The Quadrant Cycle Company was a company in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

that was established in 1890 as a

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

manufacturer. They advanced to make

motorcycles A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising, ...

from 1899 until their demise in 1928. They also made a

tricar A three-wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels. Some are motorized tricycles, which may be legally classed as motorcycles, while others are tricycles without a motor, some of which are human-powered vehicles and animal-powered vehicles. Over ...

called Carette in 1899 and a small number of cars for about two years around 1906. The company exhibited a car

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

with a four-speed Lloyd

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

of the style known as "

crossed rollers Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

"; this allowed

direct drive A direct-drive mechanism is a mechanism design where the force or torque from a prime mover is transmitted directly to the effector device (such as the drive wheels of a vehicle) without involving any intermediate couplings such as a gear train o ...

at all speeds. The used 14/16 or 20/22 hp engines made by

White and Poppe White and Poppe Limited owned a Coventry proprietary engine building and gearbox manufacturing business established in 1899. Many early motor vehicle manufacturers making only a small number of vehicles bought in their major components and Whit ...

References

David Burgess Wise, ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles''.
Made in Birmingham, The Birmingham Motorcycle Industry
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands {{Brass-auto-stub

See also

References