Historic Motorcycle Brands
New Imperial
New Imperial was a British motorcycle manufacturer, founded originally in 1897 in Birmingham as a bicycle parts maker by Norman Downes. The company became New Imperial Motors Ltd in 1912, when serious motorcycle production commenced.
The history of the company that became New Imperial began in the early days of the bicycle industry. From 1887, New Imperial made bicycle fittings and in 1901 made its first motorcycle. The engine was mounted forward of the handlebars and a leather belt drove the front wheel, but this model was not a sales success.
By 1908 the New Imperial Cycle Company was producing complete bicycles and, in 1910 revisited motorcycle production with a bike using a 293cc JAP engine. This was much more successful than the first effort.
In 1912, New Imperial Motors Ltd was formed and the company offered a range of three motorcycles.
1914 Model 1
In 1914, the 300cc New Imperial Light Tourist model was released and its light weight enabled it to outperform some of the heavier 500cc bikes of its time.
The Light Tourist was the beginning of a line of advanced and innovative motorcycles, but competition successes were slow in coming. A New Imperial ridden by Bert le Vack in the 1914 Senior TT race was one of the 44 out of 66 that failed to finish that year. He had a similar result in 1915.
New Imperial made sales-boosting news with Doug Prentice scoring a win in the 250cc class of the 1921 TT. This was the first of six Isle of Man Lightweight wins by New Imperial, and there was one Junior victory.
By the mid-1920s New Imperial was making about 300 machines a month and continued to do so until the Great Depression of the 1930s.
1928 Model 10
New Imperial used Precision and JAP engines of 250cc to 1000cc displacement in their motorcycles until 1925, after which the company manufactured its own engines, of 146cc to 498cc.
Female competitor Jessie Hole (later Ennis) was sponsored by Norman Downes to be the company’s trials rider in 1927, hoping that this would sell more bikes to women.
The 1920s were a financially successful decade, enabling the innovations of the 1930s that fought decline. In 1929, New Imperial production moved into a six-acre (24,000m2) purpose-built facility.
1930 Model 3
In 1932, New Imperial introduced unit construction, where the engine crankcase and gearbox were incorporated in the same casting. Initial models were the Unit Minor 150 and Unit Super 250.
Imperial expanded its use of unit-construction and by 1938 all New Imperial bikes incorporated it. Some models used Bentley and Draper sprung frames, in an era still dominated by rigid frames.
Model 23
Like nearly every automotive manufacturer around the world, New Imperial suffered financially from the sales-destroying Great Depression of the 1930s.
However, in 1934, Ginger Wood, riding a New Imperial 500cc V-twin for one hour, achieved a 102.2mph average at Brooklands. In September 1935 R J D ‘Bob’ Burnie of Sketty, Swansea, completed ‘The Flying Kilometre’ at Southport Sands in the British Open Speed Championship on the same bike at a speed of 100.76mph.
Blue Prince
Bob Foster won the 1936 Lightweight TT handsomely on a unit-construction model. Despite the advanced engineering, and the spectacular TT win by Foster, sales did not improve.
Another blow struck when company founder, Norman Downes, died in 1938. New Imperial went into liquidation, and a receiver was appointed by Lloyds Bank in November 1938.
1936 M100
Jack Sangster, of Ariel and Triumph, announced on 30th December 1938 that he had purchased New Imperial and that production would continue. In January 1939, production resumed, but concurrently New Imperial was sold to Solomon Joseph, owner of Clifford Covering and Motor Components.
Production continued, but Board of Trade records show New Imperial Ltd changed its name to Clifford Aero & Auto Ltd., Aeronautical Engineers, on 6th October 1939 and then produced aeronautical components for the War effort.
All photos are courtesy of the New Imperial Owners’ Association UK.
Model 30
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