classic motorcycle forum

Rex, your joke about the time machine had me day-dreaming. Just think what you could take back in your head.  I was thinking, what is it we have today which are just basically good ideas that simply did not occur to anybody in 1925 ? I thought of like the concept of the disc brake for instance.  The Rudge seemed to have brakes rather like a push-bike, vulcanised rubber on metal ?  Might have needed a couple of miles to stop from full speed......

Then I realised I am a not being very practical, whole new industries would have to be founded and techniques developed even for a disk brake, right ?  At that date, they would not be able to produce the steel to the required heat and wear-resistance, nor manufacture the brake pad material, nor accurately machine the bores of hydraulic brake cylinders (I am not a bike buff, please don't tease or scoff at me).

Fun to think about though, eh?

The lady atop this motorcycle was Mrs Grace Livesey, who was born sometime before 1910.  When she married Mr Jack Livesey, she moved into a new house in Kingstanding, Birmingham, and lived her whole life there until her mid-nineties.  I first knew her as my next door neighbour ‘Aunty’ Grace when I was born in 1943. Up until her retirement from work and for quite some time afterwards, she commuted on a motor cycle (not the one in the photo all the time, of course!).

I have this photo of her from my late father’s collection, and it dates from around 1930 I would think. I am quite interested to know the make and model of this bike, and I hope sharing this picture will be of interest to a few people on this site. If anyone has memories of her or more likely her husband Jack, I will be pleased to correspond. Jack was a very experienced engineer and model-maker who exhibited.  His son John Livesey was also an engineer, and worked with I think, the bus transport maintenance department of Birmingham City Council, up until the 80's at least.