Hi All, Following is a history of the English Sun/Parkes Cycles, courtesy
of Mick Butler, who asked me to share it with you all.
>"Sun Cycles & Fittings Company Limited celebrated their 75th Anniversary
>in 1961. The original firm was started in 1885 as James Parkes and Son,
>Brass founders, in Alma Street, Birmingham. Amongst other things, they
>manufactured light fittings. It was the manufacture of these light
>fittings that finally gave the name of 'Sun' to the company. James Parkes
>was a famous Birmingham industrialist. In 1885 James Parkes took advantage
>of the new bicycle market and the company began to make frames and
>fittings for other companies. This new product proved very successful and
>the company moved to larger premises in Aston Brook Street, Aston, in
>1886. Sun was in the same street as R.T. Shelley who owned Norton and very
>near to the back of the Norton factory, which was also in Aston Brook Street.
>After the move the company changed its name to THE SUN CYCLE FITTINGS COMPANY.
>The founder, James Parkes died in 1896.
>In 1907, Joseph Parkes, James's son, changed the name of the company to
>THE SUN CYCLE AND FITTINGS COMPANY and the company was also incorporated
>as a limited company. It was about this time Sun started making their own
>bicycles using the name of SUN and SUN SPIDER. Prior to this the company
>produced lugs and fittings for bicycles, cutting and boring the early lugs
>out of solid steel. They also produced the Sun carbon lamp.
>The Sun as we know it as the huge lightweight maker from our youth really
>started in 1925 when F.C.Parkes and his son Peter were inspired after
>seeing a French lightweight bicycle. This gave them the idea to make and
>sell lightweight cycling to the British public. They set about improving
>these Continental designs. The first problem they tackled was to better
>the French design by making their frames more lively responsive and
>lighter. Sun were at that time one of the very few concerns manufacturing
>fittings for both sports and racing machines and had all the company's
>resources behind him.
>The wheelbase of the French made machines was much longer than the Sun
>Company wanted. So with the aid and co-operation of Austin Reynolds, Mr
>Parkes visited Reynolds Tyseley works, to instruct the fork blade makers
>on the exact bend and shape he wanted. This was a very important part of
>the Parkes idea and design, for he always contended that the fork should
>be designed according to the head angle of the frame. The results of his
>prototypes, experimentation and deliberations were the introduction of the
>first Sun Wasp bicycle with 70-degree parallel angles and a wheelbase of
>42.5". This claimed Mr.Parkes was the first upright design, which was
>fully brazed up (Cycling's Show Report 1928).
>They first exhibited the Wasp at London's Olympia on Stand 17 and the
>press gave the new model rave reviews. It was inexpensive and had
>excellent equipment. Available in three sizes 20" 21" 22" with a bottom
>bracket height of 10.5". Its front forks were D to round with a small offset.
>Sun was very successful in the cycle industry, making many patented
>improvements to bicycles. In 1936 F.C. Parkes, grandson of the founder,
>with his son Peter Parkes, developed the lightweight Parkes sports cycle,
>which became the standard machine for cycle racing throughout the world.
> From the thirties to the fifties Sun had a separate company producing
>bicycles under the Parkes name.
>
>We also have all the other products and innovations from Sun Cycles to be
>thankful for: In the 1920's the self lubricating centrifugal action
>freewheel, oiled from an oil bath in the hub centre. In the 30's badge
>steel extensions way before Cinelli. The Sun Manx and Manxman TT models
>with either strutted bottom bracket to increase the rigidity of the rear
>triangle or the quirky USWB designed TT frame. The Jay and Apex fork and
>the modern resilient fork with its gradual fork rake plus those wonderful
>telescopic adjustable bag carriers, which were just great for touring
>with. My favourite was the staggered seat tube angle on their double
>diamond tandem frame. What a godsend and how wonderful to all of us
>stokers. They designed this to give us the same wheelbase length but with
>a much longer stokers top tube, really comfy for us hardened tandem
>riders. In the 1940's Sun popularized the alloy brake calliper and hooded
>levers here in the UK, some even branded as Sun Wasp. They even made a
>derailleur gear guard in the late 50's.
>For many years Peter Parkes was head of design at Sun and like his father
>disliked frames built with parallel angles but the finally had to succumb
>to fashion and they introduced the Sun Wasp Champion du Monde with 72
>parallel angles but they always maintained that a frame of equal angles
>has a fixed top tube length and this cannot give the best results for
>every size of rider. Although the original Wasp was a parallel frame.
>They also made those wonderful cast Sun lug patterns for either solos or
>tandems. Builders like Jack Jones or Harry Ferris cut and created into
>something special and unique.
>. The company was taken over by Tube Investments, (Raleigh) in early 1958.
>The Chairman, Fred Parkes, announced the company would continue exactly as
>before but motorcycle production ceased in 1959. Sun badged pedal cycles
>continued to be produced by Raleigh until 1986. After 1963 Sun Cycles
>carried a Worksop name, presumably being built at the Carlton works.
>So the cycle side Sun's main period of fame was from the middle 1920s
>through to the fifties. The Wasp (which was also the name of a Sun
>motorcycle) was a popular budget clubman's lightweight. They also produced
>tandems.
>In 1959 Sun cycles (Parkes) became part of the British Cycle Corporation,
>which was absorbed by Raleigh in 1960.
>The Birmingham rider, Trevor Bull first professional shirt being
>emblazoned with Sun cycles, even though he was riding for Carlton!
>There was a Sun-Truewel racing team in the late 60s
>The year that Sun celebrated their 75th Anniversary and it coincided with
>Raleigh shutting down the Sun Aston Brooks works and Fred Parkes retired
>at the same time.
>Nothing is left of the original Sun factory in Aston Brook Street in
>Birmingham. The site of the factory has been completely re-developed and
>the once very busy Aston Brook Street, also the home of Norton, has been
>truncated at one end by a car park and the other end by the Aston
>Expressway (A38M).
>Selbach, Merlin, Carpenter and a whole host of other makers started the
>lightweigh craze off just after the First World War but it was really the
>Sun that gave bought us cheap affordable continental design lightweights
>to the British clubman or girl."
All the best, Phil Easton, Cambria, California, USA