22-09-2022, 05:16 AM
Thankyou for your contributions to this thread which have brought up a number of issues !
My thoughts at the moment may be summarised as follows :
Bearing in mind that Dunlop were based at Erdington, Birmingham the presence of the Birmingham number plate OF 2878 of 1929 and the fact that Dunlop began making saddles in 1927 all fits together plausibly. It seems unlikely that an artist would utilise a genuine registration number unless the car was really existed.
However, unless Mike can locate his image of the car without its tool bag or someone else comes up with a different image then perhaps the existence of just a single one may raise doubts about whether the car was actually built !
To support Ian’s suggestion :
The attached image of an Arrow Coupe body looks like an Artists impression and I wonder if Compton ever actually built one like this, if they did it seems surprising that there seem to be no photographs of what I think is a very attractive car.
For the time being I shall put the idea to one side !
My understanding is that Dunlop saddles were constructed as a fairly hard rubber moulding on a textile backing and were rather heavier than traditional leather ones so were not popular with ‘sporting’ cyclists but because they could be wiped dry and did not absorb water like leather they found favour for use on for example, carrier cycles that tended to live outside shops in all weathers.
My thoughts at the moment may be summarised as follows :
Bearing in mind that Dunlop were based at Erdington, Birmingham the presence of the Birmingham number plate OF 2878 of 1929 and the fact that Dunlop began making saddles in 1927 all fits together plausibly. It seems unlikely that an artist would utilise a genuine registration number unless the car was really existed.
However, unless Mike can locate his image of the car without its tool bag or someone else comes up with a different image then perhaps the existence of just a single one may raise doubts about whether the car was actually built !
To support Ian’s suggestion :
The attached image of an Arrow Coupe body looks like an Artists impression and I wonder if Compton ever actually built one like this, if they did it seems surprising that there seem to be no photographs of what I think is a very attractive car.
For the time being I shall put the idea to one side !
My understanding is that Dunlop saddles were constructed as a fairly hard rubber moulding on a textile backing and were rather heavier than traditional leather ones so were not popular with ‘sporting’ cyclists but because they could be wiped dry and did not absorb water like leather they found favour for use on for example, carrier cycles that tended to live outside shops in all weathers.