J E Sibbit

John Ephraim Sibbit (1895-1950)

John Sibbit was born in Ancoats, Manchester in 1895, and was one of Britain’s most distinguished track racing cyclists. His cycling career started in 1919 and his first major win was in 1922 when he won the National 5-mile track championship.

He excelled at both short distance sprint and long distance events – in 1925 and 1927 he was National Quarter Mile Champion and in 1929 he was the National 25-mile Champion.

His greatest achievement was possibly the National Tandem Championships which he won eight times. Jack Sibbit was the tandem captain and others stoked for him at different times.  He won the Nationals five times with his partner, E. H. Chambers. With this partnership, Sibbit won the Olympic event in 1928. His other National tandem partners were A.White (Scunthorpe), Dennis Horn (Norwich) and E.W.Higgins (Manchester).

He also participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was a member of the Manchester Wheelers Club, joining in 1919/20.

Later on, racing bicycles bearing his name, he became internationally popular and the likes of Reg Harris also rode a Sibbit bike. He retired from racing competition in 1938 and became a cycling official.  He became British Team Manager for the 1948 and 1949 World Championships in Holland and Denmark. After a spell of working for the Ford Motor Company factory during the Second World War, he continued making hand-made cycles from 1946 onwards until his death in November 1950 at the age of 55.