A & B racing tricycle - 1931

A & B Racing Tricycle 1931
Its original owner was a man of Kent and he must have ordered it from A&B  Garages of Ramsgate  (Kent, England) , for sure it wasn’t built by them. The underside of the bottom bracket has Chater-Lea cast into  it, we know that it has CL lugs and may have been build by them but it could just have easily been built by any top London builder. It has all it’s original  plain black paint finish is very fine condition with  only the tantalizing ‘A & B’ transfers marketed upon it. What mystery is behind this ?

How long owned:  For about twelve years

How was it acquired: Responding to an advertisement in ‘Cycling Weekly’ in  1997 led me to a garage in Solihull where was found an ‘Aladdin’s  cave full of  pre-war cycling treasure, among this  was the ‘A & B’ racing tricycle. Mr BM the original owner  had died in the 1970’s and it was only on the death of his widow that this machines  came onto the market

The Features that make it special: .There are two things about  this tricycle that are remarkable, the sheer quality of all the fittings  and the absolute originally in it’s most remarkable untouched condition, little has aged. The frame is built around  an Abingdon No 3 back axle fitted with a differential gear (shown below).

The head-clip head-set, chainset  and the pedals are by Chater-Lea,  the latter  are the  very rare pre tommy-bar nickel- plated  version  fitted with the then quite normal leather show straps instead of metal toe-clips. Note the Bluemels celluloid covered handlebars  and two piece Q/R front mudguard, the Constrictor grips, still soft and spongy as they were when new and the Dunlop pump marked ’A & B Garages Ltd’.  Also the Brooks B19 saddle , this was the longer version of the B17 for ‘the long distance rider‘ , this was a popular saddle among sporting cyclists but was not re-introduced after WW2.. The wood racing rims, still straight and true are French made American Boston’s  and marketed in Britain by Constrictor, all with very clear original  makers marks.

The head-clip head-set, chainset  and the pedals are by Chater-Lea,  the latter  are the  very rare pre tommy-bar nickel- plated  version  fitted with the then quite normal leather show straps instead of metal toe-clips. Note the Bluemels celluloid covered handlebars  and two piece Q/R front mudguard, the Constrictor grips, still soft and spongy as they were when new and the Dunlop pump marked ’A & B Garages Ltd’.  Also the Brooks B19 saddle , this was the longer version of the B17 for ‘the long distance rider‘ , this was a popular saddle among sporting cyclists but was not re-introduced after WW2.. The wood racing rims, still straight and true are French made American Boston’s  and marketed in Britain by Constrictor, all with very clear original  makers marks.

Anything else: 1930 is generally acknowledged as the cusp between nickel plating and chromium plating and this machine must date from around there as there is an interesting  mix of chrome and nickel on the frame alone, this must have been quite normal at the time.
The racing of both tandems and tricycles in road time-trials was very popular in the 1920 and 1930’s, the pages of ‘Cycling” are full of such events surely this is must be  the most original 1930’s racing tricycle still  in existence.