Editors note- While recently scouring a car boot at a Nottingham jumble sale, we decided to happen upon a dusty wooden crate marked with the company logo.  Inside we found an amazing collection of historical notes and photographs about the Brooks company from the late Victorian era.  These notes fill in some of the gaps left in the Brooks Historical Record. We are still  putting together the pieces of this massive find, but we are able to already share some of it with you. The first of which are details concerning the Brooks Tea Rooms that are related forthwith.

That late 19th Century Birmingham was a hotbed of both biking and bike manufacture is a fact of which even the most casual student of cycling history will be aware, and Brooks was already the world’s pre-eminent purveyor of bike saddles while Sunbeam in nearby Wolverhampton could barely meet the customer demand for its “Dwarf Safety”.

A lesser known fact, however, is that “England’s Second City” was also the site of the world’s first incarnation of what we now know as “the Cycling Culture Café”.

The Brooks Tea Rooms opened its doors in 1877, just a stone’s throw from the Brooks Works in Great Princess Street. Initially planned by management as a sort of open Works canteen, it quickly attracted regular hordes of non-employees with its selection of beef potions, pork scratchings and triple fermented gooseberry cider.

As “cycling for fun” was at the time still considered somewhat of a non-mainstream pursuit, its practitioners had no obvious contact network, so the Tea Rooms quickly became a hub for fledgling cliques.

The Rooms famously backed out on to open park space, and in much the same way as fixed gear enthusiasts nowadays gather at cycle culture cafés to race each other on Hometrainers, so too did Penny Farthing riders meet behind the shop on Friday evenings to see who could do the most laps before succumbing to exhaustion.

It was always Death before Dishonour on balmy Wednesday evenings at the Tea Rooms.

As the Ordinary gave way to the Bike With A Chain, Brooks’s Tea Rooms promptly became the place to hold forth tipsily on the subject of Gear Ratios, Pedal Straps, and biking gear in general. The nascent bike messaging trade in the Midlands had also found a spiritual home, and our 1883 product catalogue featured a short piece documenting the popularity of Brooks saddles among local “Expeditipeders” (sic).

Artist’s impression of a courier race finishing in the park behind the Tea Rooms. (ca. 1882)

Clearly, in a new era where the Biggest Wheel no longer signified the Biggest Gear, rider machismo needed a rethink. And while various local suppliers struggled to re-tool their machinery for the production of sprockets and chainrings, the Brooks Tea Rooms became the parliament of choice for riders to debate whether Most Teeth, or perhaps Heaviest Ring was truly “The Guv’nor”.

Medical Research had not yet established the inherent usefulness of the human kneecap.

It was hard to disagree with somebody waving one of these in your face.

Still, all sides managed to get along relatively amicably, content to split their differences over a pint or two of Mrs. Brooks’s patented “Fat Goose”. Afficionadoes of the Ordinary, the Big Ring and the Heavy Ring continued to meet, chat and race with each other at the Tea Rooms, and would doubtless have continued to do so, but for a cruel twist of Fate at the turn of the 20th century.

1902 saw Sunbeam’s owner John Marston sell the company to his son Charles, who managed to successfully file patents for a freewheel system in the same year. This step flooded Birmingham and Wolverhampton with correspondingly un-fixed wheels and an attendant number of novice cyclists, none of them using the power of their legs to slow down.

With the bicycle now accessible to even the frail, it became quickly ubiquitous on Birmingham streets, and there was thus clearly close to no market for selling refreshments in a meeting place whose target customer base comprised a putative, but now non-existent “Minority Sub-culture”.

Late converts to freewheel discussing the good old days outside Mrs. Brooks’s Cider Corner.

Long standing plans to franchise the Brooks Tea Rooms in other European cities were duly shelved, and Mr. Brooks devoted his entire energies from this point onwards to making saddles. The shutters came down on the Tea Rooms for the final time in March 1903, but Mrs. Brooks continued to sell cider from a considerably smaller premises on the other side of the park to thirsty bikers of any stripe until shortly before the First World War.

We have looked before at various popular Cycling Cliques, or Velosophies, and their attendant membership costs. One of these is, of course, Bike Dandyism. And no Bike Dandy is worthy of the name without having once in his life participated in an Olde Worlde group ride.

