Lot 617: 1925 Quadrant 624cc Motorcycle Combination

In the early 1880s, Walter and William Lloyd patented a pedal tricycle steering mechanism, calling their invention ‘Quadrant’, a name that would later be applied to complete bicycles, tricycles and motorcycles. Built at Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, the first of the latter appeared in 1901, making Quadrant one of this country’s earliest motorcycle manufacturers. Called the ‘Autocyclette’, the first Quadrant was little more than one of the firm’s bicycles with a proprietary Minerva engine attached to the front down-tube. For 1903 the design was revised, the engine, now Quadrant’s own, moving to the conventional ‘Werner’ position within a new loop frame.

Early in 1907 the Lloyds split with fellow board member Tom Silver, Walter going his own way to manufacture the LMC while Silver retained the rights to the Quadrant name and designs. After a relatively brief sojourn in Coventry the firm returned to Birmingham in 1911. A 1,129cc v-twin was added to the range for 1913 but did not last long, the mainstay of Quadrant’s production at this time being a 600cc single. Post-WWI, large-capacity singles, of 654cc and 780cc, continued to be a fixture of the range, to which was added a 490cc model in 1924. An overhead-valve, twin-port version of the latter was new for 1927, but by now Quadrant was in terminal decline and production ceased in 1928.

This restored single-cylinder Quadrant motorcycle combination was used for the first twelve-or-so months of its life before being laid up in 1926, remaining stored in farm outbuildings until 1963 when it passed to a village youth group in West Dorset (Walditch/Bothenhampton) as a restoration project. This group folded in 1964/65 and the dismantled machine was stored in the garage of a relative of the current owner, to whom it was willed on his death in 2000. Undertaken between 2001 and 2005, the restoration of this rare machine included powder-coating the cycle parts; re-plating brightwork; checking engine, transmission and magneto; and fitting new tyres, tubes, toolboxes and sidecar canopy. The machine is offered with old-style logbook and Swansea V5 registration document.