- Terrot frame set
- Terrort Drivetrain
- Matching rack and fenders
- All Original
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Roger Du Peuty, Rider
Bayliss-Wiley Co. Ltd. was a highly respected designer and manufacturer of bicycle components, ahead-of-its-time inventor of products employing honestly modern concepts, and component supplier to other British companies in both the cycling and automotive industries — for nearly a century.
Holdsworth began selling shorts, plus fours and skirts that were met with growing demand for cycling apparel. Riders craved their still-familiar comforts while seeking to distance themselves from the viciousness of 1914-1918. Four years into her venture, “Mrs. H” issued the company’s inaugural catalog, “Aids to Happy Cycling,” right from her home in Kent. Definitive Holdsworth historian Norman Kilgariff recounts how the then-free distribution extended beyond cycling apparel into componentry. The 1930 edition shows a small selection of tires, brakes and pedals accompanying the more traditional company offerings of clothing, saddlebags and camping items. These items were available at four distinct locations in the London metropolitan area. Continue reading Holdsworth: British Reliability, Personified
Raleigh has its phoenix, Colnago its ace of clubs, Fuji its stylized mountain, and Schwinn its four-pointed star, but Legnano may be the only bicycle company whose headbadge depicts a sword-lofting warrior, Alberto da Giussano, celebrating triumph — specifically, the triumph — at the Battle of Legnano in 1176, when the “Free Communes” of the Lombardi league, led by Milan, finally defeated and cast out the German rulers who had been lording over them the previous couple centuries. That this remains important to Italians may be evidenced by the mention of Legnano in that country’s national anthem — the only other city mentioned being Rome itself. Why it was important to a bicycle manufacturer, even an Italian one, may be a trickier question. National pride? Perhaps. The smell of victory attached to the name? More likely, given Legnano’s output includes a long, rich lineage of pure racing bikes as only Italians produce, and an impressive roster of victories on the road race circuits. |
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Fuzzy background notwithstanding, Bayliss-Wiley has perhaps the most convoluted history of any bicycle-related manufacturing company ever to exist. Its lifecycle detoured the company into and out of motorcar production, at one point buying, then selling, then merging with another company, and finally being absorbed into Renold Chains Ltd. around 1959 before fading altogether a decade later.
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