(All photos Frank Herholdt)

And we are happy to report this morning that the rain stayed off for this year’s Cap-Doffing-est, Tea-Quaffing-est, Most Impeccably Mannered springtime edition of that Grandaddy of Sartorially Stylish Slow Cycling, the London Tweed Run, held last weekend in the English capital.

In cloudy yet dry cycling conditions, a troop of around 500 lucky ticket winners set off from the Princess Gardens in South Kensington see the sights on a leisurely 15-mile jaunt past various landmarks such as the Houses of Westminster, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace.

A tea break at the Imperial War Museum saw the cucumber sandwiches and crisps rolled out; then it was on to the finish near Smithfield Market.

While the occasional puncture marred an otherwise dreamy day of retro pedaling antics, we feel most will agree that those not “running solids” at such an event will have had only themselves to blame.

Irrespective of bike type (and there were many – Period Ordinaries, vintage Tandems, ancient Pashleys, Tall Bikes, Cruisers, BSA’s…), one thing which most riders were running was, sensibly, a Brooks on top. Many had also taken a Brooks Cycling Bag to round off their overall look.

Titles were, as ever, up for grabs, including the always hotly contested Dapperest Throwback and Most Laboriously Cultivated Moustache categories.

Brooks, having been involved in the organization of the Tweed Run since its first installment, was delighted to sponsor the prize for Best Vintage Bicycle.

And for those of you who missed the Tweed Run in years previous, lets have a look at the Tweed Run 2010:

Englishman Charlie Walker got in touch with us a couple of years ago. He had a tour in mind and was on the hunt for the right saddle.

The objective of the expedition was, as he put it, “to reach the ’4 corners of the Old World’ (before the Americas were discovered). Namely Nordkapp (most northern point of Europe), Singapore (most south-eastern point of Eurasia), Uelen (most eastern point of Eurasia) and Cape Agulhas (most southern point of Africa).”

So we equipped him with one of our Flyer Specials, and off he went.

Two years in, and distance-wise he has covered enough mileage for a ratifiable Guinness circumnavigation record. Of course, the basis of his route is grounded in the notion that the Earth is flat, but no matter, 18000+ miles is 18000+ miles.

Currently in China, he has taken a little time out to bolster his coffers before a push on to Mongolia. He got back to us recently with some pictures and impressions of the past 700 days. Notably, he has given Paul Ashley Unett a run for his money in the Not Washing department, and has doubtless had to answer false charges of International Espionage somewhere along the way. We let Charlie take up the story…

“In July 2010 I decided that office life was not for me and so I set off from Salisbury on my old bicycle with a tent and a plan to ride 40,000 miles for 4 years across Europe, Asia and Africa. My aim is to cycle back to Salisbury via the Arctic Circle, Singapore and Cape Town – a vague and winding route but one that gives me plenty of opportunity to meet interesting new people, visit interesting new places and to challenge myself.

Since then I have passed through 29 countries, cycled over 18,000 miles and met and seen countless new places and people…and I’m not yet half way! There have been easy times (leisurely summer rides alongside peaceful Dutch canals), tough times (5,500m high mountain passes in the sub-zero Tibetan winter) and odd times (a plum eating competition with Romanian gypsies), but at no point have I found myself regretting the decision I made to undertake this journey.

Every day is different and exciting. Whether I unzip my tent to a stunning vista of snow-coated mountains with no humans for miles around, or to a curious crowd of smiling Indian villagers, each morning brings a new adventure.

I have slept in embassies, temples and mud huts; eaten donkey, dates and dog; cycled through snowstorms, sandstorms and scorching sun; been chased by dogs, dive-bombed by birds and lost countless times. I wouldn’t change a thing and can only hope that, over the next two years, Life continues to throw as many surprises at me.

Stats:

Miles so far: 18,115
Punctures: 60
Broken spokes: 12
New chains: 7
Countries visited: 29
Crashes: 11
Times thrown off Chinese Expressway: 6
Arrests by Chinese police: 2
Most miles in a day: 165
Top speed: 51mph
Highest temp.: 41C
Lowest temp.: -40C
Deserts crossed: 3
Longest without shower: 36 days
Most consecutive nights in tent: 61

Charlie has a blog, and a gallery of pictures. He hopes that people who find his trip interesting might click on this link.

