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Revision as of 15:04, 30 September 2020
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2020) |
Osborn Engineering Company was a British manufacturer of motorcycles, which sold its machines under the OEC brand name.
The company was founded by John Osborn in 1901, producing Minerva engined bikes. Later machines used a variety of engines from companies such as Blackburne, and JAP. During the Second World War, OEC ceased motorcycle production to concentrate on war work, but went back to motorcycle production before ceasing production in 1954.
OEC Motorcycles
Osborn Engineering made a splash at the 1922 Olympia show with a 1000cc OEC-Blackburne motorcycle with a luxury sidecar designed for use as a taxi-cab. This was a conventional motorcycle except in one striking aspect, it had a steering wheel instead of handlebars.[1]
In 1927 OEC introduced its first bike with the duplex steering system. The most famous model produced by the firm was the OEC Commander introduced in 1938, with a 500 cc single-cylinder Matchless engine and duplex steering.
In 1949 the company commenced production of the Atlanta, a lightweight machine with a choice of 122 cc or 197 cc Villiers engines, followed in 1951 by the Apollo, with a 248 cc side-valve Brockhouse engine. Neither of these postwar machines was successful and the company ceased production in 1954.
Speed Record
In 1930 there were numerous attempts at gaining the motorcycle speed record by various companies, and OEC was one of them. On August 31st 1930 a motorcycle with a special OEC frame - the OEC-Temple-JAP - ridden by Joe Wright gained the world speed record at Arpajon, France, at 137.32mph.[2] Less than a month later the record was taken by Ernste Hemme on a supercharged BMW to 137.85 mph (221.85 km/h) at Ingolstadt, Germany.
OEC and Joe Wright set to regain the record in Cork in November 1930, and while the record was broken at 150.7mph on 6th November, and the OEC-Temple-JAP was exhibited as the record-breaker at the Olympia show - the truth turned out to be that the OEC developed an engine problem, and the record breaking ride was on a backup Zenith-JAP motorcycle. The Zenith company being in financial difficulties, and OEC paying for the record attempt, the facts got mis-reported. The truth did however come out fairly soon after the Olympia show.[3]
References
Further reading
- Brown, Roland (1999), The History of British Bikes, Parragon, ISBN 978-0-7525-3153-3