Bob Duschka's Zenith

Bob Duschka bought his first new bike, a Zenith, in 1948 when he was fifteen. He worked as a telegram delivery boy at the Inglewood Post Office and would ride this bike for work, fun and sport. He raced the bike using a fixed gear on the flip flop hub. 

He continued riding the Zenith until his death in 2016 aged 83. 

Along the way it has had several updates, as many bikes do. Around 1970 the frame was stripped back to bare metal & repainted with an automotive metallic turquoise spraycan paint. Many of the original components were re-plated. The original Dunlop steel rims were refurbished and painted. 

Later, possibly in the early 80s, Bob again repainted, this time with Keep’s Synthetic Enamel for Writing. The ‘Poppy’ colour paint was hand brushed and this is the colour the bike retains today. Bob did all his own bike assembly and repairs. Some components were updated, possibly purchased from Speedlite of Maylands as the downtube now carries their branding. At that time it got new wheels - 27” Mavic rims laced to high flange Normandy hubs - as well as a Cinelli headstem and bars and Shimano 600 brakes. Bob fitted the new flip flop hub with a fixed gear and a single speed freewheel. The Brooks saddle, stamped “Genuine Butt Leather” also dates from this period.

The Williams chainring is coded AL for 1949, the Brooks saddle cantle plate is stamped A75 - January to March 1975. The frame number is 706. Top tube is 58cm CTC and the seat tube is 57 CTT.

There are some curious ties with other local bike brands. The decorative spears on the fork lugs bear an uncanny resemblance to those of Subiaco brand, Flying Arrow, where frame builder Milton Jones got his start. Zenith proprietor John Foy regularly advertised for young lads to work in his bike shop. It’s possible Bob or a mate filed the lugs of this bike. 

In the mid 1940's there was an alliance between Zenith and Speedlite as evidenced by the 25 mile Zenith Speedlite road race held in Osborne Park. The 1950 Beverley Perth programme includes a full page ad for “Zenith Speedlite Cycles - The State’s Fastest Cycle”. References to Zenith, common in the early 1940’s are replaced by references to Zenith Speedlite, and by the early 1950’s Zenith vanishes from view.

Bob’s son Paul, brought the bike to a club meeting back in 2016 looking for information about Zenith Cycles. Sadly as is the case with so many Perth manufacturers we were unable to shed much further light on the subject. It well may be that Bob’s old Zenith is one of only two still in existence. 

Paul is a design and technology teacher who, under the name Bitsa Bikes, dedicates much of his spare time to helping low income and homeless people get onto reliable bikes. He has decided that that is where his priorities lie and has generously donated his Dad’s Zenith to the club. Bob Duschka’s Zenith is a part of the October 2020 club auction.

Driver by name, rider by nature

A recent visit to the museum in Southern Cross revealed a once-loved "humble tool of the Twentieth Century" (to quote Jim Fitzpatrick’s “The Bicycle and the Bush”).  This humble tool had belonged to Fred Driver, long-time resident of nearby Moorine Rock.  Fred was a pipe runner and did a daily bicycle patrol along the Goldfield’s pipeline, checking for leaks.  The Pipeline, that most remarkable and historically poignant engineering feat in our region, provided the pulsing artery which ultimately beat Australia's longest typhoid epidemic in the Goldfields and in many other ways brought progress.  Enough progress in fact to quench an enduring thirst from mining and agriculture throughout the region.

Fred would ride alternately west to Garratt and east to Noongar, each a daily round trip of about 30 km.  His bike, remote from archivist attention, battle weary and lacking care, hangs indelicately in the Southern Cross museum shed.  

According to “The Bicycle and the Bush”, this use was typical along much of the 557km pipeline for about 60 years, from its completion in the early 1900's. Another of Fred’s humble tools was a hammer, for caulking cracked seam welds with lead shot.

