New
Imperial Motorcycle History
The history of New Imperial goes back to the
early days of the bicycle industry in Birmingham
in 1887. Starting in a very small way, the Company
made bicycle fittings and, later, complete bicycles.
The repeal of the “Red Flag” Act
in 1896 led to the development of cars and motorcycles,
and once again New Imperial were pioneers. Their
first design, which appeared in 1901, is credited
as being the first British 500cc single-cylinder
machine. Like most of its competitors, it had
the engine mounted in front of the handlebars
above the front wheel, and the transmission
consisted of a leather belt which drove the
front wheel. Unfortunately, this machine was
not a commercial success, and New Imperial went
back to bicycle manufacture until 1912. The
first range contained three models: a light-weight,
a 500cc single, and a 600cc sidecar model.
Two years later, in 1914, New Imperial produced
their famous Light Tourist model; this was only
300cc capacity, but its light weight, allied
with strong construction, enabled it to out-perform
many 500cc heavyweights of the day. The Light
Tourist was an immediate success and set New
Imperial on the road to fame and fortune. The
Light Tourist was also very successful in competition,
and quickly established the feeling that a New
Imperial was the machine to have if you were
a sporting rider.
These ideas were reinforced by New Imperial’s
win in the 250cc class of the 1921 TT (rider
Doug Prentice). This was the first of six TT
wins by New Imperial, a record which has only
been surpassed by one other motorcycle manufacturer.
The wins were all in the Light-weight class,
except for one Junior victory:
- 1921 Doug Prentice
- 1924 Ken Twemlow (Junior race)
- 1924 Eddie Twemlow
- 1925 Eddie Twemlow
- 1932 Leo Davenport
- 1936 Bob Foster
Success in the TT was certain to bring in big
sales orders in pre-war days, and in their heyday
of the mid-twenties, New Imperial were producing
around 300 machines per month. The Company continued
to prosper and grow until the depression years
of the early 1930s. This left New Imperial financially
weak, and, like many other smaller manufacturers,
they were struggling to survive for most of
the thirties.
New Imperial were always a very innovative
company, and their unit-construction machines,
sometimes with Bentley & Draper sprung frames,
were about twenty years in front of their time.
Even today, the common reaction is “Look
at that - I didn’t know anyone had unit
construction or spring frames before the War.”
In the end, this willingness to produce advanced
designs may have contributed to New Imperial’s
eventual demise in 1939.
Money was scarce in the 1930s, and the public
were reluctant to depart from tried and proven
designs. Even Bob Foster’s magnificent
win on a unit-construction model in the 1936
Lightweight TT could not bring in the sales
that New Imperial desperately needed; this win
was the last time that Great Britain ever won
a Lightweight TT.
|
