Founded in the early 60s, the shop spent many years at 123 Auburn Rd in Auburn NSW. South of the railway station, the shop was in a row of retail buildings on the busy high street and featured the common-for-the-time rear access via an alley.
Lennie started the shop following a successful cycling career in the 1930s and 40s. Known as a clean living fellow, Lennie died in 1982 at age 71. Lennie’s son Laurie took over the shop and for several years it was a popular store for competitive cyclists to source competition-spec bikes and components.
Common practise at this time were bikes built on commission by local builders and branded by the store. Many well-known Australian framebuilders produced frames for the store, Fred Cobcroft, Geoff Scott, Jim Bundy, and Steve Hitchen among them. Carl Wilson also built many frames ??more needed here??
Around 1985, the shop was sold by Laurie to Clarrie Smith and his wife Noelene. They lived in the flat above the shop while building a rural property in Picton, about an hour to the south.
In 1987 the shop was moved from the original location of 123 Auburn Rd to a building closer to the railway station on the opposite side of the street.
Not much is known now about the shop after the late eighties.
Following his sale of the store, Lennie started a wholesale business in nearby Guildford, importing bicycle parts like Cinelli and Silca. The custom frame building business continued.
Many thanks for photos and information from Ken Johnston, Chris Daly, Simon Walford-Smith and John Bell.
The brand logo and graphics images are courtesy of Greg Softley at Cyclomondo, you can find his online store of Lennie Rogers decals (and many others!) here. Greg’s decals are second to none, they come with our endorsement because we used them on almost all of our restorations.
References
http://www.aussievelos.net/lennie-rogers/
https://www.ryersonindex.org/index.htm