industry bicycle manufacture and accessories predecessor ashlone cycle works founded 1926 1926 founder william frank sandy holdsworth headquarters london england area served united kingdom owner planet x limited website holdsworth bikes.com holdsworth is a bicycle manufacturer in london england . it was created by william frank holdsworth known as sandy and is now owned by planet x limited based in rotherham . contents 1 history 1.1 mass market 1.2 marketing 2 present 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit holdsworth p.b.toman sandy holdsworth took over ashlone cycle works at 132 lower richmond rd putney south west london in 1927 . 1 holdsworth continued to work during the day in his life insurance business and appointed his wife s brother owen bryars as manager . the shop mechanic jack capeling made the first holdsworth frames there around the end of the 1920s using a shed behind the building . the company expanded by the end of 1930 it had further premises at 121 lennard rd beckenham kent ; 185 markhouse road walthamstow ; and 5 thesiger road penge . holdsworth s wife margaret came from a family in the clothing business . the clothing background appears relevant because holdsworth began advertising cycling garments and shoes under the brand name worthy . the company was better regarded for clothes than for frames until the arrival in 1938 of an established frame builder bill hurlow . hurlow arrived at the time of an internal dispute which led the manager owen bryars to open a rival shop across the road and another in beckenham south london . the original company formed a subsidiary holdsworthy factoring which built w.f. holdsworth bicycles and wholesaled british made parts and those it began importing from the continent . mass market edit holdsworth bought the business and brands of freddie grubb in 1952 from the grubb family who were still running the cycle business of freddie grubb after his demise . after the business of claud butler had gone bankrupt holdsworth also bought the rights to this brand in 1958 . in 1963 the company bought the macleans brand . 2 by the time sandy holdsworth died on 28 august 1961 the company had grown too large to build the individual frames that racing cyclists were demanding . the division of operation was made clearer when owen bryars died in 1958 with the company acquiring his shops which had sold mass produced holdsworth bikes whilst the individual orders were handled by frame builder reg collard at 132 lower richmond road . marketing edit holdsworth became a national name in british cycling through both its catalogue aids to happy cycling later renamed bike rider s aids and through its professional team . in 1953 holdsworth had appointed a former sailor roy thame who had worked at a cycle shop in hemel hempstead hertfordshire where he lived . working for the company for more than 50 years thame established and managed the dominant professional cycling team that the company co sponsored with campagnolo accessories of italy a brand that holdsworth had the rights to distribute in the uk . 2 the teams riders included colin lewis who twice rode in the tour de france and the tour of britain winner les west . thame also managed the great britain teams in world championships served on british cycling federation committees nationally and acted as commissaire or chief referee on domestic multi day races such as the tour of the west . present edit after the death of mrs margaret holdsworth in the 1970s the company was split in two . the wholesale and mass production side of the business called the holdsworth company which owned the rights to all of the brands stayed in the holdsworth family . a change in cycling tastes from road to mountain bikes general foreign competition through cheap imports from asia and a sequence of management difficulties led to it being sold to rival bicycle manufacturer elswick hopper plc in the mid 1980s . the residual brands of this side of the company are today part of the falcon cycles division of tandem group plc. 2 a new holdsworth professional road bike was announced in january 2011 using the famous orange and blue colour scheme . roy thame inherited two thirds of the company effectively inheriting the specialist retail division of the company known as w.f. holdsworth . today the shop at 132 lower richmond rd putney is still there . after a period selling just low to mid range mountain and hybrid bikes it has now tried to resurrect some of the holdsworth heritage by selling road bikes including some top end frames e.g. de rosa and recently reintroduced some holdsworth branded road bikes and clothing . roy thame died aged 85 in 2006 . as of december 2013 the shop has closed and is being converted into flats . the holdsworth brand was purchased by planet x bikes and at l eroica britannia in 2015 a new heritage range of holdsworth bikes will be launched 3 developed by lorenzo altissimo . see also edit list of companies based in london references edit holdsworth british reliability personified . ebykr . a b c holdworth . classicrendezvous.com . retrieved 2012 08 04 . sneak peek holdsworth to launch steel heritage range . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to holdsworth . official website nkilgariff archive site w.f.holdsworth fh grubb claud butler holdsworth british reliability personified v t e british bicycle manufacturers current a bike bickerton boardman bootie brompton campion condor dawes defiance dolan ellis briggs enigma titanium falcon genesis halfords hetchins holdsworth islabikes lotus mercian moulton muddy fox orange paper pashley pedersen phillips planet x raleigh reynolds ridgeback robin hood saracen strida thorn ti group whyte defunct ariel bsa british eagle carlton claud butler chater lea coventry eagle coventry premier elswick hopper flying scot f.w. evans freddie grubb harry quinn hercules humber norman perry roberts rover royal enfield rudge whitworth sun sunbeam triumph viking warrick witcomb components brooks england dunlop middlemores saddles sturmey archer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title holdsworth & oldid 709210784 categories vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1927vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1987vehicle manufacture in londoncycle manufacturers of the united kingdomhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia 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