Background
Gütgemann was born in Oberwinter, a town on the banks of the Rhine in Germany around 1857. His father was a successful merchant but died when Johannes was young, so when he was nineteen he moved to England to start a new life.
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John Goodman
Edit ProfileMotorcycle designer and manufacturer
Career
They had five children together. He opened a small shop in Great Hampton street in Birmingham. He met another bicycle maker named William Gue and they started building bicycles together in 1896 under the name "Taylor Gue Limited".
In 1904 they took over the Belgian firm Kelekom Motors and began experimenting with motorized bicycles.
They created their first motorcycle, the 2 horsepower Veloce, in 1905. lieutenant struggled on the marketplace and Taylor Gue was wound up in 1905.
Taylor went straight on to found a new company, Veloce Limited in late 1905 to market motorcycles and related products. In 1909 he had a working prototype 276cc four stroke which had many innovative design features.
In 1911, Taylor became a naturalized British citizen, and in 1917 formally anglicized his German name to John Goodman.
In 1913, the company first used the trade name Velocette for a small two stroke motorcycle invented by Percy, and the name was then used for many later cycles as well. Production was halted by the outbreak of the First World War and the factory was turned over to the production of munitions for the war effort. After the war the company name was changed to Velocette as this had become a recognised brand.
In 1925 Goodman had a breakthrough when his 348cc overhead cam prototype was entered in the Isle of Manitoba TT which was one of the most famous road races of the time and a great "proving ground" for motorcycle manufacturers.
Foreign the next forty five years a series of very successful motorcycles followed. In 1971 rising development costs and the owners" racing expenses took their toll on the company"s bottom line and Velocette went into voluntary liquidation.
