Flash Cycles
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Bicycles |
| Founded 📆 | 1947 |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , Australia |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Eddie Barron |
| Products 📟 | Bicycles and Sporting Equipment |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | [Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 665: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). ] |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Flash Cycles was a manufacturer of bicycles and seller of general sporting goods in Midland, Western Australia.[1]
Ex serviceman Eddie Barron[2] opened Flash Cycles in a shop at 29 Newcastle Road (later Great Northern Highway), in the Perth suburb of Midland in 1947. [3] Barron, himself a successful track and road cyclist, promoted the business through sponsorship of the sport, and employed competitive cyclists in Flash shops and in the factory.[4] Barron's contribution to the sport is recognised by the naming of the road to the SpeedDome, Perth's only velodrome, after him; Eddie Barron Drive.[1][5]
Flash was run by Barron and his wife Joy until 1980 when it was taken over by Bob and Shirley Reynolds.[1]
Most Flash built bicycles are recognisable by the dramatic lightning bolts brazed on the headtube and each of the front forks. The lightning bolt symbols are absent from the earliest frames which were built by Aussie Cycles, and also from later models including recumbent bicycles built by Bob Reynolds[6], and from bicycles imported from Japan during the 1970's bike boom.
The Reynolds closed Flash manufacturing and retail operations in 2000 following years of decline in retail sales, and in anticipation of compliance challenges related to the introduction of GST.[7]
Flash's sponsorship meant that many mid century Western Australian cyclists competed on Flash Cycles machines.
- 1983 World Champion Steele Bishop's first race at age 13 was ridden on a secondhand Flash originally owned by Mick Russell.[8] Following disillusionment with competitive cycling scene in Western Australia, Barron was instrumental in returning Steele to professional competition and in 1975 he was contracted to Flash for two years.[9]
- 1966 Commonwealth Games Silver Medallist Philip Bristow Stagg competed on Flash Cycles bicycle in the Jamaican games.[10]
- Mick Russell
- Robert Scott
- Rod Tedge
- Bevan Barron
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Flash Cycles - Heart and Soul of Midland". WA Historical Cycle Club. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
- ↑ "WX38562". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ↑ "Advertisement". The Swan Express. 19 Aug 1947. p. 16. Retrieved 8 April 2021 – via Trove.
- ↑ "1951 Flash Cycle made by Eddie Barron". Classic Cycle. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ↑ "Short History of the Midland Cycle Club". www.midlandcycleclub.com.au. Retrieved 2021-04-12. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Reynolds Recumbents". West Australian Historical Cycle Club. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ↑ "Bike businesss gone in a Flash". Midland Reporter. 20 June 2000. p. 4.
- ↑ Bishop, Steele (2019). Wheels of Steele. Rockpool Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-925429-86-2. Search this book on
- ↑ Bishop, Steele (2019). Wheels of Steele. Rockpool Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-925429-86-2. Search this book on
- ↑ "Phil Bristow-Stagg". West Australian Historical Cycle Club. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
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