Alldays Matchless 269cc, 1914

The delightfully named Alldays and Onions engineering company was founded back in 1650 in Birmingham, England. They manufactured motorcycles from 1903 to 1927. Our example dates from 1914. It has a two stroke 269c Villiers engine, no clutch and no gear change. This meant that if you needed to stop for any reason, you had to cut the engine, which was done by a decompression lever - a device which opened a hole in the top of the engine. The engine was restarted by pushing the bike along with your feet (or rolling down a hill) until it had reached a decent speed and then letting go of the decompression lever, whereupon the engine would (should) spring back into life carrying you along at up to 35 mph until you came to your next stop. This of course was in the days before traffic lights, roundabouts and traffic jams. It is available for period events, productions and photo shoots.

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