The bike is unremarkable, except for its place in the history of the Goldfields.  The generous sweep of the drop bars had been turned up for comfort.  The 'Major Taylor' headstem is more often associated with racing cycles than utility bikes.  Fixed or freewheel I wondered?  Possibly fixed as the Philco rear calliper brake appeared to be an after-thought.  It was poorly aligned on the rim and what was left of the brake lever had been mounted clumsily on the top tube. 

It seems Fred was handy with a strand of wire; tidy wire reinforcements adorned the pedals and a fine figure of 8 loop secured the break link on the chain. 

Fred Gordon Driver would have been around 18 when the pipeline was completed in the early 1900’s.  He was carting water to pioneer farmers in the early 1920’s, a hint perhaps that by then he was working on the pipeline.  A perk of working on the pipeline was unlimited water for the home garden and vegetable patch.  Assuming he made his pipe runs for perhaps 25-40 years (a reasonable guess by the look of the bike), a conservative estimate puts the bike’s working life at around 200,000-300,000 km.

Fred was still residing at Moorine Rock at his death aged 73, in 1957.  No doubt he understood well what richness to life the pipeline provided, with his own dedicated contribution to it.        Robert Loughman



Paul Clohessey’s Tandem

Working at the Midland Velodrome is a quietly spoken middle-aged man named Paul Clohessey.

The name rang a bell so with the aid of Google and Wikipedia, I looked him up and subsequently sat down with him for a chat last month.  I was especially interested to find out if Paul was the young man in a picture provided by Mavis Jones taking delivery of a rather special racing bike outside the home she shared with her late husband, bike builder Milton Jones.

“Yep. That’s me. 1990 or 1991. I had it built for the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona.”

The bike is - and I’m pleased to say remains - a rather special fillet-brazed road racing tandem built out of Reynolds 531 tubing.  It was originally fitted with a Shimano 600 / Ultegra / DuraAce groupset and triple-spoked carbon fibre wheels and cost $6000.

Racing in the Vision Impaired classification, the tandem was initially piloted by Peter Stotzer in Barcelona and thereafter Eddy Hollands. The bike would go on to participate in two more Paralympic Games (Atlanta and Sydney) and two World Championships (Belgium and The Netherlands). 

“It was an incredible bike. So stiff.” 

At the 1998 Worlds in The Netherlands, Paul felt he and Eddy were good for a podium finish having surprised the opposition with a tandem track gold and broken the world record in the 4k pursuit the day before. From the outset they were marked men though, and the tactics of opposing teams would see them targeted and kept off the podium, finishing 4th overall.

In 1999 the bike was resprayed for the Sydney Olympics in which Paul and Eddy won gold in Sprint and bronze in the time trial. Paul retired from racing after the 2000 Olympics aged 30 years of age.

Paul won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals, broke numerous world records and was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). The frame now lives with Paul’s brother.
More details and photos can be found in the MHJones Register

Frank West

Stanisław Kudliński

Last October my wife and I were cycling in northern Austria. At the town of Mauthausen we turned up the valley and climbed some switchbacks in our lowest gear until the grade eased. Nestled into the broad grassed hill in front of us were the massive walls of the Mauthausen concentration camp, run as a business by the German SS during World War II.  They were a very enterprising bunch when it came to forced labour, starvation, death and worse.  We spent several hours taking in as much as we could cope with.

In the museum my eye was drawn to this old bicycle. It had been indelicately but lovingly repainted in green and gold, so it was irresistible to an Australian cyclist.  Its sweeping handle bar gave it a jaunty look but it had taken a hard hit on the left side. Foot pegs on the front forks suggested it had routinely carried someone on the handlebars. A handsome saddle sat above the simple drive train, which looked like it could go forever. The rear rack had survived somehow.

The bike belonged to Stanisław Kudliński, a polish survivor of the Mauthausen camp.  Probably 120,000 people were murdered in the camp complex (many records were destroyed and estimates range up to 200,000 according to Wikipedia).  But Stanisław survived and when he got out he didn't wait for his return home to be arranged.  He received this bicycle from nuns in nearby Linz and set off with two other survivors on a long journey through war-torn Europe, home to Poland.  He kept the bike throughout his 83 years, a powerful symbol of freedom.

