The History
The business was created by a London cyclist, Frederick W. Evans. He created what The Bicycle described as a quick-release and reversible rear wheel device, an ingenious feat for which he was awarded the Cyclists' Touring Club's first silver plaque as the inventopr or producer of the greatest improvement in cycle design, constrruction or equipment during the year 1925."
Evans opened a shop in Kennington Road in south east London, known as F.W. Evans Cycles. With the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force and left the business in charge of his manager. The shop traded from this site for 30 years. Evans died in a road accident in 1944, having never again run his shop. He was by then in the educational engineering branch of the RAF.
The business was bought by Joseph Smith in the 1950s. At the time the shop sold cycles and toys. In the 1970s Smith handed the business to his son, Gary, who turned the shop into a specialist cycle retailer. After more than 50 years at Kennington Road, the site came up for development. The shop moved to Waterloo, at 77- 79 The Cut.
During the 1990s, Gary worked with Mike Rice, the Croydon store franchise owner, to bring the other franchised stores under the control of F.W. Evans Cycles (UK). During this time the Evans Cycles mail order catalogue was launched, requiring a central distribution centre, later established in Leatherhead, Surrey. This coincided with the Evans Cycles web site being established.
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