KYMA | 1903-04 | UK :
Kyma motorcycles were produced by the New Kyma Car Co. in Peckham Rye, London. The company built a Sociable tricycle that combined a motorcycle front with a wickerwork body carrying two seats side by side. The tricycle was offered with either a 2.75 horsepower air cooled engine or a 4 horsepower water cooled engine. The machines were advertised as reliable and strong, with ease of control, and were priced at 69 guineas for the 4 horsepower model and 85 guineas for the 5 horsepower twin cylinder model.
The years 1903 and 1904 formed a transitional moment in British personal transport. The motorcycle had become a practical machine, but it carried only one person. The automobile remained beyond the reach of most buyers. Between these two worlds lay a contested territory filled with forecars, tricars and sociable tricycles. These machines attempted to combine the economy of the motorcycle with the social usefulness of the car, carrying two people in some degree of comfort without the cost or complexity of a true four wheeled vehicle. It was into this territory that the New Kyma Car Company of Peckham Rye in south east London introduced its machine in 1903.
Peckham Rye was a prosperous working class district south of the Thames with a tradition of small manufacturing and engineering businesses. The New Kyma Car Company joined a considerable number of small London firms, including the Iris Motor Co. of Brixton and the Wass and Cocks enterprise of Ealing Dean, who were producing motor vehicles in the capital during the Edwardian boom.
In 1903 the New Kyma Car Co. produced a Sociable tricycle. The front was essentially a motorcycle and the rear a wickerwork body with two seats side by side. Two engine sizes were listed, one of 2¾ horsepower and air cooled, the other of 4 horsepower and water cooled. Transmission was by chain to a countershaft and then by belt on each side to the rear wheels. A two speed gear was included and steering was by wheel.
The sociable configuration, with two passengers seated side by side rather than in tandem, had a long history in cycling. It dated back to the earliest pedal tricycles of the 1880s and was particularly associated with mixed sex riding, since it allowed a gentleman to accompany a lady without either having to ride ahead of or behind the other. Sociables were developed first among cycling machines for this reason, and the Kyma simply carried this social logic into the motorised age.
The machine’s layout was essentially that of a motorcycle at the front, with handlebars, forks and a single front wheel, attached to a broad rear section carrying two rear wheels and the wickerwork passenger body. This wickerwork construction was entirely conventional for the period. Wickerwork carrier bodies hung on springs were standard fittings on Edwardian tricars and delivery vehicles, combining lightness with adequate strength and a degree of comfort over rough roads. The side by side seating arrangement of the Kyma was considerably rarer and gave the machine its distinctive sociable character.
The transmission arrangement was carefully considered. Instead of a simple single belt drive from engine to rear wheel, which would have been the cheapest solution, the Kyma used a chain to an intermediate countershaft and then twin belts, one to each rear wheel. This gave the machine better traction and allowed some degree of differential action between the rear wheels when cornering, which addressed one of the fundamental problems of early three wheelers with a live rear axle. The two speed gear and steering wheel were refinements that pushed the Kyma toward the car end of the market rather than the motorcycle end, supporting the manufacturer’s insistence on calling it a car rather than a tricar or motorcycle.
The choice of two engine options, a simpler and cheaper air cooled 2¾ horsepower unit and a more powerful water cooled 4 horsepower engine, gave buyers a choice between economy and performance. Water cooling in 1903 was still regarded as a premium feature. The sidecar itself only received its provisional patent in early 1903, and the Kyma’s water cooled option placed it alongside machines such as the Iris Motor Co.’s water cooled range as a technically ambitious product for its time.
By 1904 the Kyma had evolved considerably. Power had risen to either 4 horsepower or 5 horsepower from V twin engines. The machines were advertised as the Kyma Light Car, reliable and strong, with ease of control and described as just the thing for the winter. They were priced at 69 guineas for the 4 horsepower model and 85 guineas for the 5 horsepower twin cylinder.
The adoption of V twin power was a significant improvement. The V twin engine gave smoother power delivery than the singles used in 1903 and was better suited to the weight of a sociable carrying two adults. The marketing language is revealing. The appeal to winter usability was shrewd, since one of the chief disadvantages of the conventional motorcycle was its unsuitability for bad weather. A machine with weather protection for both riders addressed a genuine practical need. The winter marketing pitch also implied that the Kyma offered shelter that solo motorcycles did not, with the wickerwork body presumably accommodating some form of apron or weather shield.
The pricing placed the Kyma clearly in the luxury tier of the market. At 69 guineas for the base model it was considerably more expensive than a solo motorcycle. By comparison, the Evart Hall, itself a premium inline four cylinder machine, was priced at £70 for the solo version. The 5 horsepower twin cylinder Kyma at 85 guineas was approaching the cost of a modest four wheeled car, which helps explain why such vehicles struggled commercially.
The company produced three and four wheelers between 1903 and 1905 and was identified in contemporary sources as the New Kyma Car Co. of Peckham Rye. The Kyma was an English automobile manufactured from 1903 to 1905 and came in 6 horsepower twin cylinder models of three and four wheels.
The Kyma existed at the moment when the sociable tricar concept was being most actively explored across the British industry, and its brief lifespan of roughly two years was typical of the form. The fundamental problem with the sociable configuration was that it satisfied neither the motorcyclist nor the motorist. Its width, necessary to seat two people side by side, made it awkward on narrow Edwardian roads and difficult to garage. Its open construction offered less weather protection than a true car. Its price was high enough to invite comparison with small four wheelers. The conventional forecar arrangement, with a passenger seated ahead of the rider between two front wheels, turned out to be more commercially successful because it was narrower and more motorcycle like, fitting the existing mental category more comfortably.
The detachable forecar enjoyed only a short life, although makers of entire forecars and tricars, which were not convertible, continued to produce such vehicles for a decade or more in modest numbers. The Kyma’s sociable configuration was an even more specialised product than the standard forecar, and the market for it was correspondingly smaller.
The New Kyma Car Company left little trace beyond entries in contemporary trade directories and brief notices in the motor press. It was not a pioneering machine in the way the Binks four cylinder or the Iris water cooled twin were. It was a competent local product that applied established technology, including chain and belt transmission, two speed gearing and V twin power, in a thoughtful combination aimed at the sociable passenger market. The wickerwork two seater body, the steering wheel and the all weather marketing pitch all suggest a manufacturer who understood his potential customers. These were not motorcyclists seeking speed but couples and companions who wanted the economy of motor power combined with the social pleasure of travelling side by side.
That the company did not survive beyond 1905 reflects not the inadequacy of the machine but the harsh economics of the Edwardian motor trade, in which many small and competent enterprises were swept away by the contraction of the market after the boom years of 1902 to 1904. The Kyma remains a small but genuine footnote in the history of London’s motor industry and in the broader story of how the Edwardian period tried, and largely failed, to find a comfortable middle ground between the motorcycle and the car.
