Best Bicycles: 1906 - 1939

CAPE ARGUS - 1906, July 27

CAPE ARGUS - 1906, July 27

Raleigh Cycles

Admitted by all to be the World’s Best Bicycle, fitted with Free Wheel, 2 Rim Brakes, Tool Bag, Tools, Inflator and Clips complete.

CAPE ARGUS - 1906, July 

Rudge-Whitworth Cycle

Ask for the finest and most beautifully illustrated book ever published about Bicycles – post free.

50 models: £7to £15 15s.

CAPE ARGUS -1906, December 5

New Hudson Cycles

The Leading British Make fitted with every Up-To-Date Improvement for making cycling easy and pleasurable; and including a number of detail improvements especially valuable for South African use.

CAPE ARGUS - 1906, December 5

Raleigh Cycles are and always have been the World’s Best. Prices to suit all pockets. See our Rheebuck at 

£7. Easy payments arranged. 

CAPE ARGUS - 1906, December 20

Rudge-Whitworth Cycle

Expert Cyclists take their stand on the Rudge-Whitworth Catalogue – the most complete guide which describes the details of Britain’s Best Bicycle.

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1918, January 29

Raleigh – Rigid, Rapid, Reliable

Rigidity by its extreme strength of design; Rapidity by its beautiful construction and Reliability by the excellence of material and labour employed. With Dunlop tyres and Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gear, perfect!

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1918, February 5

Raleigh – The All-Steel Bicycle

“There are no roads at all, only narrow paths through the forests, just wide enough for one man to walk, along,” writes Mr. Percy Last, a Uganda missionary, “but my Raleigh is perfectly right and as silent as the grave. I am more than ever convinced of the value of it.”

Guaranteed for Ever – the famous all-steel bicycle, with Dunlop tyres and Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gear, is as good in jungle as on track.

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1918, February 28

Ride a B.S.A. Cycle

There are numerous occasions in every home and business place when it would be a convenience and a saving of valuable time to have a bicycle handy. Shopping, delivering urgent messages, business calls, are a few of the things which can be easily and rapidly accomplished by cycling.

Ride a B.S.A. - Perfect in every part, and ensure years of reliable service. The few shillings difference between a genuine B.S.A. and a so-called cheap machine is more than counter-balanced by the freedom from trouble and expense which B.S.A. quality gives.

Every Part of a B.S.A. Bicycle is Guaranteed Interchangeable.

CAPE ARGUS - 1918, November 18

Have you tried a Cycling Holiday?

In congenial company you can take the most interesting and delightful routes – breaking your journey just when and where you desire. Cycling will double the enjoyment and benefit of your holiday besides being much more economical than the railway.

Ride a B.S.A. Bicycle – Perfect in Every Part – and ensure cycling under perfect conditions. B.S.A. quality material and workmanship is known the world over. Every genuine B.S.A. Bicycle bears the trade mark of the three piled rifles.

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1920, July 22

B.S.A. Cycle – “Perfect in every part.”

Why not cycle those unpleasant journeys and reach your destination quicker and in comfort on a B.S.A. Bicycle? The economy, pleasure and health derived from a B.S.A. Bicycle will soon repay the initial cost. All B.S.A. parts are guaranteed interchangeable.

CAPE ARGUS - 1939, January 19

Raleigh – Easy Running

Raleigh cycling will be a new experience for the enthusiast – every part of this reliable cycle has been designed for easy-running and effortless riding. The Raleigh cycle has a fine quality steel frame, heavily enameled, ensuring a beautiful rust-proof finish. The saddle is super-strong. It pays to buy a Raleigh – the cycle with miles more wear.

Point 5 of Raleigh Perfection: HUBS

The Raleigh is Easy-riding. Ball bearings of specially hardened steel are fitted to Hubs, gear wheel and pedals. Automatic Free Wheel.

CAPE ARGUS - 1939, March 20

Strength and Endurance

Get the best out of cycling with a Raleigh – built by craftsmen for long life and dependability. All Raleigh cycles have chromium-plated spokes – the frame and mudguards are beautifully enameled with a special long wearing finish. These features keep your cycle smart. Get on to trouble-free cycling right away – get on to a Raleigh!