The almost unimaginable physical and mental demands made by the WCR Grand Tour on its riders have this week taken a heavy toll. Martin Walker and Niel Coventry Brown have both announced that they are pulling out of the race.

Martin posted a short note to his Facebook page on Friday to the effect that an injury sustained on the road was making it impossible for him to continue. He is already planning his next, post-recuperative attempt at the record.

Martin, you will remember, had hitherto done no long distance cycling worth talking about. Armed with the experience from this tilt, we feel sure he’ll be knocking at the door of whatever the Guinness Circumnavigation record stands at when he next sets off. At the very least, we hope he’ll keep the Puncture Count lower than it was this time round!

Niel Coventry Brown outlined the anatomy of his withdrawal on his always readable blog earlier this week. His difficulties began when he left South America for Morocco at the end of April. Arriving at Casablanca, Niel was informed by his airline that his trusty Mercian was nowhere to be found.

It’s a bicycle with which Niel shares a long and storied past, and he was understandably devastated to hear such news. To compound this, over the same period he received a couple of unhappy bulletins from his wife Adi back home in New Zealand which did not lighten the mood.

Niel speaks no Arabic, and with the weather untypically miserable in North Africa, everything happening around him seemed to point at only one eventual outcome.

So rather than wait and be coerced into a decision by external forces, Niel took the hard road, calling it a day on his own terms. He’s on the way home as we speak. With his Mercian! It showed up after a few days in one piece. We reckon we’ll be hearing more from Niel.

Niel reunited with his Mercian, which an airline had contrived to lose for a few days.

Elsewhere around the Globe, Sean Conway has taken delivery of a new cycling jersey. The new one will soon be as filthy as his last, because it’s raining a lot in his neck of the woods at the moment. He has mysteriously landed himself a spanking new saddle too (cough, cough).

Sean’s phone was brutally swiped from the counter of a petrol station this week, but to balance things out a family of Kind Strangers gave hime a bed, when all he requested was some floorspace in their garage!

Sweet dreams, Mister Conway.

Simon Hutchinson‘s baggage, which as we reported last week had vanished during his hospital stay in Perth, has showed up again! Albeit minus iPhone, but other than that everything is where it should be. He’s gunning in the direction of Sydney and his bags have been sent to an address there too.

Jason Woodhouse has recently been scoffing at the received wisdom which says you should try to get a good night’s sleep if you’re planning on riding for 12 hours the next day. Last week he bedded down in a supposedly Haunted Hotel and was up in the wee hours documenting all sorts of Paranormal Activity. Or it may have just been a smoke alarm. But nobody can say for sure…

Paul Ashley Unett is hustling short order cooks in the U.S.. He walks in, not looking particularly like somebody racing the WCR Grand Tour, and bets them they can’t prepare him a plate of breakfast that he won’t be able to finish.

Of course, Heavy Mileage means Healthy Appetite so the cooks always lose, no matter how high they stack the rashers. Word’s getting around though, and we gather there are photos of Paul in the kitchens of countless diners along the Western Seaboard.

“THIS MAN EATS COMPETITIVELY. DO NOT TAKE BETS FROM HIM ABOUT FRIED BREAKFASTS.”

If there’s one thing cuter than a Koala, it’s a baby Koala. And if there’s one thing cuter than a baby Koala, it’s surely a baby Koala getting carried across the road by a Mammy Koala. Richard Dunnett was fortunate enough to be witness to said Koala configuration while burning up miles across Tonyland recently. Easily worth riding 9000 miles for, we think you’ll agree.

And yes, Tonyland. It’s the new name for Australia. Well, it’s Stephen Phillips‘ new name for Australia, in honour of his father. Stephen is letting his hair get a little shaggy. But neither the increased wind resistance, nor the previously unneeded bottles of shampoo and conditioner appear to be slowing him down.

Somebody else not slowing down is Mike Hall. He has just passed the 18000 km mark, and with Martin Walker out of the reckoning, things are currently looking good for him.

“Building a Brooks is both famously and justifiably labour intensive. Before reaching a seat post (your seat post), during the various stages of its construction at Smethwick, the composite parts of a saddle bearing our name will typically pass through a dozen separate pairs of expert hands and eyes.

