Bicycle manufacturing in Canada really began with the safety craze of the 1890s.

Although we know of at least two Canadian companies who sold high-wheel bicycles in the 1880s—Thomas Fane and Company of Toronto, Ontario (810208) and Semmens, Ghent & Company of Burlington, Ontario—it was during the bicycle boom of the 1890s that bicycle manufacturing became an established industry in Canada. Some makers, like Massey-Harris, Goold and Welland Vale (930046), were already engaged in industrial production. Others, like Gendron, Thomas (900069) and Hyslop (760319), began life as bicycle makers. Many more bought and assembled imported parts from Britain and the United States and sold the bicycles under their own brand name, or adopted the methods of another company under license to make their own product.There were also many Canadian bicycle firms that acted as agents and distributors for popular imported brands.

Fane's Comet, 1887

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