We cleared our heads in the bright sun and climbed back on our own freedom machine. As we rode away from Mauthausen we couldn't feel what Stanisław felt, but we knew it felt good.

Robert Loughman

Swansea Cycles - Fremantle Legend exhibition opening

The WAHCC’s 2019 marque celebration of Swansea Cycles was opened by club Chairperson Robert Frith last Friday evening. The official opening followed an afternoon tea reunion of Swansea alumni; close to twenty of the company’s staff and riders were invited to an exclusive preview of the show. Among them were Les Baldwin’s right hand man for many years, Harold Durant, now 97, ex Freo MP Dr. John Troy and a slew of champion riders from the 50’s and 60’s including Rod Dhue, Bill Gilbride, Clarrie Minciullo, Graham Benthien, Mick O’Sullivan and Peter Buswell.

The following two days were a huge success with over 400 people seeing the exhibition, among them Chris, Celia and Rhiannon Baldwin, the son and granddaughters of Swansea founder and part owner Howard Baldwin. We also had visits from Ray Ellement, frame builder Merv Ellement’s son; Helen Jones, niece of Swansea accountant Ken Pettit; Terry, Roz and Nicole Stevenson, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter of legendary rider Dave Stevenson, later the Swansea factory manager.

A number of club members brought Swansea bikes from their collections for the show and, together with generous loans from members of the public, by Sunday lunchtime there were 34 Swanseas on display. They ranged from a humble delivery bike (Swansea’s own) to a pair of spectacularly restored road race bikes. The earliest bike on show, a verge pickup, dates to 1934 and the most recent a c. 1975 “bike boom” exercise in badge engineering.

Over the course of the weekend we added a dozen bikes to the Swansea Register and gave away 44 numbered tags to owners of registered bikes.

If you missed the show we’re sorry; it was fantastic! All is not lost though; the content that club members produced from interviews prior to the show is available here.

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1925 Northam to Perth winner A.E. Golder

A piece of West Australian cycling history resurfaced recently when I invited Mal Barker - a multiple State-Champion in his time – for a coffee and a chat about another unrelated project he is currently working on.

Mal - well into his 80’s now - had mentioned in earlier phone conversations that he owned a bike that had been lying in bits under his son’s house in Gidgegannup for the past 20 years.

“It’s not in very good condition, but all the bits are there including the Brooks saddle and the wooden wheels.  A young bloke called Golder, he was about 18 or 19 years old, he won the Northam-to-Perth race on it in 1925. It came with copies of some news articles reporting the race and it’s got some pictures of him crossing the finishing line. If you’re interested, I could bring them down when we meet. I’m never going to get around to fixing it up and my son’s not interested”.

A little bit of research on Trove, an initiative by the National Library of Australia to digitise old newspapers, revealed a number of articles including pictures of the race that confirmed that an 18 year old A.E. Golder had indeed won the Northam to Perth race in September 1925.

The Northam to Perth was a very prestigious blue-ribbon event second only to the Beverley to Perth.

Collectively, the newspaper articles and photos provide a wonderful window back to simpler times between the two world wars. 

As fate would have it, the bike would end up very much forgotten under the Golder house for nearly 75 years. In 1998, Golder’s elderly son-in-law decided it was time to do something with the bike and he gave it to Mal.

To my surprise and delight, though the bike was in poor cosmetic condition, there on the head tube was the original brass badge – The West, Built by West Cycle Ltd of Hay St. The bike’s original components, some of the best available at the time and generally in very good condition included Chater Lea cranks and axle, BSA pedals & headset, Brooks Sprinter saddle and Major Taylor style adjustable head stem. The wooden front wheel was complete and the only missing component of note was the rear hub.  With regard to the frame, of note are the especially fine seat stays, 7/8” diameter top tube and ChaterLea bottom bracket shell. Three types of wooden rims of varying diameters came  with bike – small and large tubular rims and medium sized clinchers.

