Zenith Motorcycles

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
logo

Zenith Motorcycles was an English motorcycle manufacturer based in Finsbury Park in London from 1904 to 1950.

Company history

The motorcycle manufacturer presented initially a Bicar forth generated by a motor of the company Fafnir was driven. Other built-in motors used were from Blackburne , Green , Green-Precision , Villiers , JAP and Bradshaw .

The breakthrough for the brand came in 1908 when chief designer Fred Barnes designed a transmission with a variable pulley on the engine. The tension of the V-belt was maintained by a variably displaceable rear wheel axle. This system enabled the engine to always run at maximum power / torque and thus to adapt the translation to the topography.

The superiority of this continuously variable transmission meant that Zenith was no longer allowed to start by most organizers of races, especially mountain races, in order to give other brands the chance to win. This in turn was exploited by Zenith as a publicity stunt by depicting a motorcycle behind bars under the brand name with the word "barred".

From around 1920, Zenith built conventional three-speed transmissions into their very sporty motorcycles. During this time there were also records with JAP built-in motors . A number of records were set with Zenith motorcycles up to 1935.

After the Second World War they tried again to get into business, which did not succeed for several reasons. On the one hand, Zenith was always a smaller, exclusive brand that could no longer keep up in terms of price with the few major manufacturers in England, and on the other hand there was simply no suitable supplier who could deliver built-in motors. A few motorcycles were still screwed together from existing parts and sold until 1950. The money to run an own engine development was obviously not available.

Brand features

The brand has always been characterized by its sporty, beautiful lines down to the last details of the motorcycles. For example, in the mid-1920s, Zenith used leaf spring saddles. The leaf springs were intended to be attached directly to the frame. The chassis were also always kept very low. A Zenith with 28 "X3" tires, as used by Zenith until the mid-1920s, can be driven by rather short people without any problems.

  • Zenith Gradua (1912)

  • Zenith-JAP team (1924)

  • 346 cc Zenith JAP (1924)

  • 500 cc Zenith JAP racing machine (1938)

  • Zenith-JAP at the Hamburg City Park Race 2006

Automobile production

Between 1905 and 1906, the company also manufactured automobiles with the Popular model . A two-cylinder engine from Stevens with 6 HP power drove the drive axle via a belt.

literature

Web links

Commons : Zenith  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .