This has to be my lucky day! Not often I have the chance to bat on about Elswick-Hopper (the book is in process and I am currently stranded in 1914). The purchase of Elswick in 1910 was intended to be an entry to an prestigious retail market. Fred Hopper had previously only sold to the trade or exported, the latter in large quantities. Post WWI the company entered the retail market on both fronts and dictated that a dealer was either an Elswick seller or a Hopper seller. As the years went by it became a badge engineering exercise and in 1961 or 1962 the pretence of separate offerings had ceased. However, the Lincoln Imp was available in both Hopper and Elswick livery and the Hopper Vampire equivalant was the Elswick Avenger and the Hopper Hawk was also sold as the Elswick Imp! (1937)
Nigel Land Barton on Humber
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 11:37:20 -0500 From: "kohl57@starpower.net" <kohl57@starpower.net> To: mountgerald@btopenworld.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Re: The Hopper Message-ID: <380-220061318163720218@M2W126.mail2web.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Reply-To: kohl57@starpower.net Message: 12
Original Message: ----------------- From: Mark Stevens mountgerald@btopenworld.com Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:54:40 -0000 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: The Hopper
Do you know when Hopper and Elswick amalgamated to become Elswick Hopper ? Mark Stevens Evanton Scotland
That's a good question... I am not sure they ever "amalgamated" in t erms of the bicycle brands. You either bought an Elswick or a Hooper but both ca me from the same Barton-on-Humber factory. At least through the early 'sixties. They used to run parallel adverts in British cycling magazines . As a combined operation, they date back to the turn of the century. But I am not sure if there was a CR era "Elswick-Hooper" bicycle as such.
But you gotta love a company that gave you a choice of a Hooper "Vampire" or an Elswick "Lincoln Imp"!
Anyway, as so often, Sheldon Brown's website tells all:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
Peter Kohler Washington DC USA
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