Bikes back then were all made of steel, brazed with lugs or in the case of early Dursley Pedersons, soldered with lead.  Carbon fibre and aluminium have now replaced steel on the mass production lines and exotic sounding provinces of the Far East, have replaced Coventry and Birmingham. In the first half of the 20^th century, there were millions of bikes made in the UK. Large companies such as Raleigh, Elswick, BSA, Rudge and Rover to name but a few made ones for everyday use.

Then there were ‘Lightweights’ made by smaller companies or one man artisans, each with their own style and and distinctive lugs or tubing features such as Bates, Hetchins and Freddie Grubb. Up until the 1980’s it was considered the done thing for a cyclist to buy from a small builder either a quality off-the-peg, a made-to-measure or a bespoke frame and then build up their own custom bicycle. The large companies just did not produce expensive top of the range bikes as discerning riders preferred the high quality, individuality offered by their local or nationally renowned lightweight specialist frame builder. Mass production bought quality value for money bikes to everyone, and the specialist builders supplied riders who not only wanted the best but wanted some input to the sizing, design, colour scheme and component build.