Phelon & Moore was founded in 1904, but Joah Phelon patented his sloping
engine already in 1901 and it was used in a Humber.
In 1904 came a two speed gear and in 1909 started export to commonwealth countries
and between 1909 and 1914 both Mexican and New Zealand Post Office bought
several bikes ( see 1914 catalog for agents ).
In 1914-1919 they made a twin cylinder engine which never got into production.
The first world war came and P&M produced a lot of bikes for Royal Air Force
and Royal Flying Corps.
It´s a funny story how I found this bike. I met a man downtown and he
asked me how much a motorcycle frame was worth and I answered that depending
on which bike it belonged to it could be worth 5 pounds and all the way
up to a lot of pounds. But he said, If you can`t give me a fair price I
will not tell you where to find it, and we left each other.
I couldn`t forget so a couple of days later I asked an old postman there
to find this man and he gave me an adress to his sommerhouse far out in
the woods abaot two hours driving from home. At last I came to the end of
the road and a lonely house and an old lady. She got very angry than I told
her the story because it was her frame and the man had nothing to do with
it. I asked her If she still had it and she said "can it still be behind
the barn there I put it in 1939" and it was.
It was a frame a very rusty front mudguard and the back chainguard and I
asked how much she wanted for it but she said "take it if you want it" and
she offered me coffee in the garden and after a while she asked do you want
the rest of the parts, and I said yes and she started diggin beside the
road and she came up with parts of gearbox and brakes. The missing parts
are probably in a waterfilled mine about 3 miles from her house or in the
see just outside her house.
I also got two pictures of her husband on the bike so I was very happy
than I was driving back. A year later I was on my way to an autojumble with
a lot of T and A-Ford parts on my truck and was stopped by a man and he
asked how much I wanted I said a price and he said a lower price and one
engine and a motorcycletank and I said yes and we went ower to his place
and loaded of the parts and I got my money a Velocette 500 tank 1947 and
the original engine for my P&M.
In Sweden we have no record of bikes before 1919 but the oldest engine
found in Sweden is from 1914-15. But in Sweden before 1916 we made no record
of bikes and cars we made a record of bikes and car owners. From 1916 we
have record of bikes registrated and name and adress of owner. But no engine
and frame numbers. The first record of P&M in Sweden found in Messages about
Automobiltraffic Number 4 dated september 2 1919. If you click on the picture
on the left you can see many other interesting bikes registrated in Sweden
in the same period. Among them a Humber. In 1919 five bikes came to Sweden
and 8 in 1920, 4 in 1921, 4 in 1922, 1 in 1923, 4 ?? in 1924 ( can be old
bikes in a new register with new numbers which came in 1924).
Humber engine from 1904 owned by Howard Burrows
Left: Picture taken in the late twenties on see Rämen, owner and
driver Valdemar Örtlund and Martin Göransson.
Right:
As it looks today. During these years I have been to England, Ireland and
Holland on my trips for to find missing parts, sometimes with good luck.
In Ireland I found one engine, in Holland both engine and gearbox and in
England some gearbox parts and one more engine.
Below: Phillip Tooth from Cambridge on his 1917 P & M
during Dala-Rallyt in 1987, he had been driving from Cambridge to Dalacarlia
on his bike. Behind is Olle Ridelius and Kaj Hansen, in sidecar my son Niklas.
1920 advert for the new model
1920 Engine
© Mats Berglind 2004-2021
