MUSEUM PIECES BEST KEPT SECRET
Zenith [noun, usually singular] = pinnacle, apogee, summit [antonym, nadir, abyss]. That’s how the Cambridge Dictionary describes the name that British engineer Frederick W. Barnes, then 27, chose in 1905 to market an innovative two-wheeler with a low-slung frame and hub-centre steering named the Bi-car. Powered by a 3hp German Fafnir engine, when launched at the Crystal Palace show that year this was said to be ‘A revolution in motorcycles’.
Although the Bi-car had but a short life, its maker went on to experience both the zenith and the nadir of two-wheeled existence, including copious Brooklands race victories, and twice breaking the World Land Speed Record. Moreover, Zenith rode out two World Wars, but in between them also survived receivership as a consequence of the Depression, before finally dying a death in 1950 simply because it could no longer source engines to fit into its bikes. That’s quite some roller-coaster ride.
London-based Zenith Motors was only ever a relatively small manufacturer, but had significant success in speed contests throughout the ’ Teens and ’ Twenties. Manchester-born Freddie Barnes was the driving force behind it, a pioneering inventor who relished the stimulus of competition.
After the Bi-car he began production of more conventional Zenith motorcycles in 1907 in his North London workshop at Finsbury Park with the Fafnir-powered Zenette, featuring a Druid girder fork and a triangular frame with optional scissor-action rear suspension. But in 1908, to overcome the difficulty of climbing gradients in the days before motorcycles had gearboxes, when direct drive to the rear wheel, invariably via belt, was the industry norm, Barnes developed and patented his own Gradua Gear system. Originally known as the ‘Barnes Pulley’, this provided a rider-selected continuously variable final drive ratio controlled via a handle, so the overall ratio could be altered while on the move. Other variable crank pulley systems of the day required the machine to come to a halt while the gearing was altered, whereas the Gradua system allowed this to be done on the move.
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