The bike has been cleaned, fish oiled and coated with conservation wax.  The plan is to leave the bike in very much “as found” condition and to build a rear wood rimmed wheel for display purposes and a set of steel Westwood wheels for the very occasional gentle outing.

The Trove newspaper articles are available here; https://bit.ly/2AA3hye

Frank West.

At the finish, Golder on his “The West” racer.

Unthanks You Valda Much

Valda Unthanks Amazing Ride Adelaide-Melbourne Record Shattered

H.O.Balfe in The Referee, Oct 27th 1938

When you read about a young woman who smashes a cycling record over hundreds of miles, what is your reaction?

Do you visualise a hard-bitten, brawny, knotty-muscled ‘he-female’ with a weather-tanned face on which you could strike matches? If you do, you’re wrong; Joyce Barry; glamour girl of Australian distance cycling,proved that months and months ago. Now Mrs. Valda Unthank, latest to smash an inter-capital record with her amazing dash last week from Adelaide to Melbourne, follows suit.

They’re both charming feminine types, who look as if around of golf would be their most strenuous pastime.

In the years that have passed, our athlectic sisters have progressed from the adventure of a five miles ‘tour’ on mud-guarded, low-geared ‘wheel’, to track and road racing on the ‘bikes’ their brothers once regarded as sacred to them alone.

Although it is with Valda Unthank and her Adelaide Melbourne record of last week that this story is concerned, in the main it wouldn’t be chivalrous to disregard the others.

Joyce Barry, we know. Like Valda Unthank, she is ‘tops’ at the moment. Vera Harding and Anna Keenin,respectively 23-year-old brunette and 20-year-old blonde, who reached Melbourne last Saturday afterhaving ‘tandemed’ from Perth (W.A.), are right in thelimelight.

Pretty Elsa Barbour; first woman to set an Adelaide Melbourne record, and Mrs Price of Launceston Hobart fame, really pioneered the business of longdistance riding against time by women.

We take off our hat to them all. It seems incredible that they should possess the stamina, endurance andcourage to do what they’ve done but, there it is.

Valda Tells The Story

Had you listened to Valda Unthank’s laconic replies to my questions last Saturday, you might well have imagined that the riding of more than 400 miles and the smashing of an important record was nothing in her young life.

She left the general post office Adelaide at 5 o’clock last Wednesday evening ... rode right through to Melbourne without sleep ... and arrived at the G.P.O. Melbourne at 2.43 a.m. on Friday.

‘Did you have a good ride, Valda’?

‘Oh, yes, very pleasant.’

‘Any trouble on the way?’

‘No, only a puncture.’

‘How were the roads?’

‘Pretty bad on the SouthAustralian side, but splendidin Victoria.’

‘Were you troubled by head winds at all?

‘Oh no, I didn’t notice any.’

‘I suppose loss of sleep must have affected you?’

‘No, as a matter of fact, it didn’t. I had prepared myself for that.’

‘How did you go about that?’

‘Well, l did some longriding in training, and I made up my mind Iwouldn’t be sleepy.’

What a woman! Imagine getting home late andthinking she’d be fast asleep!

‘And what now? I understand there’s a record in Tasmania you’re going to attack?’

‘Yes, I believe there is. But I don’t know when, I leave that to the organisers. I’m just the bike rider, you know.’

What a woman! God’s gift to organisers. They make the plans, Valda does the rest.

Valda trained to a plan. Her friends plotted a route from Adelaide to Melbourne via Bordertown, instead of Adelaide-Melbourne via the Coorong - the track

other record attempters have traversed, and she rode over it once to make its acquaintance.

