Alf Tabb
British cyclist

Alf Tabb (March 1883 − 1976) was a bicycle shop owner and trick cyclist from Kidderminster, Worcestershire. He is most known for building and riding miniature bicycles.
Biography
Tabb was born in London in March 1883, where his father owned a cycle manufacturing company. His first job was as newspaper cyclist in London at the age of 13. In 1921, he married and moved to Kidderminster, where he set up a cycle workshop business in the Stourbridge Road area of town. He ran the shop for 17 years. He retired when he was 75 years old.
Trick cyclist
In 1938, Tabb built a 15-inch (38 cm) bicycle as his father used to do, to hang outside his shop as an advertising gimmick. Curious as to whether he could ride the bicycle, he tried and found that he could, with a little practice. He was then encouraged to perform his act at the local gliderdrome.
“Alf Tabb” enters the record as british cyclist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tabb, British and cyclist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4721766. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883, 1976, 1921 and 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alf Tabb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.