Edwardian/1920s Bike Identification

[GliderRider]

A picture came to light yesterday of my grandmother sitting on what was presumably my grandfather's bike. I've been scouring the web to identify the bike, but its proving difficult.

Most lightweight bikes of this era had the silencer across the frame in front of the engine and the magneto mounted ahead of the engine above the silencer. This has neither.

The registration BK1865 is clearly visible in the photo and what appear to be the letters 'AA' just below the cylinder flange on the crankcase.

Any help will be much appreciated!

[SamR380]

Possibly Alldays & Onions, during their 'Alldays Allon' phase. It looks like they used the crankcase as a stressed member, like in the picture.

(I'm not a pre-war bike expert)

[trickywoo]

Looks more 1910s than 20s to me.

Lots of bikes looked very similar at the start. For example the flared front mudguard you think may be distinctive is actually pretty universal.

Likewise the tank.

It might not be the engine it came out of the factory with so trying to ID by exhaust may be a red herring.

You could probably find 10 different makes of bike that look very similar but not quite the same.

[kev b]

Registered in Portsmouth thats all I can add for certain.

The bike looks pre WW1 but Grans’ fashion is post WW, probably mid 1920s.

I think I have seen similar forks on Royal Enfields and a similar engine in a Terrot.

[srob]

I think it's a late 19-teens New Imperial although as mentioned above, there were many small manufacturers pumping out very similar bikes using similar bits with different names on the tank!

Something like this: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/20322/lot/318/c191...

Edited by srob on Wednesday 2nd November 12:59

[trickywoo]

srob said:

I think it's a late 19-teens New Imperial although as mentioned above, there were many small manufacturers pumping out very similar bikes using similar bits with different names on the tank!

Something like this: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/20322/lot/318/c191...

Edited by srob on Wednesday 2nd November 12:59

Hats off - thats a really good shout.

[GliderRider]

Thank you everyone for your contributions. I agree that srob has it with the 1917 New Imperial. Everything seems to fit.

Gran was born in 1903 on Hayling Island and spent the rest of her life there. Hayling is the next island going East from Portsea Island where Portsmouth is, so it was a local bike even if Grandad didn't buy it new.

[carinaman]

Excellent. Interesting thread and nice to see an identification. 'Stressed members' is a feature that seems to press some of my buttons but seems they were a thing over a century ago. I wondered what was going on with the back wheel before I noticed the belt drive.