History
Ernie Witcomb's father, Tom, a steel worker in local dockyards, started to build frames in 1928 in his east London cellar. In 1951, Ernie bought E.A. Boult, where he had been working since before World War II and, by 1952, started trading as Witcomb Lightweight Cycles with Wally Green as frame builder.
Barrie Witcomb, Ernie Witcomb's son, started his apprenticeship as a frame builder in 1958 at the age of 15, under Malcolm Barker, a former builder at J.R.J. Cycles in Leeds.
In 1959, Witcomb Cycles bought Rotrax Cycles building. In 1961, Witcomb co-founded the Lightweight Cycle Association, one of cycling's first trade-focused organisations. In the 1960s, Witcomb Trading also made frames for Sid Mottram, Rotrax, Velosport and others. More recently they have made frames for the fashion brand Carhartt and Reynolds steel.
Richard Sachs, Peter Weigle, Chris Chance and Ben Serotta, four American frame builders, trained at Witcomb Cycles in the early 1970s, along with the British wheel builder, Harry Rowland.
By the 1980s, the fashion for mountain bikes put a strain on the business, which went into decline. In 1998, Ernie Witcomb retired. The company seems to have been dormant since 2009.
Read more about this topic: Witcomb Cycles
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