The successful coordination of these different stages of production, culminating in an end result worthy of the Brooks nameplate, is absolutely reliant on the expertise of veteran steelworkers, riveters, cutters, soakers, pressers, packers and polishers.

So earlier this spring, a short ceremony was held at the Brooks works to recognize the enormous and lasting contributions of Maria Thomas, Barbara Lawrence, Eric Murray, Stephen Bell, Mohamud Hirey and Malgorzata Krawczyk to our story…”

By Brooks Works Manager Steven Green.

Friday 24 February saw a day of celebration at the Brooks factory in Smethwick. Two happy events were being acknowledged.

First of all, Eric Murray, our infamous Master Solid Riveter and Section Supervisor was about to reach his 65th Birthday – on Sunday 26 February. Eric is still super active and so is not ready to hang up his hammer, or his chamfering knife just yet – luckily for Brooks! The Company presented Eric with a custom-labelled bottle of champagne.

Eric, Stephen and Maria pictured beneath a portrait of Boultbee Brooks, son of John.

Secondly, Brooks has had a commemorative plaque made and some Certificates drawn up formally recognise our five Employee of the Year winners to-date – since the inception of the awards in 2008. The winners being as follows:-

Brooks Employees of the Year past and present with Works Manager Steven Green.

2008 Barbara Lawrence
2009 Mohamud Hirey
2010 Malgorzata Krawczyk
2011 Stephen Bell
2011 Maria Thomas

This plaque will be on display in a cabinet within the Brooks factory very shortly for all visitors to see and admire.

Congratulations to everybody concerned!

We have remarked once or twice recently on Simon Hutchinson’s comparative quietness, but clarifying news has reached us this week through his girlfriend Nicola. It seems that shortly after the spill he took near Perth earlier in the month, one of his bags went missing. It’s not known whether the bag was removed from the site of his accident, or from the hospital to which he was admitted.

All the good stuff was in there. Passport, banking cards, tracker, the works. Nicola is currently scrambling to have Simon supplied with replacements, while Simon continues to fight the good fight, powering across the Nullarbor Plain as you read this.

Stephen Phillips is learning that Dame KOSometer will gladly tend to strike when she’s most needed. Feeling a bit out of sorts lately, Stephen had been struggling with his inner demons, missing home comforts… just not really having much fun in the saddle, either. And the airline that damaged his bike and bags still hadn’t said sorry.

Then out of nowhere at the weekend, he located a confectioner who stocked his favourite Wine Gums! Given that he’d never previously met the sweet shop’s owner, we reckon this qualifies as Kindness Of A Stranger. But get this…

A day or two later, some Friend He Hadn’t Met Yet walked up and handed him a fifty dollar note. (Admittedly they were Australian dollars, but still.) High on the improbability of it all, Stephen proceeded to promptly crank out 110 miles before lunch. Then he rescued an adorable stray lamb that was shivering and lost at the side of the road. Awwwwwww! So he tells us anyway.

Kristina Storey joined the race earlier in April. She has already completed a leg through Brazil and is now in Senegal. Her Blog has lots of information, photos and impressions from the journey thus far.

Another rider finished in Brazil is Niel Coventry Brown. We think we finally discovered in a recent post how the New Zealander manages to clock up all those daily miles, regardless of terrain type.

Regular readers will be familiar with Niel’s Coke habit. The man can barely write a line without wondering aloud where his next half gallon of Brown Sugar is coming from. But when Niel casually mentioned this week that as a rule he favours The Real Thing ahead of milk on his corn flakes, a lot of things finally fell into place.

Current race leader Mike Hall is in the United States. Of course cyclists, more than any other breed of lunatic, are famed for their ingeniously self-deprecating excuses. Mike provided us with a peach on his Twitter feed lately-

“Yesterday’s health worries proved to be a false alarm thankfully. Reluctantly stopped short at 150 miles to rest up though in case.”

This translates into proper English as-

“Reluctant as one is to fish for compliments, it behooves me to inform my foes, and everybody else that even with a crippling dose of influenza leeching the last ounces of energy from my mortal coil, yours truly did a century and a half before lunch this morning and then took the rest of the day off. And I’m talking about MILES. How you like them apples, Stephen Phillips? See if the fella who gave you the fifty wants to push you up a hill. Walker, you want a piece of this too? You’re lucky I have this flu bug. What am I saying? You’re lucky we’re not on the same continent.”

