Rudge

The Coventry-based Rudge Whitworth Cycles company was founded by George Woodcock in 1894, after a merger between the Whitworth Cycle Company and D. Rudge & Co. bicycles of Coventry. D. Rudge & Co. was the result of a merger between the Tangent & Coventry Tricycle Company and Rudge Cycles, which was founded in 1870 by Daniel Rudge (1841—1880). Rudge Whitworth produced high-wheel (penny farthing) bicycles and safety bicycles until 1909, when the company entered the motorcycle market. The first Rudge motorcycles were French-built Werner motorcycles from Michel and Eugene Werner, re-branded with the Rudge name.

By 1911 Rudge began producing its own motorcycles. The first Rudge was a 500 cc single-cylinder motorcycle with an IOE (inlet over exhaust) F-head. In 1935, Rudge Whitworth was acquired by Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI), a gramophone manufacturing company which had formed in 1931. 1939 was the last production year for Rudge motorcycles, and EMI repurposed the factory to produce radar for the British war effort.

Rudge bicycle division continued production until 1943, when it was sold to the Raleigh Bicycle Company. Raleigh had also previously purchased several bicycle divisions from other notable motorcycle companies, including BSA Cycles Ltd., Triumph Cycle Co. Ltd. and Humber Motorcycles of Wolverhampton.