And Now - How She Broke The Record

On the advice or her, husband and Jack Dalton, Valda took things easily at the start. They wanted herto ‘warm up’ first. In the early stages, until she had climbed the Mount Lofty ranges, she only averaged about 13 miles an hour;

Gradually, increasing her speed, she soon maintained an average of 18 miles, an hour. The first 50 miles were covered in 3 hours 12min; 100 miles in 7.5.20;

150 miles in 11.56; 200- miles in 16.19; 250 miles in 19.12; 300

miles in 22 15; 350 in 25.15; 400 miles in 28.20; 450 miles in 32.0; and the full distance, 475 miles, in

33 hours 13 minutes. Valda covered the last 16 miles in 50 minutes, and when she dismounted at Melbourne

G.P.O. was fresh, though very leg-weary.

In this case, the record is reckoned as from post office to post office.

When Elsa Barbour made her record she rode by way of the Coorong,

Warrnambool, and Geelong covering 507 miles as against Valda’s 475.1.

Elsa’s time, 71 hours 36 minutes undoubtedly was a very meritorious ride. What is more to the point, however, is that Valda’s time bettersby 13 hours 14 minutes the Adelaide

Melbourne record time for men, 46 hours57 minutes made by Ted Waterford in his

Melbourne-Adelaide-Melbourne recordin 1934. This is the official record for men

for the Adelaide Melbourne ride. It was made on a course of 543 miles.

Valda Unthank’s ride was checked officially by Mrs. N. Smith, who followed

throughout by car as representative ofthe Victorian Women’s Amateur Cycling

Association. Incidentally, Valda is hon. secretary of the Australian Women’s Amateur Cyclists’ Union, and also is an official of the Victorian Tourists’Association.

As capable a rider on the track as she is on the roadshe is holder of the following records; Victorian quarter mile (board track), 32 1/5th sec; Melbourne-Nyah (240 miles), 15.28.23: Sale-Bairnsdale (45 miles), 2.18; Melbourne-Wonthaggi (85 miles) 4.51.30; Melbourne- Wonthaggi-Melbourne (174 miles), 10.13; tandem, Sale-Bairnsdale, 2.7.31; one mile, tandem, 1.23.

After enjoying a short spell, Valda Unthank will go to Tasmania where she will attack major long-distance records and carry out official duties on behalf of theAustralian Union.

Hector Thomas & Fleet Cycles

Hector Thomas was born in 1900. He joined the army when he was 15 years and 11 months old and went to England.  An accidental meeting with his father, who was also in the army, found him out and he was sent back to Perth.

He was determined and rejoined the army and was sent to Belgium and France. He was certainly one of the youngest to serve from WA. Hector was a signaller with the 13th Battalion. In the battle of Hamel he was wounded but stayed with his unit until the Armistice was signed.

After the First World War he returned from service and worked in the cycle industry from 1919 - 1940. He worked for Armstrong Cycle & Motor Company on Hay Street from 1925 to 1940.

The below reference is from Armstrong when Hector applied to work in a munitions factory. He didn’t end up working in the munitions factory but went off to the Second World War for another five and half years of service.

When he returned he started his own cycle shop, Fleet Cycles on Beaufort Street, Inglewood near 7th Avenue. He used to paint the bikes with enamel with the Fleet Cycles logo and then bake the enamel under lights. He also did bicycle repairs. Hector retired in 1968 when his arthritis became bad. His GP told him to stop working which he did immediately, closing the shop up and selling the property with everything intact.

The name Fleet Cycles was taken over by a bicycle shop owner in Morley for many years.

Hector Thomas lived at 22 Normanby Street, Inglewood.

Mark Powell (Hector's grandson)

Fred Buzza and Swift Cycles

This article is mainly recollections of Fred’s son John Buzza, with some additional detail provided by Allen Buzza. Fred’s Grandson Wes Buzza is keen to find out more about the history of Swift Cycles, please contact the club if you have any recollections to pass on.

My Dad, Alfred William Buzza (Fred to all that knew him), was born on 12th June 1901 in North Perth. His family moved to 2 Mint Street East Victoria Park in about 1902 or 1903. He was the youngest of four with a brother John (Jack) and 2 sisters, Vera and Olivia (Olive).

