Humber Motorcycles was a pioneering British motorcycle manufacturer. Thomas Humber established the company in Beeston, Nottinghamshire in 1868 to make top quality bicycles and was very successful, opening factories in Coventry and Wolverhampton. In 1896 Humber produced the first practical motorcycle made in the UK by fitting a bicycle with an E. J. Pennington two-horsepower motor. Ultimately it was the success of Humber cars that brought the end of the motorcycles when Humber was taken over by the Rootes Group in 1930.