Ryan87LX

After a few too many years off, I pulled my old bike down from the garage rafters and blew the cobwebs off. I gave it a little tune up, and it's back on the road.

I bought the bike about 15 years ago, and I've put tons of miles on it through the years. However, I was looking around on the web, and couldn't find any information on the manufacturer. The bike is a BRC 'ripper', and as I recall was supposed to be a pretty good bike at the time.

Is the company now defunct, or were they bought out by someone else, or???

Thanks for any information.

mcoine

Post a pic..

Devinw

I have resently bought a BRC Harrier from a church flea market and i cannot find any information on it either it has a store location addres on the bike 3114 highland blvd, North Vancouver but the store is now a produce store.

If you have any extra info on the bikes plz send back a letter.

Thank you

dminor 

It's Canadian.

It's old.

The only place you find them for sale is flea markets, yard sales and craigslist.

What more is there to know?

arouil1

After some good research, I found that BRC stands for Boyes & Rosser Cycles LTD and from what I can tell they do not exist anymore. It even appears that the tradmark for the company has been released for anyone to take again.

BRC
Goods/Services(1): Bicycles; bicycle touring bags; bicycle carriers; bicycle brakes and cables; bicycle chaincovers; bicycle chainwheels and cranks; bicycle forks; bicycle hubs; bicycle axles; bicycle handlebars; bicycle stems; bicycle handlegrips; bicycle water bottles; bicycle locks; bicycle mudguards; bicycle pedals; bicycle saddles; bicycle tools, bicycle spokes; bicycle tires; bicycle tubes; bicycle wheels; mini bikes; mini bike replacement parts; motorcycle brake shoes; motorcycle spokes; motorcycle chain adjusters; replacement motorcycle parts; motorcycle clutch plates; motorcycle connecting rod kits; motorcycle contact points, motorcycle condensors; motorcycle gearchange levers; motorcycle kickstart levers; motorcycle pedalarm rubbers; motorcycle mufflers and parts; motorcycle overhaul gaskets; motorcycle rectifiers; motorcycle oil seals; motorcycle pistons and parts; motorcycle valves; motorcycle cables; motorcycle footrests; motorcycle fenders; motorcycle gas caps; motorcycle handlebars; motorcycle handlebar grips; motorcycle brake leves; motorcycle switches; motorcycle windshields; motorcycle lamps; metric nuts, bolts and screws; motorcycle tools; motorcycle gloves.
Owner: BOYES & ROSSER LTD.
Address: 1012 Auckland Street
P.O. Box 846
New Westminster
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Status: EXPUNGED
Date Filed:1972-09-27
Date Registered:1973-09-28
Serial No: CA357383


Further research yeled some information on Ken Power, the owner of Cyclepower bike shop as formerly holding a Management position for BRC. I sent him an email to see if he can enlighten us on the outcome of the company.

Watchdog

Wow, impressive research there. How did you find all of that?

arouil1

I guess all those years of internet research for college papers payed off for something, lol.

I looked into everthing that came up that seamed like it migh give some kind of clue to the information that I was seaking and when you get enough clues, they starte to fit together. I found one page that was talking about a specific bike and it yealded the companies full name. I then started searching using that information and found Ken Powers little biography on his companies website becuase it used the full name of the company. Now to just hear if he has anything to say.

arouil1

Ok every, here is the reply from Ken Powers. I thanked him for the information.

Daspydyr 

WOW, bikes older than my stuff-AMAZING! If it rides, its all good. Go work up a sweat. You'll be better for the effort.

cryptid01

arouil1

He is Ken Powers, LOL. Not Kenny Powers.

Schooner57

Worked for Boyes & Rosser as a student, summers 1976-9. Shop/warehouse was in Coquitlam BC; Stuart Boyes must be long gone by now, he was an old-style Empire-type businessman, had the demeanor of a retired military officer; I quite respected him. Guys like that put a lot of dinners on a lot of tables, paid my way thru Univ. The going joke was "who's Rosser?" - "the guy on the carton" (a 1950s b&w bike racer logo), we never knew. He had a coule of guys who knew what they were doing, an old wheelwright "Percy" who I recall breaking up fights between the young bucks, amazingly. He had a M/C division downtown New Westminster as well; in addition to bikes we carried pretty much everything you'd find in sporting goods at MEC nowadays. It was us vs. CCM vs. Gitane & Raleigh imports at the time; ours were coming in from Korea by '78.

