1908 Components Ltd Ariel Featherweight X Frame (Unrestored)

Charles Sangster of Components Ltd was one of the dominant patent holders for cross frame bicycles.

Charles Sangster of Components Ltd was one of the dominant patent holders for X frame bicycles, but the market leader for lightweight – ‘Featherweight’ – X frames was Centaur Ltd.

As the Centaur Featherweight – which used narrow duplex tubing – was one of the world’s most expensive bicycles, Components Ltd countered this by selling their own frames and parts at wholesale prices through the cycle trade, and they also copied the ‘Featherweight’ name.

Their patent covered two X Frame styles: one with the cross tube ending at the seat tube and the other at the rear axle. Components Ltd owned Ariel Cycle Co. So as well as selling them as frames and fittings for other companies to add their individual names, they offered them as Ariel models with a variety of fittings. This example has the same Williams chainset used by Centaur.

c1908 Components Ltd Ariel Featherweight X Frame

26″ Frame

28″ Wheels

Eadie coaster brake

This bicycle was quite rusty when I acquired it in 2018. So, as a joke, when I did this photoshoot I illustrated it coming out of the river and presented it as the ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon.’ When I showed the photographs on Facebook, however, some people thought that I really had found it in the river!

It has now had an acid wash and its rust scraped off, and you can see it cleaned up by clicking on a link at the bottom of this page.