Rotrax "Super Course" Serial number 57441 = 1957
* "Rotrax is one of the slightly less well known framebuilders in the UK but the quality of many of their frames in the early 1950s was as good as the very best available anywhere. Their attention to detail on their top models was just exquisite.
Rotrax Cycles was founded in 1945 at 132 Shirley Road, Southampton. There had long been a cycle shop which specialised in lightweight bikes on the premises which in the 1930s had been run by Bill Harvell. He sold the business to Freddy Prince who was a local businessman and cyclist. He was newly demobbed from the RAF and coined the new name Rotrax from the common name road/track used for bikes ridden on both the road and track with a fixed wheel. Road/track machines were very popular with many clubman from the late 1930s through to the 1960s and were often used for time trialling as well as track racing and in winter would with mudguards be used to train on. A limited company was formed and Freddy Prince soon recruited many demobbed RAF personnel some of whom had brazing and engineering skills. A frame building shop was set up in Shirley High Street. A range of frames for 1946 was soon offered, it included a Vel D’Hiv path (track) model, a name that was to stay in their range for more than 15 years"
* Read more at the website Classic Light Weights U.K. - the above entry authored by Hilary Stone