Paul Ashley Unett has caved in, like many a good man before him, and shaved his legs for no particular reason. He reportedly likes how they feel. Sadly, his only new photo so far this week has been this brain teaser.

As most of you will be aware, the 2012 Olympic Games take place this summer in the English capital. And with most of the WCR Grand Tour riders scheduled to be arriving back in London around the same time as the Olympic Torch, we felt that these two special occasions should marked by an appropriate limited edition model.

Behold the Brooks B17 Select World Traveller 2012.

Like all of the saddles in the Brooks Select line, the tops have all been made with certified organic leather, from cows living up to seven years. Production is limited to 2012 pieces.

Hand hammered copper rivets fix the Select leather top to a copper-chromed steel frame and rails, a combination that produces colour tones never previously attained by a Brooks saddle.

But the B17 Select World Traveller has another very notable feature.

Throughout the 1920′s and 30′s, precisely one artist in the entire world made his name rendering the Bicycle on canvas and paper. Frank Patterson won fame using the notion of Two Human Powered Wheels as his Muse, and his excellence was such that he became Illustrator of Choice for the Brooks catalogues of that era.

We approached the English illustrator Richard Phipps to provide us with some print designs which we hoped would evoke Patterson’s huge contribution to the Brooks Story, as well as alluding to the occasions which we hope to mark in this special year for both London and Cycling.

Richard’s piece both succinctly and beautifully captures the flavour we were looking for. The soft sepia lines portray a Gentleman Cyclist traversing the Globe, his necessaries stowed in his panniers. Almost literally On Top Of The World.

In recognition of the year in question, production as we say has been capped at 2012 saddles. Our B17 World Traveller is available from May at Selected (no pun intended) Brooks Dealers Of Excellence.

In London, bus lanes which fall under the jurisdiction of the City Of Westminster are also cleared for use by cyclists. This is, broadly speaking, a Good Thing. Buses are big, slow and noisy. You can generally hear or see them coming from the vantage point of your saddle if you’re paying a little attention. And when they’ve passed, you can then continue to luxuriate in the extra space that a bus lane provides for somebody on two human powered wheels, while others sit gridlocked in their cars, blood pressure rocketing.

One person who could possibly tell us a little about blood pressure is John Griffin, CEO of London’s largest minicab firm Addison Lee.

The minicab game is a high octane, high stress, Rollercoaster of Emotions for all parties involved. With competitors perennially undercutting each other, it’s all you can do to hang on to your most prized accounts. And driver turnover, while not quite on a par with bike messaging, is rather high.

It’s reckoned that London minicab base controllers hear the sentence “I’m still stuck in the (expletive deleted) traffic” 17 times per minute of every shift.

When is a taxi not a taxi? When it’s a minicab! Note the Limited Edition White Swallow.

So Time naturally being of the Essence for minicab firms, it was only a matter of, well, time until someone in charge decided to reinterpret the Highway Code for their own benefit.

Step forward Mr. Griffin!

He reckons his minicab drivers are within their rights to use bus lanes, and has instructed them to henceforth do so, if and when they see fit. He has also generously promised to cover any traffic fines they incur. These instructions come at a time when, by his own admission, London is experiencing a huge upturn in bicycle use.

Mr. Griffin has predicted that this influx of novice riders will necessarily translate into more accidents involving bikes. Of course, he has neglected to mention that by extension, some of these accidents may now be likely to also involve minicab drivers. And who knows, maybe even minicab drivers in bus lanes who weren’t supposed to be in said bus lanes!

As of this morning, it remained unclear as to whether Mr. Griffin was also prepared to cover costs above and beyond a traffic fine in the event of the unthinkable.

At any rate, several prominent Addison Lee account holders have switched service providers, and there are several online cycling advocacy groups encouraging others to do likewise. A petition calling for the withdrawal of their trading license is also doing the rounds.

Ladies! Gentlemen! Say Hi to Kristina Storey! At the start of the month, Kristina packed her bags, hopped on her bike and joined the WCR Grand Tour in search of the Guinness World Record for Fastest Circumnavigation of Any Planet by a Female.

