KUMFURT  |  1914-16  |  UK  :

Kumfurt was one of a crop of tiny British makers that appeared in 1914 and 1915 and lasted barely two years. As the major manufacturers switched to military work, a clutch of small firms leapt into the gap with lightweights rushed to market using proprietary engines, two-strokes from the likes of Villiers and four-strokes from JAP, Precision and Blackburne, and among these short-lived marques was Kumfurt, active from 1914 to 1916. The firm was based at Cookham Rise, near Maidenhead in Berkshire, and like its contemporaries it built nothing of its own beyond the frames, buying in its power units. The recorded range ran from a model with the 269cc Villiers two-stroke, through a 499cc Precision side-valve single, to a 655cc JAP V-twin, which is exactly the spread of bought-in engines that defined the class. The smallest of these was the era’s default lightweight unit. By 1914 the Villiers 269cc two-stroke had been adopted by a large number of motorcycle manufacturers, its simplicity and attractive price making it a rapid success.

Kumfurt and its fellow newcomers all collapsed when the production of civilian motorcycles was stopped by order of the War Office. That wartime ban, which choked off the supply of materials and the market for civilian machines alike, is the solid explanation for the 1916 cessation, and it applied across the whole group of small 1914-to-1916 makers rather than to Kumfurt alone.