Rex was a motorcycle company which began 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...

, England in 1900. Rex soon merged with a Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 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....

 maker named Allard

Allard

The Allard Motor Company was an English car manufacturer founded in 1936 by Sydney Allard. The company, based in Putney, London. until 1945 and then in Clapham, London, produced approximately 1900 cars until its closure in 1966....

 and then later in 1922 the company merged with Coventry's 'Acme' motorcycle company forming 'Rex Acme'. The company existed until 1933, and, in its heyday, was considered one of the greatest names in the British motorcycle industry.

Company history

Originally, Rex Motorcycles was founded in Birmingham by brothers William and Harold Williamson in 1899, merged with Allard, a Coventry bicycle maker, in 1902, the name remaining Rex. In 1904 they began making motorcycles. The founders were fired by the company in 1911. In 1919 Coventry Acme was taken over, and in 1922 the two companies were amalgamated to form Rex-Acme. Wal L. Handley then raced Rex-Acme motorcycles, making them famous, and even became a company director, but left in 1928 to ride different machinery. Handley rode Blackburne

Blackburne (motorcycles)

Blackburne was a trade name of Burney and Blackburne Limited a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1913 to 1922 at Tongham near Farnham, Surrey...

 173 cc singles, and, in 1926, ohv 498 cc V twins. The name began to fade, and in 1932 was taken over by side-car manufacturers, Mills-Fullford, who ceased manufacture of Rex-Acme motorcycles in 1933. Other famous motorcycle racers that rode Rex-Acme motorcycles were H. G. Tyrell Smith

H. G. Tyrell Smith

Henry George Tyrell-Smith was an Irish motorcycle road racer. He was born in Co Dublin and studied at Trinity College, Dublin for a BSc degree. He raced at the Isle of Man TT from 1927 to 1939, and between 1929 and 1936 competed in the German Grand Prix...

, Arthur Taylor, Charles Needham, Hans Hasenauer, Felice Bonetto, Karl Machu and Otto Cecconi.

Rex (1903 - 1922)

Around 1903 Rex produced motorcycles with engines above and driving, the front wheel. (the Werner engine position). The engines were Rex’s own, and included singles and V twins. In 1904 there was a 372 cc model which had the silencer cast with the cylinder in one piece. In 1905 the side valve Rex model was rated at 3.25 hp. When they stopped producing these, they used Blackburne engines of 532 cc and 896 cc with Roc patent gear hubs. When the company fired the founders in 1911, George Hemingway had in house engines made again, but models with other engines were still built. Rex made their first telescopic forks in 1906, used rotary-valve engines, and in 1908 were the first to put a downward angle on the top tube, lowering the riding position. In 1914 there was a 349 cc two stroke and 940 cc V twins.

After the First World War, the first bike, a 550 cc sv single, was soon dropped in favour of new Blackburne engined machines. These had a longer wheelbase sidecar version available. The singles now had 499 cc, the V twins 998 cc.

Rex Acme (1922 - 1933)

In the years that followed Rex-Acme motorcycles used engines from 173 cc to 746 cc. There were sv and ohv Blackburne engines, sv JAP

JA Prestwich Industries Ltd

JA Prestwich Industries, was an English engineering company named after founder John Alfred Prestwich, which produced cinematographic equipment, internal combustion engines , and other examples of precision engineering.-History:J. A...

 engines and also a sleeve valve 348 cc Barr & Stroud. In 1928 there was a 346 cc ohv MAG engined model.

The 1929 Rex-Acme range consisted of 346 cc ohv models with two JAP versions, one with 74 mm bore x 80 mm stroke and the other with 70 mm bore x 90 mm stroke; also available as double port engines; 746 cc JAP engined V twin; 496 cc sv singles with JAP or Blackburne engines; 300 cc sv singles with cheaper frames and JAP or Blackburne engines and also similar 346 cc versions., the Speed King with 346 cc Blackburne ohv engines in two versions; and also two versions of a 496 cc Blackburne engined ohv single. There was also a 172 cc Villiers engined super sports model.

In the following years, Rex-Acme also fitted MAG and Sturmey-Archer

Sturmey-Archer

Sturmey-Archer is a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. It primarily produces bicycle hub gears but has also produced motorcycle hubs....

engines.