KINGS OWN  |  1910  |  UK  :

Traded as The King’s Own Cycle Works, Cycle and Motor Makers at 111 Southampton Street, London, from 1903 to 1907, according to the South London Trade Directory of 1907. They made bicycles and three-wheelers with De Dion engines and motorcycles with Minerva, MMC and JAP engines.

The machine that appeared at Brooklands in April 1910, ridden by E.B. Ware, represented a substantially more ambitious specification than the typical motorcycle of the earlier period. An 8hp JAP V-twin engine was a large and powerful unit for the era, placing the King’s Own at the sporting end of the market rather than the utility end. The choice of a P&M two-speed gear was a technically progressive detail. Phelon and Moore was established in 1904, and their motorcycles were notable for a two-speed gear and chain drive to the rear wheel, the firm having made the first completely chain-driven motorcycle. At the 1910 Cycle and Motorcycle Exhibition, the P&M 3.5hp model for the coming season embodied a free engine and two-speed gear with chain drive. Fitting a P&M two-speed gear to a JAP-engined machine of another maker’s construction was not unusual at the time; the P&M transmission was available to assemblers as a proprietary component and was well regarded for its mechanical soundness.

All-chain drive in 1910 was still a mark of engineering commitment rather than standard practice. Most motorcycles of the period still used belt final drive, and the all-chain configuration specified on the King’s Own, combined with the two-speed P&M gear, produced a machine that was mechanically advanced for its moment.