Excel Cycles - Dan Genner

Sarah Gould, Heritage Officer – London Borough Merton told John that:
A Mrs. Emily Genner, Cycle Manufacturer, is listed at 90, High St. Colliers Wood from 1915/16. There is no listing prior to that date. Unfortunately, there are gaps in our collection of Mitcham trade directories, so I am unable to say when the firm changed its name to Excel. Certainly from 1951/53 onwards the business was known as Excel Cycles Ltd and was occupying 90-2, High Street. The firm remained in situ until 1960. It still appears to have been operating from the same premises during that year but by 1961, the site was vacant.

John Barringer tells us about his days as a ‘Saturday Boy’ at Genners:

My interest in Excel is that in the mid 1950’s I worked in Dan’s cycle shop in Colliers Wood, South London, on a Saturday morning, running errands for Mrs Genner.

Dan was by now in his late 50’s and was an absolute wreck of a man. He chain smoked Capstan full strength cigarettes, getting through about 60 a day. On the counter was an ashtray overflowing with wet dog ends: the smell of them pervaded the shop. He also spent most of his time seemingly coughing his lungs up, to no avail, his face becoming redder and redder, the more he coughed. On one wall of the shop customers would pin up photos of themselves on their Dan Genner bikes. In the middle was a large framed picture of Dan, taken at a cycle race meeting just before the First World War. I vaguely remember that it was taken when he had set some record for a race. The man in the photo was very handsome, very slim, upright and athletic, with sleeked back hair, a far cry from what he was like now.

Although the shop was known by all and sundry as “Dan Genners”, in fact the name of the business was the XL Cycle Co, and the company logo was “XLCR”, a play on the word “Excelsior”, meaning very superior.  The shop, at 90/92, High Street Colliers Wood, was in fact two shops, with a short passageway between them. Above the shop were two flats, with their own front doors. The cycle side of the business was mainly carried out in the right hand shop, viewed from the road, and the glass topped counters displayed all sorts of accessories. At the back was a workshop, where the hand built bikes were assembled; A Dan Jenner Bike was a much-coveted item in those days. What set them apart were the very thin chain and seat stays and also the angle of the end of the seat stay where it met the saddle tube – it was very oblique. I don’t know why, they just looked fast, even when they were stationary. The down tube had a “Dan Genner” logo in script style (i.e. not block capitals but “joined up writing”). I seem to remember that this was hand painted on. The headstock had a metal badge on it with the XL logo. They were made with Reynolds 531 tubing and then custom built. Gear options were Simplex, Cyclo-Benelux, Huret or Campagnolo. Shimano was a word unheard of then. Anything could be under construction and seen in the shop: track bikes with fixed wheels, sports bikes and touring bikes with up to, but no more, than 10 gears, and occasionally a tandem.