After 80 years on Birmingham’s busy Stratford Road, the Vale-Onslow dynasty’s shop has moved to Bordesley Green Trading Estate, about one and a half miles away. The business occupies two adjacent rented units, trading as Vale-Onslow Motorcycles (MOT and spares) and JP Motorcycles (servicing and repairs).
In decades gone by there would be Saturday queues outside a long row of Vale-Onslow shops that sold new Japanese and Italian machines and held a vast inventory of spares for obsolete British bikes.
The move began last summer and was not completed until January.
“Moving 80 years’ worth of stock was a big job,” says Peter. “We soon got the workshop up and running but the spares side was closed for three months.” He presides at the new location with his grandson Jonathan, who has rejoined the family firm after a spell working in IT.
Full story in the April issue of BDN.
Pictured is Peter Vale-Onslow at the new site, with an SOS two-stroke sprinter kept by the family since it was built in 1928