A Vintage Mystery: Kerry Bicycle Company

What is it?

Background

The LSTF-funded Travel Choices project in our area is coming to an end this summer. One very successful initiative (largely run by Adam) over the past year has been the bicycle workshops. This has included people bringing in their own bikes for free-at-point-of-service checks and then having it serviced/repaired by one of the project's mechanics, or learning how to service/repair their own bicycle themselves using the workshop's tools and having a mechanic on hand to assist and answer questions. 

The other aspect of this Travel Choices initiative, run through the workshops, was a donation scheme: bring in your old bicycle and donate it, then choose another one that suits you better from the ever-growing stock of bicycles donated by others. This effectively recycled a number of bicycles through the community. Each donated bike got checked over, serviced and repaired to the extent needed to make it road-worthy. Any bicycle that could not be made safe to ride would become a donor, 'cannabilised' for any useful parts. 

With the project coming to an end, the two local councils are working on transitioning their resources into "legacy" projects that can be run by local volunteers. The Luton and Dunstable Cycling Forum has been a key partner throughout the Travel Choices project, so it is the obvious contender to take over some of the activities that the Travel Choices project had run. And so the Forum finds itself the recipient of a lot of the cycling-related stock and inventory. 

And thus it came to pass that a van-load of donated bicycles (and boxes of components) was disgorged on our driveway this week!

All of the bicycles are children's bicycles. Most of them are very poor quality "bike shaped objects" and most of these are likely beyond repair. (This is a particular pet peeve for Adam; that the mainstream market for children's bicycles consists of clumsy, heavy, over-sized "toys" that are difficult and unpleasant to ride and, even if possible to assemble into acceptable running order when new, usually impossible to service, repair or otherwise maintain.)

Much to our surprise however, nestled amongst all the "junk" was THIS. 

The Reveal 

The first thing that struck me was of course the rod-actuated brakes.

A frame pump is present, although we don't know if this is the one that the bike would have left the dealer with.





The chainset is mucky but has been kept well-oiled, with only very small amounts of surface rust. The gearing is 29 x 14 singlespeed, quite sensible for a child.

The frame number is on the offside (right) chainstay in front of the rear-facing horizontal dropout.

The Michelin 16 x 1-3/8 (37-349) tyres are in very good condition which makes me think they're not original. 

The vinyl saddle seems to be unbranded. I've checked the underside and all the metal work for markings but found nothing.

The bicycle frame measures 16 inches from centre of the cranks to top of the seatpost and the effective top tube length appears to be approximately 16 inches as well. I like the symmetry in those numbers, along with the 16 inch tyres. The crank arms are just over 4 inches long, at 105mm.

Overall the bicycle is in remarkable condition. It would benefit from a good clean and service but everything is in good working order, so we anticipate only rubbing down the frame lightly and applying a coat of polish, cleaning the chain ring and rear sprocket and adjusting the brake cables slightly. 

I find myself utterly entranced by this bicycle, partly of course due to its age but also because it is such a perfect miniature of a fully-fledged adult roadster bicycle of the same period -- whatever period that may be!

Its History and Its Future

As to what to do with it, I wonder if it belongs in a museum? I think this must be quite rare but have no idea if Kerry bicycles have any particular value. If they were sought after or desirable, I would expect to find references to the brand on cycling forums, but so far searching the Internet has failed to turn up anything at all about them. In the past 10 years, there have been a couple of "calls for information" (here and here) but so far no one has posted replies or comments that move the enquiry any further along. Following up the reference made to ELRCO in the second of those links led to a website called the Museum of Trademans Delivery Bikes, which provides an undated ELRCO catalogue featuring a few Kerry-branded items, such as a children's sidecar and a tandem frame, but little information of substance and no further hints or leads to follow to try and find more. 

Once I know a little more about this bicycle, I will make enquiries of a few collectors to see if this bicycle is something that ought to be preserved or restored. Assuming that it is not, I would love to see it put back into use by a family that appreciates and uses vintage machines.

If any readers have any information that may shed some light on the age of this bicycle or the history of its manufacturer, I would very much like to hear from you!