Rudge motorcycles
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| Predecessor | Rudge Cycle Co, Whitworth Cycle Co |
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| Founded | 1894 merger of predecessors |
| Founder | Daniel Rudge, Charles H Pugh |
| Defunct | 1939 |
| Headquarters | Coventry & Birmingham, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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C H, C V and John Pugh |
| Products | Bicycles, motorcycles, wheels |
Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle,motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pugh (1840–1901) and his two sons Charles Vernon and John, and Rudge Cycle Co of Coventry (which descended from a bicycle company founded by Daniel Rudge of Wolverhampton).
Rudge motorcycles were produced from 1911 to 1946. The firm was known for its innovations in engine and transmission design, and its racing successes. Their sales motto was "Rudge it, do not trudge it."
The company also produced the first detachable wire wheel in 1907, and was known for its knockoff wheels on sports cars well into the 1960s.
In the early 1900s John Pugh (1872-1936), son of company founder Charles Pugh and a pioneer motorist, decided that there had to be a better way of dealing with punctured tyres than having to change the tyre with the wheel still fixed to the car. In competition with Victor Riley of the Riley Cycle Company they both designed a detachable wheel locked in place by a single large nut. Pugh was granted a patent for his wheel in 1908. There were detailed differences in the design resulting in legal disputes between the two companies over the intellectual rights to the detachable wheel. Pugh eventually lost the dispute following appeal to the House of Lords.
The design of the hub has three main elements - a splined hub to locate the wheel and two mating cones, one at the inner end which centres the wheel and the other at the nut end. These cones transmit the majority of the torque to the wheel freeing the splines of much of the load. One of the key features of the Pugh design is that it is self tightening. The wheels on the right side of the car have a left hand thread on the nut and vice versa. If the wheel becomes loose the tendency is for the locking nut to tighten and hold the wheel securely.
The system was taken up enthusiastically by the racing fraternity where the advantage of a quick change wheel was obvious. At the 1908 Isle of Man TT race, 21 of the 35 entrants used Rudge-Whitworth wheels, and only one of the finishers didn't. By 1913, the use of detachable wire wheels was universal in grands prix.
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