Bicycles from Britain

Outside a busy factory in Birmingham, England last week, "Help Wanted" signs went up for 200 workers. The Hercules Cycle & Motor Co., one of the Big Three of Britain's thriving bicycle industry, was adding a new assembly line to feed the hungry export demand for British bikes. The hungriest customer is the U.S. Before the war, Britain shipped only 4,000 bikes a year to the U.S. This year imports rose to 110,000 during the first four months (usually the slow season). This was too much success for U.S. bikemakers, who demanded a boost in the tariff (now 7 1/2% to 15%).

Spurred on by such complaints, the U.S. Tariff Commission announced last week that it would investigate charges that imports are hurting the American industry. (Two years ago a tariff boost was denied.) The British, say U.S. competitors, can produce bicycles and land them in the U.S. for less than the cost of U.S. manufacture. This is partly because of lower wage rates (about 58-c- an hour, v. about $1.80 in the U.S.). But it is also because the British, who invented the foot-pedaled bicycle, have adopted the U.S. invention of mass production. Britons can make bikes cheaper because their production, twice that of the U.S., is concentrated in three companies, while most U.S. manufacture is scattered among ten.

Fad & Fancy. The fad for British bikes got a big boost from the 5,000,000 U.S.

servicemen who served in Britain during the war and became acquainted with the trim, lightweight British bicycle (28-33 Ibs., v. the typical 55 Ibs. in the U.S.). The bikes also caught the fancy of U.S. youngsters, who liked such grown-up refinements as generator-operated lights, hand brakes and three-speed gear systems.

On top of that, the British aggressively advertised and ballyhooed their product, e.g., an 8,000-mile U.S. tour by a London bus covered with advertising placards.

They also tied up with sellers who knew the American market, thus won allies to keep tariffs down, since some of the sales agents are also manufacturers. Last year Hercules, a subsidiary of Britain's big Tube Investments Ltd., made a deal to have its bikes distributed in the U.S. by the Cleveland Welding Co., a subsidiary of American Machine & Foundry Co.

(TIME, Nov. 16), along with the U.S.

firm's own balloon-tired "Roadmasters." Raleigh Industries, Ltd., which has an assembly plant in Boston, this spring started to supply all the lightweight bikes for Huffman Manufacturing Co. of Dayton, Ohio ("Huffy"). B.S.A. Cycles Ltd.

last month bought out the Rich Child Cycle Co. of Nutley, N.J., for many years one of its distributors in the U.S., and plans to make lightweight bikes in the plant.

Sport & Luxury. To keep tariffs down and to forestall quotas, the British will rely most heavily on the argument that they have not hurt U.S. sales but have created a new U.S. market. Despite imports of 600,000 last year, sales of U.S.

bikes have also gone up. from 1,252,000 in 1939 to 2,005,806. Says Hercules Boss Arthur Chamberlain*: "We feel sure there is a parallel demand for both American and British machines in the American market . . . Older teen-agers ... are learning that cycling can be a form of sport and healthy recreation." The American market has also taught Bikemaker Chamberlain a lesson about selling in Britain. For the U.S. market, the company made a bike called "The New Yorker," with more glitter, chrome and gadgets than was considered good taste in Britain. The model has caught on so fast in England that it is becoming the company's best seller.

* Cousin of onetime Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

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