In 1975, engineer Andrew Ritchie conceived a bicycle with a three-part fold in his London flat. The idea addressed an everyday city problem: how to carry a bike with you and store it in a small space. But a working design was still a long way from production capable of serving more riders.
Over the next decade, Ritchie rented space in a small workshop, taught himself to build bicycles and made each customer bike by hand. Interest from buyers did not translate into funding: banks and bicycle companies turned him down. A turning point came in 1987, when Julian Vereker offered support and the bike won a best-product award at London’s Cyclex show.
The first factory in Brentford occupied two railway arches. There, the team built around 60 steel bicycles by hand each month. The story shows that a clever folding mechanism alone was not enough; learning to make it repeatedly and reliably was just as important.