MCA parts & accessories

13th January 2016

Classic bike | David Brown | Simon Brown

MCA Gold Star image

MCA hails from Aston in Birmingham. It's one of the UK's largest motorcycle parts manufacturer and distributor. The business origins date to 1935 when the company traded as Aston Auto Motors.

That was in the now defunct Potters Hill district of Brum (Birmingham) where, fact fiends, the Cycloratio bicycle was manufactured. In the 1950s, a compulsory purchase order led to the demise of Aston Auto Motors. As a result, two new companies were formed: Auto Tools & General Engineering, and MCA (Aston) Ltd.

MCA clutch lever MCA is purely wholesale and is owned and managed by brothers David and Simon Brown. The firm claims 25,000 product lines with 90 percent currently being manufactured in the UK.

This includes cables, handlebar control levers, centre stands, innumerable brackets, various mounting plates, nuts, bolts, adjusters, filters, headlights, and brake shoes. Most of the firm's stock isn't exactly pitched at the "sexy" end of the market (i.e. fuel tanks, side panels, chain cases, fairings, or various bit of bling, etc). Instead, you're more likely to find those smaller, but no less essential items including special bolts, studs and fixings. And the company also produces a lot of rubber components (grommets, footrest rubbers, etc).

MCA brake shoes David Brown acknowledges that some parts, such as bearings and seals, can't really be manufactured in the UK any longer and have to be sourced overseas. But the firm is very keen to produce and promote British made parts wherever it can, with many of them still fabricated in small engineering shops in the wider Birmingham area, once the famed "workshop of the world".

MCA employ nine staff. The business premises are small, unassuming and are located in a quiet residential street. Currently, the company website boasts retail dealers in 31 British counties, with international dealers in 16 countries from Australia to the USA, and from Austria to Japan.

As a retail customer, you won't get access to MCA's stock list (not directly, anyway). And if you ride a modern bike, there might not be all that much here for you. But if you're a classic biker, you'll regularly come across MCA parts, and you can feel reasonably confident that you're backing a British company that fabricates and/or retails items of a decent quality.