Pregled posta

Marketing

Reading Standard (1903-1923) motorcycles were often advertised as "R-S" motorcycles. They were manufactured in a facility on River Street in Reading, Pennsylvania.

1903 — The Reading Standard brand first appeared. Those first bikes were basically Indian clones with Thor engines. They put out more motorcycles than Harley-Davidson and Indian.

1906 — They started building their own one-cylinder engines. These were the first flathead motorcycle engines offered by an American manufacturer. The company slogan "Built and Tested in the Mountains" was adopted when a Reading Standard motorcycle was the first motorized vehicle to climb Pike's Peak.

1907 — Reading Standard began racing. That same year they won their first 1,000-mile endurance race.

1908 — The first Reading Standard V-twin came out in the 1908 models. The first V-twins had conventional F-head configurations — overhead intake valve and side exhaust valve. What was really weird was the valve positions: the front cylinder had the valves on the left side, while the rear cylinder had the valves on the right side. These engines had 722 cc (44 cubic inches) displacement.

1910 — Reading Standard got out of the racing business and began to direct their attention to retail sales.

1913 — I've been unable to determine exactly what year the changes took place, but by 1913 the engines had grown to 990 cc (60 cubic inches). The bigger V-twins were flatheads. Some of the later models displaced 1180 cc (72 cubic inches).

1914 — Business was starting to go downhill.

1922 — Reading Standard sold out to the Cleveland Motorcycle Company.

1923 — Cleveland put out a 1923 Reading Standard as a low-price alternative to their own motorcycles.

1924 — The Cleveland Motorcycle Company itself went up for sale and the Reading Standard name disappeared forever.

20090917_0150-1a1_800x600

Very little input from RBW here. This now preserved Leyland Tiger had been rescued from the yard of another paintshop. As anything motorised will do, it let it's owner down at the most inconvenient of times after generally being reliable up to that point. When It had been finished, it flatly refused to move out of the booth and only did so with the help of two other operators. Once clear, and in the yard, that's where it stayed. The fault was traced to a porous air tank which we were able to patch to enable it's return to our premises where a more thorough repair could be undertaken. After repairing said tank, a diaphragm in a pressure relief valve then failed! The picture was taken as it was positioned in the road prior to departure, the owner having by now fitted his own vinyls . SUX 476X was once a member of the famous Bassett's of Tittensor (Staffs) fleet, though arriving from Britannia of Telford still serviceable in a freshly applied coat of their blue, never actually received fleet livery as seen here... until now.