He attended the state school at Cargill Street Victoria Park and Perth Boys school in Perth. Jack was Killed in action in WW1 on the Western Front.

When Fred left school aged 14 he went into the rag trade and served his apprenticeship as a tailor’s presser. WW1 was in progress and while he was too young to fight he probably worked on military uniforms a lot of the time.

In about 1925 he started a garage business in what is now Rivervale at or near the corner of what is now Enfield Street and Kitchener Avenue. It was called Buzza’s Garage. Fred was hit pretty hard by the great depression of 1929-31and Buzza’s Garage was closed at some point. Ever resourceful Fred worked on stations around Yalgoo in shearing sheds and on farms for a time.

Around 1932 he went into a partnership with Phil someone and they started Sprint Cycles on the corner of Gresham Street in Victoria Park. This partnership dissolved in about 1934 and Fred moved to a shop at 471 Albany Highway; Swift Cycles. Dad used the Buzzalong name for the bicycles and tricycles he manufactured in-house and the Swift name on the bicycle stock he would purchase from the trade.

He married our mother on 10th March 1934, so there may have been a change in the structure of the business at that time. Mumwas a highly qualified nurse, no office wallah, and I think she would have exerted plenty of say in how the business was going to be run from then on. The house they lived in was built in 1928 by Mum’s parents and leftto her and her sister. (Sister Melva lived with them for many years until she married and went to live in Manjimup)

I didn’t come along until 1939,so all I ever knew during my childhood was that Dad had a bike shop and he made bikes. I spent a fair bit of time at the shop with Dad during the war years because Mum was in charge of a first aid post at the Cargill St school and attended there quite a bit. I saw Dad build the bikes from scratch. He used to buy all the components in; various tubing, lugs, rims, spokes, hubs, seats, handle, bars, bells, chains, sprockets, mudguards, ball bearings, brakes, brake rubbers and so on.

He had a forge and brazed the frames together with silver solder. During the war years he went to join up and was “manpowered” because he owned a small business which could be set up if required to manufacture for the war effort. It never came to that, although he was asked to make 2 samples of a small mechanism from a drawing supplied bythe Dept of War. It was top secret and at the time he didn’t know what it was. Years later, he recognised the chap who was from the DoW in the Broken Hill Hotel and was told the samples hemade were a part of a 303 rifle bolt mechanism.

As children, Allen (4 and a half years my junior) and I used to build wheels in front of the kitchen stove while we listened to the radio. We would have been about 6 & 10 by then. Dad was meticulous about the spokes being in the right place. I don’t know if it still the case but there were I think 32 spokes in the front wheel and 40 in the back. We could true the wheels and put the tyres and tubes on when we were quite young too. Dad used to do all his own painting; he had an oven for baking the enamel. He used some decal transfers but all the lining and fancywork he did himself. He had a set of lining brushes.

He also made tricycles to order for disabled and geriatric people. These were tricky as they were specially engineered frames and had to have a split rear axle to enable cornering. I was a test rider o these on more than one occasion. They were tricky to ride too because you didn’t need to try and balance them. They only had a front brake too.

The bikes he made to order were called Buzzalongs. The length of the seat pillar bar and inside leg measurement were critical. Racing bikes were a specialty. He had racing bike riders who used to ride for him in the big races like Beverley to Perth and Northam to Perth. The Northam to Perth came via Red Hill. I can remember going in the car early to Beverley. Mum would pack thermoses and sandwiches. Can’t remember breakfast but we must have had some. I think we went up Great Eastern Highway, branched off at the Lakes and went via York. Idon’t ever remember going via Brookton. It started outside theBeverley Town Hall.

We would then follow the riders down to the finish line in Maylands outside the Peninsular Hotel. As with Northam same thing startedat the town hall came via Toodyay and finished a the MaylandsPeninsular Hotel. They were exciting times.

His road racing activities was mainly sponsorship, although he did some road racing himself. I remember Lionel Felstead and Phil Kidd as two of the riders but I’m sure there were others.

