History
In June 1896 John Starley formed the Rover Cycle Co. Ltd. at the New Meteor Works in Coventry. Starley had become successful making 'safety bicycles' and used the money to import some of the early Peugeot motorcycles from France in 1899 for experimental development. His first project was to fit an engine onto one of his Rover bicycles. However, Starley died early in October 1901 aged 46 and the business was taken over by entrepreneur Harry Lawson.
The company began to develop and produced the Rover Imperial motorcycle in November 1902. This was a 3.5hp diamond-framed motorcycle with the engine in the centre and 'springer' front forks, an improvement ahead of its time. This first Rover motorcycle had innovative features such as a spray carburettor, a bottom-bracket engine, and mechanically operated valves. Featuring a strong frame with double front down tubes and a good quality finish, over a thousand Rover motorcycles were sold in 1904. The following year, however, Rover stopped motorcycle production to concentrate on their 'safety bicycle'. In 1910, designer John Greenwood was commissioned to develop a new 3.5hp 500cc engine with spring-loaded tappets, a Bosch magneto, and a Brown and Barlow carburettor. This new model, also featuring an innovative inverted tooth drive chain and "Druid" spring forks, was launched at the 1910 Olympia show, and over 500 models were sold.
Read more about this topic: Rover (motorcycles)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)