1904 Premier Helical Ladies ‘K Frame’
(Starley patent frame)
24″ Frame
28″ Wheels
BSA 3-speed gear
Middlemores ‘Standard’ saddle
Frame No 176336
This fabulous Premier has a lot going for it.
First off, it’s a K frame, which was a Starley patent (either JK or William). I assume Premier adopted it (with license fees paid) because they wanted a female equivalent of their Gents Royal Premier which used a ‘truss frame’ (ie an extra tube between the top of the seat post and the bottom of the steering head).
If you look closely at its paintwork you can see diagonal ‘slices’ which reveal that it has Helical tubing, which is unique to Premier bicycles.
The paint is original, with the remains of some box lining and transfers (decals).
Premier used a unique pattern of mudguards, and these are in excellent condition.
The upright handlebars are ‘North Road Raised’ pattern. The inverted brake lever design preceded the better known roller lever, which became the industry standard. Though most companies discontinued inverted levers, Premier offered them as an option until World War One.
BSA didn’t introduce their 3-speed gear until several years later, so that would have been a later addition.
This Premier was sympathetically restored some year ago. I noticed the brake blocks are home-made; they are functional but a bit oversize. I’ve delivered the machine to my local bike shop to have its tyres replaced. It’s in excellent all round condition and is ready to ride.
‘The early 1890s were a time of enormous technical advancement in cycle design and manufacturing technology, a time when the basic form of the modem bicycle was perfected and set on course for the next century. One of the more surprising inventions at this time was a 19th century equivalent of Reynolds 531 frame tubing, Helical tubing, which was developed and patented not by a tube manufacturer but by a cycle manufacturer.
The inventors & patentees were The Premier Cycle Co Ltd, formerly Hillman Herbert and Cooper of Coventry, who claimed at the time to be the largest cycle manufacturers in the world. Founded in 1874, this company had been important innovators in the industry, introducing such advances as the DHF (double hollow fork) in 1878 (later licensed to Singer), the Kangaroo front driving safety in 1884, and the first true cross frame safety in 1886. The driving force was William Hillman, a talented and practical engineer who had been in cycle manufacture from the birth of the industry in this country.
Many inventive and unusual frame designs were made by Premier in the closing years of the solid tyre era. With the coming of the pneumatic tyre, the need arose for a light and responsive frame of thin walled steel tube, but there were limits to how thin and therefore how light ordinary tubing could be made, before its efficiency was impaired.
Helical tubing was developed and tested during 1891–2 and introduced in the autumn of 1892. These strange looking spirally wound tubes were the result of experiments to convert very high carbon bright rolled Swedish steel into tubes without reducing the carbon content. The chosen steel was non-ductile, in other words it was not capable of being drawn into steel tubes in the usual way without loss of strength. The solution found was to helically roll a thin sheet of steel varying from 0.008in to 0.017in thickness round a mandrel. A clamp was placed on one end to prevent its unwinding and the mandrel was withdrawn. A stout collar was then driven on the free end, and the whole tube brazed together. The brazing operation was carefully designed so that a complete film of brass was spread between the two layers of thin sheet making up the tube. Premier claimed that the brazing process was so perfect that every tube could be rung like a bell. In this way the tubes were tested and either rejected or passed fit for use.’ [from an article by Roger Armstrong]
THE K FRAME LADIES BICYCLE
In 1892, William Starley invented the ‘Starley Axle’ – a live axle combined with a differential gear and four bearings all in line for tricycles (patent 1892/7,752 of 25 April). This is still used on most tricycles and cars. It was built and supplied by Abingdon Works Co. In Abingdon’s 1898 advertisement they illustrated both the Starley axle and the K Frame ladies bicycle (above), with the caption ‘Registered Design.’ The implication is that, in 1898, they either owned the patents of they were supplying them under license. While the axle was William Starley’s patent (he owned ‘Starley Brothers’), his cousin JK Starley’s company ‘Rover Cycle Co’ made the K Frame ladies model in 1895. I’m not sure of the patentee, but it would appear to be either William Starley or JK Starley, both of whom were prolific patent holders. William had 138 patents to his name, and JK had 87.
1895 ROVER K FRAME
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1895 ROVER K FRAME
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