1903 Abingdon King Dick Tricycle with Rover patent K Type frame

1903 Abingdon King Dick Lady’s Tricycle

with Rover patent K Type frame

20″ Frame

26″ Wheels

Fixed wheel

This Abingdon ‘K Type’ is one of the rarest surviving ladies’ tricycles from the early 1900s. Until this one was discovered after many years storage it was not known that any had survived. It was restored in the 1990s and apart from frizzled handlebar grips is in good condition all round and ready to ride.

This frame design appears in an 1898 Abingdon components advertisement, which also illustrates the Starley patent tricycle axle, now made by Abingdon Works. As this K Type was used on the 1895-1897 Rover, the logical assumption is that Abingdon took over the production of the K Type frame in 1898 after Rover finished with it. They state that both are ‘registered designs’ – I’m not sure if they purchased their patents or built them under license.

The 1905 Abingdon catalogue illustrates their ‘K Type’ frame as a bicycle and a tandem tricycle, though not as a lady’s tricycle. I’ll keep an eye out for an earlier Abingdon catalogue to see if they also advertised this model as a lady’s tricycle.

ABINGDON WORKS HISTORY

Abingdon Works, Tyseley, Birmingham

The company was established around 1856 as a manufacturer of rifles, pistols and gun components. Like most other engineering companies in the midlands, they branched out into bicycles to cash in on the new cycling boom and from around 1887 they made ‘Abingdon’ and ‘King Dick’ high-wheelers, tricycles and safety bicycles at Bath Street and later Shadwell Street, Birmingham. The name ‘King Dick’ was derived from the name of a the owner’s mastiff dog, whose name was King Dick. An outline of the dog’s head mounted on a shield formed the company trade mark and head badge.

In 1903 they added motorcycles to their product range, using Fafnir, Minerva, Kerry and MMC engines (and subsequently their own Abingdon engines). Abingdon motorcycles continued in production until 1933 (from 1928 known as AKD), using single cylinder four-stroke motorcycles of 147cc to 346cc as well as a V-Twin. Abingdon engines also powered various other marques, including Ariel and Invicta.

In 1922, they started manufacturing cars too. However, only 12 Abingdon cars were built as they lost their main component supplier when it was taken over by Morris. As motorcycle sales were going well in the early twenties presumably car production became less viable.

The first tricycle axle was patented by James Starley in 1877 for his ‘Royal Salvo’ tricycle. His son William improved on this in 1892, and it is this differential that is used in the Abingdon axle. There’s a brass badge on the housing that says ‘Starley’s Patent No 1752 1892.

As they took over production of the rear axle from Starley, presumably they did the same with the K Type ladies’ cycle frame. Rover used this K Type design for their Ladies’ Popular Rover from 1895 to 1897, and Abingdon illustrated the same frame as their ‘registered design’ in their 1898 advertisement which also showed the Starley axle.