The book ‘A History of Rover Cycles’ (published in 1998) provides the best help to calculate the age of Rovers. We know the company became The Rover Cycle Co Ltd in 1896 and it changed to The Rover Co Ltd on 25 October 1905. This was shown on Rover headbadges. Rod brakes were introduced in 1904, as on the machine featured here. The illustration below is from 1903.
Rovers are sought-after machines. This example is in good order and ready to ride, though it has a few minor issues regarding originality: the head clip is wrong, it’s missing its lamp bracket, the seat post is fixed in place (Rover seat posts are slightly narrower than usual and I don’t have a correct one that will fit lower into the seat tube), and the front hub is later. These are issues that a new owner can sort out easily enough.
I bought it around 9 years ago as I needed a Rover to ‘militarise’ for my book on the history of military bicycles. Most bicycles at the start of World War One were civilian single speed models to which the manufacturers added military fittings. Accordingly, I added rifle clips and a rifle and you can see it featured in my book further down this page. It’s not being sold with rifle clips.
View in the Online Bicycle Museum
BICYCLE COLLECTORS CURATED ONLINE AUCTION, Spring 2026
This Timed Auction is live from 21st of March 2026 @ 2-30pm to 4th of April, 2026. Highest bid wins.
NO BUYERS or SELLERS PREMIUM.
THE RESERVE IS THE START PRICE + BUY-IT-NOW OPTION.
INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY: NO PACKING FEES.
BIDDING INCREMENTS: Up to £1000 = £10. Over £1000 = £50. Over £2000 = £100
IT’S A CURATED AUCTION – Colin is the auctioneer and is available to chat to you personally during the auction (or before) by email, text message, phone call, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