She is already bringing up the average Sanity Quotient of our increasingly loopy Peloton of riders, who find themselves flung to the four corners of the Earth, and combatting the gradual onset of Saddle Fever.

Of course, it’s inevitable that when one puts a man on a bike and sends him out in all sorts of weather for upwards of ten, twelve hours per day, every day, his mind will sooner or later start playing tricks on him. Martin Walker, for example, thinks he’s been sitting in an airport for three days. Oh, wait. He has been sitting in an airport for three days.

Or had been, at least, until yesterday. He decided a change of continent would do him good, but wasn’t keen on forking out extortionate flight change costs. So he had 72 hours before check-in opened to take stock of how things had been going for him. First man to greet him off the plane in New Zealand was none other than his mile-clocking Nemesis Mike Hall!

Or maybe he just imagined it.

Sickeningly, Martin discovered this morning that his camera and log book are currently missing. Hopefully he has remote uploads. Mr. Hall has been quick to eliminate himself from the list of suspects.

Meanwhile, Sean Conway has his neck firmly braced, and is firmly out there where the buses don’t run, eating crows for breakfast by the look of him (see below). The Rollercoaster of Emotions which he has ridden these past weeks would, in fairness, test the mental stability of… um… a very mentally stable person indeed. And Sean is nothing if not very mentally stable, generally speaking. He’s tearing along again, anyway, and it’s almost as if he hadn’t been recently hit by a truck, sustaining nasty leg and spine injuries.

(Left) Sean Conway, teetering on the brink. (Right) Niel’s imaginary friend told him to share this.

Niel Coventry Brown is still in South America. He has encountered much of the indigenous fauna on his trip, and reckons he inadvertently rode over an alligator last week. You sure that’s not the half gallon of Cola talking, Niel?

The Real Thing. Niel unwinds in the plush environs of a Bolivian motel bathroom.

No, seriously. Niel rode over an alligator last week.

Having lived to tell the tale, Niel was then forced to negotiate a lot of rough roads used by a lot of rough drivers. He’s in Brazil now, and his blog has several excellent posts covering his impressions of the time thus far spent in South America.

One man with a famously healthy appetite on the Tour is Richard Dunnett. He has just finished the New Zealand leg of his ride, and is heading for pastures greener. While having cracked the 10000km mark, he has been a little disappointed with his recent daily mileage. Mike Hall and himself managed to catch up for a quick Carbo Load before he left.

What are the chances? Pretty good, actually. Half of our racers are currently in New Zealand

Stephen Phillips is fairly sure he’s in New Zealand. He may have been tempted during the occasional bout of madness to smash up his bike over the past weeks, because since rejoining the fray, it’s been all headwinds, cold rain and punctures. He had resisted the urge until now, but the airline charged with expediting his luggage to Wellington very kindly did the job for him! He has filled out the necessary forms, and is rolling with a bent disc and dodgy headset. His tent and air mattress are also slashed. We think he probably isn’t making this up.

His Twitter feed currently consists of sentences which describe what he’s just had to eat. Plenty of kiwi fruits, unsurprisingly.

Irishman Simon Hutchinson is feeling none the worse for his recent spill in Perth and is motoring through the Australian outback as we speak, while Stuart Lansdale has been using his downtime in Bangkok to update his travel journal. His new frame will be there any day now.

Open since last week, the cycling theme is accentuated by a Bespoke Bike Building service. A choice of Brompton, Condor and Mercian frames is available for visitors who wish to let their imagination run wild.

Some of the Paul Smith Rapha jerseys at the Harrods Pop-Up.

There are also some fully finished bikes for those who prefer to buy Prêt à Rouler. The take up so far, we gather, has been very encouraging.

With such a collaboration taking place in the heart of the English capital, using the finest in English engineering ingenuity and design, it should come as no surprise to learn that Brooks saddles provide the final touch to all of the bikes.

The Paul Smith Condor with Brooks Swift, and Slender Grips.

The Paul Smith Harrods Pop-Up can be visited until mid-June, and the line of Jerseys will be available to buy at Harrods until autumn. The saddles for the foreseeable future.

Suits you, Sir! A Mercian with Brooks Turquoise trimmings.

Paul Smith Pop Up Shop
5th Floor
87–135 Brompton Road
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 7XL