycles (along with Malvern Star and Guthrie bikes) and that they made bicycles themselves at one stage, but doesn't mention what name they were sold under. He also mentions Golebys and Bobby Dowse as the othe cycle dealers in Ipswich.
EDIT: added link to interview http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/documents ... istory.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎


As for the rest of the state, I haven't been able to find any information on local builders but I would have to assume there would have been some, especially in northern queensland due to the tyranny of distance.

The Ipswich built bicycles were Bon-Ton. Found one today and stumbled in this thread while looking into this this bike's history. Not alot available unfortunately.

Cool find!

ldrcycles wrote:Ok Queensland first.

Beretto- made by Brett Richardson in Albion

Hoffy, also sold under the maker's name Eric Hendren (Hoffy Cycles was established in 1928)- Sandgate

Rocket- made by Jack Pesch in Normanby

Joco and Frezoni- made by Joe Cosgrove in Brisbane

Tom Wallace, most often branded as Tom Wallace Special, some were not made by him but were other bikes repainted/rebuilt by him. The store in Lutwyche was established in 1927.

Van Werkhoven- made on the Gold Coast by Andrew Van Werkhoven

SorenSon- made on the Gold Coast

Advance- sold by Advance Cycle Traders in Brisbane (I don't know much about them but I learnt to ride on an Advance kids step through of 60s-70s vintage)

The King- made by Syd King in Brisbane

Llewellyn- made by Darrell McCulloch in Brisbane and most are painted by Joe Cosgrove

Guthries Bicycles- This company was located at Stafford during the seventies, and sold bikes under the Guthrie name, as well as Local and Ashby. I know Ashby and Local go back further than that (Ashby to around 1930) but don't know if they were separate businesses that were bought out by Guthries. Sometime in the late 70s the business was sold and then traded as Cycles Australia (they were distributors for Peugeot bikes at some stage) and the Guthrie name was replaced by Madison.

Kangaroo- apparently made by a Tom Sheppard in the 30s?

There is a transcript online of an interview with Vic Loetzsch who owned Silver King Cyclery in Ipswich, he states that he sold Bannit Cycles (along with Malvern Star and Guthrie bikes) and that they made bicycles themselves at one stage, but doesn't mention what name they were sold under. He also mentions Golebys and Bobby Dowse as the othe cycle dealers in Ipswich.
EDIT: added link to interview http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/documents ... istory.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎


As for the rest of the state, I haven't been able to find any information on local builders but I would have to assume there would have been some, especially in northern queensland due to the tyranny of distance.

He was apprenticed to Robert Johnson when I had my Rapello made at Zillmere.

Foo

I have now got some Maxxis Forza strips to go on my singles and return this bike to original.

Foo

Well it is very close to being ready to ride again. I just have to glue the strips on, adjust the seat and strut and possibly stick some toe clips on.



Foo

Damn that's a nice looking bit of gear. You should get up to the Noosa Strade Bianche with that.

Am thinking about it, Idry.

Foo

Foo, don't think. Just do it.
We'd love to have you join us for any of the three rides.

I have to think about it, as Idry just wants to hurt me and brag about it.

Foo