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Excelsior Motor Company was initially established in the 1870s in Coventry, Warwickshire as a bicycle company making penny-farthings. Back then, they operated under the name of Bayliss, Thomas and Co., and later sold their bicycles under the name of Excelsior and Eureka. In 1910, the name finally changed to Excelsior Motor Company and has been the same ever since. For 11 years, they kept operating in the same place and in 1921 they moved to Tyseley, Birmingham.

In their first few years, their motorcycle portfolio was not very wide and included only a small limited number of models including Minerva, De Dion, MMC, and Condor 850cc. The company also tried its luck with a 3-wheeled car somewhere down the lane but this did not go well and it was not sent into production. Later on, they entered the car market with a 4-wheeled car which was pretty successful back then. Excelsior manufactured its last motorcycle in 1964 and was sold to another market giant ‘Britax’ in 1965.

The company is often confused with the ‘American Excelsior’ since it also manufactured motorcycles and existed around the same time frame as this one.

Interesting Facts About Excelsior

• In 1929, Excelsior achieved its first racing success. They had won the Lightweight TT Race on the B14. After this success, the B14 continued to become one of the most popular models by the company.
• Excelsior made the 98cc Welbike in World War II. This bike was intended to be used by paratroopers for moving across the battlefield easily.
• The English rider J.S. Wright broke his own world record for hitting the maximum speed on one of Excelsior’s machines. He used the Silver Comet Excelsior-J.A.P. and was just over 163 miles per hour.
• In its short tenure of around 40 years in motorcycle manufacturing, the company manufactured and released more than 40 different models of motorcycles.