1905 Humber Truss frame
Villiers 2 speed gear
25″ Frame
28″ Wheels
‘Humber’ inflator pump
Frame No 153511
This Beeston Humber has two rare features: its ‘trussframe’ uses the Premier patent – Premier called it The Royal – and it is fitted with a Villiers 2-speed gear, which was optional extra for 1905 on Beeston Humbers.
It’s a rare machine – the first I’ve come across built by Humber – and is in excellent all round condition and ready to ride.
1905 HUMBER CATALOGUE EXTRACT
THE VILLIERS FREE-WHEEL HUB
John Marston’s Sunbeam bicycles had an excellent reputation, which meant that he needed top quality components. The pedals he was using in 1898 were not good enough, so he sent his son Charles to America to find a better supplier. Charles brought home patterns of new pedals from ‘Pratt & Whitney’ of Connecticut, and they ordered the equipment to make them. When the machinery arrived it was found to be too big for the factory, so John bought Edward Bullivant’s engineering firm at 5 Villiers Street, moved the machinery in and Charles was put in charge of the firm. They named it the ‘Villiers Cycle Components Co.’
Orders soon exceeded Sunbeam’s requirements, so they asked Frank H. Farrer, manager of the Coventry branch of ‘Palmer Tyre Co’ to sell Villiers pedals for them. As a result, he started his own wholesale business supplying cycle parts to the trade. At the time Villiers made the best pedals and soon most of the cycle makers were using them.
In 1902 Farrer sold his business and came to work for Villiers, who now had a workforce of 30. In the same year the Villiers freewheel was developed and Villiers decided to produce their own lightweight version. Around this time John Marston sold Villiers to his son Charles for £6,000, the value of the company’s machinery. The new freewheels were so successful that pedal production ceased and Villiers concentrated on freewheel production alone. In due course, income from freewheels allowed Villiers to explore geared hubs, the first being the Villiers 2-speed. Their claim that a 3-speed had too many components and that the low gear was unnecessary was also used by Sunbeam for their 2-speed epicyclic gear.
Humber offered the Villiers 2-speed gear as an option for Beeston models in their 1905 catalogue. Of course, Sturmey-Archer was meanwhile developing their 3-speed gear, which soon took over the market.
1909 VILLIERS 2 SPEED HUB BOOKLET
