End of tea derailment?
I never grew up as a tea drinker, but when we lived abroad the natives could not believe an Englishman who did
not drink tea. So I took it up. Currently we drink Clipper Everyday Tea early morning (milk, no sugar), then swap to
Clipper Green Tea (no milk, no sugar) during the day, then Camomile in the evening. End of derailment? Sorted.
Change to Avon
Many years ago I had a near death experience on my Commando in the wet with Dunlop (made in France at that
time?) TT100s so I swapped to Avon Roadrunners. I continued with Roadriders and have recently put a pair of
MKII Roadriders on. In MY opinion all the Avons have felt much better than the TT100s. It is difficult to remember
if the MKI Roadriders were better than the Roadrunners or the MKIIs were better than the MKIs as comparing new
tyres with the old ones just taken off is difficult.
Cooper Tires sold?
I had always wrongly assumed that Avon Tyres were recently British. However from Wikipedia:
The business was established when a former cloth mill, known as Avon Mill, on the banks of the
River Avon at
Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire, was acquired by Messrs E G Browne and J C Margetson in 1885. The previous owners
of the site had been timber merchants but had diversified into rubber goods. By 1890 the business had transferred to
premises in Melksham and was named The Avon India Rubber Company Limited. Products at this time included
solid
tyres,
conveyor belts and components for railways. By 1900, pneumatic tyres for bicycles were being produced,
and by 1906 the first car tyres were advertised. The company acquired the Sirdar Rubber Works at Greenland Mill in
Bradford on Avon in 1915. In 1997 the Avon Tyres business was sold to
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company of
Findlay,
Ohio in the United States, leaving the company to concentrate on its core businesses of automotive components,
technical products and protective equipment.
So since 1997 Avon has been owned by an American company Cooper Tyres:
Founded in 1914, Cooper is the fifth-largest tire manufacturer in North America by revenue with approximately 10,000
employees working in 15 countries worldwide, the companies say. Cooper products are manufactured in 10 facilities
around the globe, including wholly-owned and joint venture plants. The company’s portfolio of brands includes Cooper,
Mastercraft, Roadmaster and Mickey Thompson......
not sure I would have tyres branded Micky Thompson on my bike !
Avon now owned by Goodyear ?
There seems to be a lot of references to Cooper (who still own Avon? ) merging (?) with Goodyear:
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is buying competitor and fellow Ohio tire maker Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in a deal valued
at as much as $2.8 billion, the companies announced Monday morning.
Goodyear said the acquisition will combine two portfolios of complementary brands and solidify its position as the third
largest global tire manufacturer based on revenue. Cooper, based in Findlay and originally founded in 1914 in Akron, is
the fifth largest North American tire maker. (The two largest global tire manufacturers are Bridgestone and Michelin.)
Proudly made in England, but owned by Americans !
Right, that's it, I'll put my anorak on and go to the pub.........
