1922 Rudge 499cc 3½hp Chain-drive Model

• Rare, early, chain-drive Rudge
• Present family ownership since 1969
• Kept on static display
• Requires sympathetic recommissioning/restoration

Formed by the acquisition in 1894 of the Rudge Cycle Company Ltd by the Pugh family's Whitworth Cycle Company, Rudge-Whitworth built its first motorcycle in 1910 and is best remembered for its famous variable-pulley belt-drive 'Multi' gear and pioneering use of four-valve cylinder heads. Unlike many of their contemporaries, Rudge did not use a proprietary engine but one of their own design, a 499cc single with inlet-over-exhaust valve gear. The new 3½hp model proved outstandingly successful: in 1911 Victor Surridge's becoming the first 500cc machine to exceed 60 miles in one hour, while Rudge-mounted Cyril Pullin won the Isle of Man Senior TT for the Coventry manufacturer in 1914. Prior to this landmark achievement, Rudge had jumped the gun somewhat with the introduction of a TT sports model in the spring of 1911, before any of its machines had competed in the Isle of Man! Rudge continued to set world records at Brooklands, establishing new one-hour and two-hour marks in 1912 at more than 65 miles and 122 miles respectively. The firm also figured prominently in the popular reliability trials of the day, thereby demonstrating that its products were durable as well as fast. By 1919 however, the belt-drive Multi gear was already outdated, and subsequent models used three- and (later) four-speed countershaft gearboxes and chain drive.
First registered in August 1922, the chain-driven 3½hp model offered here is an extraordinary survivor of an early Vintage-era Rudge and a very suitable candidate for a sympathetic 'oily rag' recommissioning or restoration. Amazingly, the machine appears to retain its original paint, transfers, handlebar grips, saddle, and lighting set. 'AP 7666' was purchased in 1969 from a P A Clare of Beulah Hill, London, for £85 and has been in the vendor's family's possession ever since (purchase receipt is on file). Kept on static display as part of an important private collection, the Rudge also comes with Leicester County Council correspondence; an old-style V5; and an old-style duplicate logbook issued in 1975.