Bill Whitcomb

1984 Bill Whitcomb

Bill Whitcomb and "Whitcomb bicycles" were made in Liverpool.
Barrie Witcomb and "Witcomb Cycles" were  made  in London.
(a common mistake made by many, it's all in the "H")

Not a huge amount is known about Bill Whitcomb, based on fact anyway. Many rumours abound on the internet. Basically Bill spent most of his career working with other frame builders, or building for local bike shop's.

The things we know for sure are that Bill started out as an apprentice to Harry Quinn at Walton road, Liverpool and carried on building with Harry up until Harry sold the business around 1979. In the same time period he also designed some frames with the Soens's. This may have included some frame making, but as yet, we can't confirm that.  We know Bill spent some time in the USA and built bikes while he was out there. For whatever reason , Bill returned to the UK and Liverpool in the 1980's. He then had a spell building frames, under his own name, and developed a fine reputation, building "road", "touring" and "time trial" frames. We also know that Bill was reunited with Harry Quinn and Peter Quinn, his son, building Harry Quinn bicycles again in Wales.
We have so far ascertained that Bill built under his own name here, and in America. We can confirm that he also built frames for Harry Quinn, Walvale Cycles- Liverpool, Cyclesports- Bangor, North Wales, and Ron Spencer Cycles, Warrington There maybe many more?
So the search goes on to find out more about this fine Merseyside builder, Bill Whitcomb. If you have any further details about Bill and his framebuilding career, photo's of frames, or complete bicycles, etc. Please contact us at merseysidebicycles@gmail.com


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