Point 2 of Raleigh Perfection: FORKS

Raleigh forks are tremendously strong and rigid. The crown is pressed from a single piece of steel – ensuring immense strength with exceptional lightness. Exclusive to Raleigh cycles.

CAPE ARGUS - 1939, March 20

Speed with Safety

Mile after mile of safe, effortless riding is yours when you buy a Raleigh. This famous cycle is fitted with extra dependable brakes, a super sprung saddle and many other refinements including chromium-plated steel spokes. Raleigh cycles incorporate the best design and the best workmanship – yet the cost is within reach of every cyclist’s pocket.

Point 1 of Raleigh Perfection: BRAKES

Every Raleigh cycle has rim-type action Brakes fitted with extra durable brake blocks, giving ease of control and long wear.

Origin of Tyres

CAPE TIMES – 1933, August 18

Where did the name "TYRE" come from?

The origin of the name “tyre” is shrouded in antiquity. There are at least two theories as to its derivation. One traces it to the Phoenician city of Tyre.

When Alexander the Great entered this city in 332 B.C. his war chariots were equipped with wooden wheels bound with iron or bronze. But here Alexander found other chariots magnificently constructed and reserved for the pleasure of the rich. He was impressed with the wheels on the pleasure chariots which had, secured by thongs to the bronze rims, an outer rim of leather.

This is the first known use of a tyre for reducing vibration and thereby promoting the comfort of the passenger, although, when Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened up by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter, the remains of a chariot were found, with wheels which, to all appearances, had carried some form of tyres.

Leather tyres were soon introduced into both Greece and Italy and even though iron and bronze wheel-rims had been in use for centuries before Alexander’s day it is just possible that the word “tyre” originated from the Greek or Latin name of this Phoenician city where this early cushion tyre is said to have been used.

Another theory favours a British origin. In ancient Britain it is said, the iron rims that bound the wooden cart wheels were called “tie-ers.”

In 1845 R. W. Thompson, a Scots road locomotive engineer, invented the first air-inflated tyre, which was laced or bolted to the carriage wheel. It consisted of plies of canvas saturated with rubber, but failed as the rubber was not vulcanized.

Forty years passed before anyone again gave serious thought to the possibilities of pneumatic tyres. But during this interval solid rubber tyres were generally used on bicycles and carriages and in 1884 Macintosh introduced the cushion tyre. This tyre, with a succession of cavities in the form of a spongy mass in the centre, was more resilient and was adopted at once for carriages.

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1918, February 28

Then in 1888, as recently described in The Austin Magazine, John Boyd Dunlop invented the first practical pneumatic tyre. So many inventors set to work to improve on J.B. Dunlop’s idea that for the next few years the Patent Offices in both England and the United States were deluged with applications.

Sometime antecedent to 1895 Dunlop motor tyres first appeared and in that year Dunlop 30 in. x 6¼ in. motor tyres were in use. With the Dunlop tyres of 1902 a foot pump and repair outfit were supplied! Incidentally, the minimum tyre pressure advised was 75 lb. per square inch!

In France the pneumatic tyre was first adopted for the motor-car in the early nineties, by the Michelin brothers, who unable to adapt the new type of tyre to their cars, actually built a car to fit the tyres. Though their first experiments were discouraging, by 1896 their pneumatic motor-car tyre was on the market. 

De Volkstem - 1925, 8 October

From that time the improvement of motor-car tyres kept steady pace with car improvements. The first effort to overcome skidding, which frequently occurred with the smooth rubber threads, was the invention of a leather thread studded with steel rivets and vulcanized to the rubber tyre. Then came the moulded rubber non-skid thread more or less as we know it today. The first cord tyre was invented in 1893 by John F. Parmer, of Chicago, and was at that time a bicycle tyre. Some time later a cord tyre for electric automobiles was introduced known as the “Power Saver.” Later came the cord tyre for motor-cars, which has now replaced entirely the square woven fabric tyre of all types. The cord construction, which employs cords laid to the inflated shape of the tyre cover, so that no internal stresses are set up when the tyre is fully inflated, is used throughout the world today, and is actually the same as that used in the “Power Saver” tyres of 25 years ago. 

(G.J. Joint in Austin Magazine)

CAPE ARGUS - 1918, November 8

THE STAR Johannesburg - 1918, March 7