Rudge 'Bi-Frame' -a 'Proper' Folding Bike....?

[pete75]

Bloody hell. Rudge have come down in the world. Time was, they made things like this and won the Isle of Man TT with them. It had one of the first successful four valve per cylinder engines.

[jb]

Yeah, shame the whole industry got stuck in a rut and refused to innovate or modernise beyond boring out the same old tired engine....

[pete75]

Yeah, shame the whole industry got stuck in a rut and refused to innovate or modernise beyond boring out the same old tired engine....

Producing a four valve enegine the early 1930s was hardly stuck in a rut.

[jb]

Yeah, shame the whole industry got stuck in a rut and refused to innovate or modernise beyond boring out the same old tired engine....

Producing a four valve enegine the early 1930s was hardly stuck in a rut.

It was innovative then, it was afterwards the rut sticking started

[pete75]

Yeah, shame the whole industry got stuck in a rut and refused to innovate or modernise beyond boring out the same old tired engine....

Producing a four valve enegine the early 1930s was hardly stuck in a rut.

It was innovative then, it was afterwards the rut sticking started

Not really, because Rudge stopped making bikes in 1939. By then they were using aluminium for the cylinder heads which was also very innovative at the time.

[jb]

I was more referring to the British bike manufacturing scene as a whole not Rudge. I owned two British bikes and I really liked rebuilding them and riding them over many years. But it glaringly obvious that there was a reluctance - from management at least - to do anything but the bare minimum to improve them or indeed start with a clean sheet for a new model. - Crank case castings still having magneto mounts long after they disappeared, crank cases from obsolete models straining under a cylinder casting it was never meant for, oil leaks from places it should have easily been able to design out, BSA trying to make forks on WW1 gun boring machines .
The Japs caught them with their trousers down and steamrolled past them even though the industry was certainly not short of innovative designers that were constantly held back by a reluctance to invest.
Maybe the experience of the cycle industry made them think the motor cycle industry would go the same way as workers plumped for car transport rather than bikes for commuting.

[cycle tramp]

I owned two British bikes and I really liked rebuilding them and riding them over many years. But it glaringly obvious that there was a reluctance - from management at least - to do anything but the bare minimum to improve them or indeed start with a clean sheet for a new model.
The Japs caught them with their trousers down and steamrolled past them even though the industry was certainly not short of innovative designers that were constantly held back by a reluctance to invest.
Maybe the experience of the cycle industry made them think the motor cycle industry would go the same way as workers plumped for car transport rather than bikes for commuting.

...the first shot across the bows of the British motorcycle industry were the vespa and lambretta scooters....
..up until then most people used motorcycles but because they couldn't afford a car..
..when these scooters were imported here was a mode of transport that offered some protection against the elements (especiallywhen fitted with a screen), required far less routine maintenance, easier to keep clean (and it wouldn't spray you with road muck, oil mist and grease), you could change a flat tyre without disturbing the brakes or drive chain* and was reasonably light weight to push should the worst happen...
Then the mini came out and changed everything..

(*something Mike Burrows was very keen on the cycle industry learning from)...

..some where in a back of a shed is a prototype sunbeam motorcycle fitted with an Austin A7 engine... car reliability in a motorcycle frame, shaft driven and water cooled.. might have been a game changer if management had actually thought about things instead of reacting

[rjb]

here it is after a complete strip clean and rebuild.
The QR front brake hanger makes wheel removal to fold the bike simple.
search.php?keywords=rudge&t=3832&sf=msgonly

[cycle tramp]

Ooh nice - I'm very jealous

[Cowsham]

Me too

[scottg]

Yeah, shame the whole industry got stuck in a rut and refused to innovate or modernise beyond boring out the same old tired engine....

Harley Davidson has made a business of being stuck in rut.

[DrSoupDragon]

Fascinated by these bikes, has anyone any measurements re the difference in the small/medium and large frame sizes?

i gather the medium is about 18.5 inch from crank to seat post centre, and the large 20.5 inch

any clues re wheelbase differences and other dimensions?

[for a 6'2'' bloke]

ta

liam

[rjb]

My small one shown above measures 19.5" from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube.

There's some measurements which Brucey has posted further back in this thread. The Large measures 21.5 so I expect the medium will be 20.5.

[cpg]

I recently bought a pair of Bi-frames, each is a different size. The smaller one measured 19” from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre point of the seat tube top tube joint and 19 3/4” from the centre of the bottom bracket to top of the seat tube. The larger one measured 20.5” from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre point of the seat tube top tube joint and 21.5” from the centre of the bottom bracket to top of the seat tube. I am 5’8” and the smaller one was too small.
There is an old Shwinn catalogue on line that lists the Bi Frame sizes as 17”, 18” and 20.5”.

[DrSoupDragon]

Ahh plainly looking at the bike on eBay etc, the head tube length is the give away to the larger size.

L