The Acme Motor Co is a defunct manufacturer of motorcycles that operated from premises in

Earlsdon Earlsdon is a residential suburb and electoral ward of Coventry, England. It lies approximately one mile to the southwest of Coventry City Centre. It is the birthplace of aviation pioneer Frank Whittle. Amenities Most shops and restaurants are ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

. The company started manufacturing in 1902. It was taken over by

Rex motorcycles Rex, Rex Motorcycles, Rex-Acme, (not to be confused with the German manufacturer of similar name) was a car and motorcycle company which began in Birmingham, England in 1900. Rex soon merged with a Coventry maker of bicycles and cars named Al ...

sometime before 1920. In 1922 the name of the company was changed to ''Coventry Acme Motor Co'', later that year the company was merged with Rex motorcycles to form

Rex-Acme Rex, Rex Motorcycles, Rex-Acme, (not to be confused with the German manufacturer of similar name) was a car and motorcycle company which began in Birmingham, England in 1900. Rex soon merged with a Coventry maker of bicycles and cars named All ...

History

Pre-WW1

The first motorcycles produced in 1902 used

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...

engines. Models using 2.75hp and 4.5hp

Automoto Automoto was a French bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1902, which joined with the Peugeot group in 1930 and was fully absorbed by 1962. Prior to World War II Automoto sourced engines from Chaise, Zurcher, J.A.P. JA Prestwich ...

engines were soon added, as was a 3hp model with an engine made by Acme. From 1904 the Automoto engines were produced under license by Acme. In

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

two machines were entered in the

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world ...

, but both retired on the first lap. After this no further machines were entered into the TT Races. The company filed a number of

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

s, including one for a sprung frame in 1916.

Post-WW1

After a break during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

production resumed in 1918 under managing director George Henry Hemingway. The post-war models used engines from JAP and also Acme built 350 cc

side-valve A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as ...

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and 997 cc

V-twin A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longi ...

engines. A car was produced in limited numbers in 1919. In 1920 a 976 cc V-twin

combination In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are th ...

was introduced with 8hp JAP engine, a three-speed

Sturmey Archer Sturmey-Archer was a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. It primarily produced bicycle hub gears, brakes and a great many other sundry bicycle components, most prominently during their heyday as a subsidiary of the Raleigh ...

gearbox, Brampton Biflex

forks In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

and chain drive. The engine was produced to Acme's specification with the

magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

drive on the left to allow better access to the ignition points. In 1921 a 2¾ hp single-cylinder machine with two gears was added. These later machines were almost identical to those produced by Rex motorcycles, who by this time had taken over Acme. The two companies merged in 1922 and Rex-Acme machines were produced until 1933.

References

{{British motorcycle manufacturers Defunct motorcycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England History of Coventry Coventry motor companies Vintage vehicles British companies established in 1902 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1902 1902 establishments in England