The Morgan Motor Company is nothing if not old-fashioned, both in the cars it builds and the place in which it builds them. It's hard then to think of a better collaboration for Morgan to undertake than with an equally old-timey British bicycle company, and that's exactly what it's done. We're just surprised the bicycles aren't framed in wood!
The bicycle company in question is Britain's oldest extant manufacturer of people-powered two-wheeled machines, Pashley, and the Pashley-Morgan series of bicycles promises to be as beautiful, charming and quaint as you could possibly hope for.
In a move that's more quintessentially British than Marmite, Morgan and Pashley are building beautiful old-timey bicycles together.
Morgan/Pashley
The Pashley-Morgan series of bikes will come in two distinct flavors: the Pashley-Morgan 8 and the Pashley-Morgan 3, so named for the number of gears they offer. The 8 comes equipped with Shimano's Nexus eight-speed internally geared hub (as opposed to a derailleur and gear stack arrangement) paired with a Shimano dynamo front hub to generate power for the bicycle's chrome headlight. We're swooning already.
It will be painted in a light pearl gray and feature touches from racing liveries of Morgans past, as well as a Brooks Cambium B17 vulcanized rubber saddle, hand-stitched black leather handgrips and wooden mud and chainguards that are built in-house at the Morgan factory in the Malvern Hills, England.
The Pashley-Morgan 3 is the more relaxed traditional cruiser of the two models available with its leather saddle and three-speed drivetrain.
Morgan/Pashley
The Pashley-Morgan 3 makes use of that most quintessentially English of bicycle drivetrains, the Sturmey-Archer 3-speed internally geared hub, for less "racy" performance and it's paired with a Sturmey-Archer dynamo front hub to drive the light. The 3 features a more traditional leather Brooks saddle and a British racing green paint job.
The frames are built by Pashley in its Stratford-upon-Avon factory (that's where Shakespeare is from, my dudes! So British!) by what we can only imagine are wizened old folks in aprons with half-spectacles. The bikes, being handmade, aren't cheap, with prices in the UK starting at around the equivalent of $1,909 for the Pashley-Morgan 3 and $2,037 for the 8.
The bikes will be available directly from Morgan dealers around the world and selected Pashley dealers starting soon.
