Dawes
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
manufacturer known for its high-quality hand-built bicycles. Dawes produces a full range of bikes including road, mountain bike
Mountain bike
A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...
s and tandems
Tandem bicycle
The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement , not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side-by-side is called a sociable.-History:Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the late 19th...
, but is best known for touring bikes
Touring bicycle
A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase , frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity , heavy duty wheels , and...
, specifically the Galaxy
Dawes Galaxy
The Dawes Galaxy is a range of touring bicycles manufactured by Dawes of the United Kingdom.The Galaxy series is popular amongst touring cyclists because of features such as a long wheelbase and a slightly heavier but stiffer frame which allows luggage to be loaded on the bike...
and the Super Galaxy model lines.
Founded in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, the company is now a significant brand in the UK. It is not related to Dawes USA. Dawes was originally primarily a racing cycle manufacturer, and it was in this guise that the trademark Galaxy first appeared, but since 1971, when it was fitted with wide-ratio gears and Reynolds 531
Reynolds 531
Reynolds 531 is a brand name, registered to Reynolds Cycle Technology of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, for a manganese-molybdenum, medium carbon steel bicycle tubing....
tubing, the Galaxy has been the benchmark in the English touring bicycle market. Bikes were originally hand-built in Tyseley
Tyseley
Tyseley is a district in the southern half of the city of Birmingham, England, near the Coventry Road and the districts of Small Heath and Yardley...
, near Birmingham, but frames are now manufactured in the Far East and assembled in the UK.
Dawes was one of the first companies to produce a complete single speed mountain bike, the Edge One.
Some vintage Dawes cycles have a distinctive curved seat tube that parallels the rear wheel closely, in order to reduce the wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
length.