Another scheme he had going was where you bought a book of 10 tickets and sold them for a pound each. That gave you 10 pounds to buy a new bike with. The people you sold the ticket to all came and got a book of tickets and so it went on. It would be illegal now as it is classed as a Ponzi Scheme. Back in those days it sold a lot of bikes.

In 1952 Dad sold the shop to Hi-way Cycles, owned by Les Andrews, whose brother had Swansea Cycles on the corner of Teddington Road and Albany Highway. Hi-way was a motor bike business as well. He had small bikes like BSA Triumph and Nortonbut I don’t think he had any Harleys or Indians.

The bike business was tough in those days. Starting from Hampshire Street in East Victoria Park there was Balmoral cycles, Sprint, Swift, Malvern Star, Swansea - I may have forgotten a couple.

Fred Buzza passed away at the age of 74.

Bike Week Exhibition

The WAHCC has been awarded Department of Transport funding to assist us in mounting a month long exhibition of bicycles in the city.

The club is partnering with the fabulous Museum of Perth, the UWA Bike Club (who'll be running a series of lunchtime seminars) and Giro d'Perth.

Bike Week runs from March 12th to 20th 2016. The exhibition will run for a month though; from February 29th to March 27th, details here.

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V.E.W. Components

Giovanni “Jack" Bazzano was born in Morano sul Po, about 50 km east of Turin in northern Italy. He arrived in Australia with his family including boys Charles (3 at the time) and Leo in about 1925. 

By 1934 he was in partnership with W.L. Morgan in the Velox Cycle Works at 356 Parramatta Road, Petersham. The partnership was dissolved in June 1934, with Morgan retaining the premises and the name Velox Cycle Works. Jack Bazzano moved to 6 Holmwood Street, Newtown, a big Victorian house. In 1934-1935 he set up a factory in sheds adjacent to the house which he named the Velox Engineering Works. Charlie, along with Leo became tradesmen producing VEW branded alloy bicycle components, including hubs that are reputed to be some of the earliest one-piece aluminium hubs in the world.

Jack competed in the 1934 Goulburn Sydney race (as an amateur for the Newtown club) and his sons Leo and Charles were prominent amateur cyclists. Charlie rode for Marrickville and swept the field for the 1945 NSW State Championship, when he was compared to the great Dunc Gray and he went on to win the NSW sprint title seven times. He competed in the 1948 Olympics and scored a fourth place in the sprint. He was beaten in the semi-finals by Reg Harris, who won a silver medal. He also represented Australia in the 1950 Empire Games (now called the Commonwealth Games) as a sprint cyclist finishing fifth in the sprint title with fellow team-mates Russell Mockridge and Sid Patterson taking the gold and silver medals. 

During the second world war, Velox was provided with a priority on aluminium that was higher than some munitions manufacturers so that they could make hubs whenever there was a shortage of them in the bicycle industry.

Velox never made hubs in anything other than aluminium, so even the most humble go-to-work austerity finished roadster bike could sport an all alloy one-piece hub that the most expensive British or European bikes could only dream of at the time.

V.E.W. made four different headstems and five grades of hubs; Roadster, Light, Continental, Special Continental and Zenith. The Roadster was a low flange model, the  Zenith, Continental and Special Continental were high or wide flange models with the Light model available in three flange sizes.

V.E.W. hubs were a mid level option on Malvern Star Five Star models from around 1951 with Harden Bacon Slicers as the premium offering.

An advertisement appearing in Sydney’s “Il Giornale Italiano” in December 1930 indicates V.E.W. also made handlebars and there have been rumours of seat posts as well. To date there is no evidence that either were ever produced 

Velox Engineering Works moved to Blakehurst, probably about 1946. They continued production of bicycle components until at least 1957. As the post war bike boom wound down during the 50's Velox diversified into the manufacture of letterboxes and mag wheels for boat trailers. Production of both lines continues to this day; Velox Engineering Works is still in business near Sutherland, south of Sydney.