Now... urbanista zemllatt.

/Schooner57

Ryan87LX

The internet never ceases to amaze me.

I'll post a pic of the bike in a couple of days. Thanks to everybody for all the information and research that has been done.

Ryan

marymoondrops

My other half found a boyes rosser cruiser at a second hand store ($35). He says it is the most comfortable bike he has ever ridden, and our search to see if we could find me one, too, led us here. This is the most info we found on it, period! Do you know if there are ways of tracking them down? (Other than a lot of legwork and luck ) The other boyes rosser's we tracked down are mostly BMX's in museums...

Schooner57

Craigslist, always has a couple of BRC bikes on it.

John_hunt

Stu Boyes bought my grandparents house , barn , on 5 acers next door to us in 1963 .
southeast corner of 188th and 56th ave Cloverdale . A church there now , and a lot of houses . Grandfather had 10 acers and dad had the 10 acers next door .
He was an importer who would travel to Japan and the UK to purchase bikes (and have the BRC emblem put on them so your bike my be from either country ) among other things . Dad got a portable short wave radio and us children also got gifts from his travels . We moved to Prince George in 1965 .
He past away a few years ago and his wife and son Tim live in Whiterock now (her in a assited living home and Tim nearby ) his two daughters , Pam & Marg are on Vancouver Island now .

Schooner57

Sorry to hear old Stuart Boyes passed away, though I had so presumed. I recall reading of the passing of his sidekick Mickey Sehmer a year or two ago, too.
Funny thing is, I sometimes think I'm the last Canadian to wear a tie to work... I suppose it was his influence.
That leaves my current loyalties with Cap's Cycle, having grown up behind the old shop in Sapperton.

Turbo231

Nice thread, good to know information. Not a lot on the internet but you guys are right, you can do research on CL/Kijiji. I have found a similar bike here in Alberta that is a "Beach Comber" that is a 1-speed coaster brake and one bike in Quebec that is similar to this one.

I had wondered if this bike was converted to a 5 speed given the sloppy cable placement and aluminum brakes on what seems to be an entry level bike, but it appears it maybe stock, I'm not sure. I'd love any feed back on this. I'm restoring it for a customer, she loves it so its a nice project. I'm hoping to pull a date code off the derailleur to date the bike.

I'm replacing tires, most cables are frozen, and removing that weird handlebar foam, otherwise its in really good shape.

Daspydyr 

C'mon dminor, isn't there some story about BRC coming to power during prohibition and being used to run bootleg liquor past tax agents to Atlantic City? C'mon dude, its Friday, to dang hot to ride and I'm bored!

curbtender

Yes, really hot thread. Op first post was in 07' and the second one in 10'. That makes him due for his third post...

Turbo231

True....and not sure why this isn't in C&V as the company has been dead since 1990. It seems every brand has its own post, which is nice, but no one seems to post here as their don't seem to be too many owners that care or visit this site.

lumail

I rescued a BRC Megatour from where it had been tossed over a bank, beautiful lugged frame that i actually set up as a road bike, the 700 c wheels fit fine, am now going to repossess it as my town bike since my dear sweet 91 Kona Explosif got ripped off in the dirty city, looking forward to the smooth old skool steel ride. This is a hot thread, lets commemorate these old bikes, locally made.

bikerdoc

Actually, I've seen this post a couple times...I have an '88 BRC Switchback. Used it regularly until about 10 yrs ago. Decided to pull it out last summer...the chainstay had a split from water freezing. I decided to ask around if it could & should be fixed. I met an apprentice welder at a LBS and he offered to reseal and heat treat it. He did a great job and I've gradually started repainting and rebuilding it. Fortunately the BB and cranks are still spinning smooth and the front and rear Shimano Deore derailleurs and shifters still work fine. I'm hoping to complete the rebuild this month and finally have my urban/commuter convert back on the road. All I have now is a dbl suspension mountain bike which I'll never use for commuting.

Keep rubber-side down!

tsladen

does anyone have any idea what model of BRC this is? I rescued it from the dump and am going to restore it for my daughter. Thanks

Isoking

For Turbo231
I have the same bike except white. My rear brake cable is seized. I would like to fix it so i can sell it. Do you remember where you found the brake cables for it?