Inventor. He gained fame as a British inventor as well as a businessman, who was known for his keen marketing skills while his uncle, James Starley, was considered the engineering genius. In 1872 he moved to Coventry, first building Ariel bicycles with his uncle's company, before going into business with local cycling enthusiast William Sutton. In 1877, the two men founded Starley and Sutton Company. While making tricycles, they worked together to improve on the usability and safety of the penny farthing, which was the standard model of bicycle at that time. The breakthrough came in 1885, when Starley developed the Rover Safety Bicycle. It was a chain-driven cycle with both wheels the same size at 26 inches. With earlier prototypes available, he adapted a number of existing technologies, which some were made by his employees, and, with his third version of the Rover Safety bicycle, created a machine that captured the popular imagination. His design was registered in 1888. Paying for a great many advertisements in newspapers, he secured his place in history as the inventor of the Rover Safety Bicycle. As a marketing tool, he supported bicycle racing. "Cycling" magazine thought that his new bicycle "set the pattern to the world", and it did indeed look strikingly similar to the modern bicycle, as well as being a great commercial success across the world. In 1888, he built Britain's first electric car, which was actually a three-wheel bicycle with a battery. As a business, Starley's bicycle company became J.K. Starley & Co. Ltd. in 1889 and in the late 1890s, the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. After his sudden death in 1901, Rover Company continued making bicycles as well as motorcycles and two-seater cars by 1904, and successfully marketing internationally. In 1876 Starley married nineteen-year-old Abigail Statham, and together they had ten children. His Blue Plaque from Waltham Forest Heritage was erected on a brick wall on Church Hill in Waltham. His uncle, James Starley, had a full statue on a large base, which was erected in 1884 in Greyfriars Green in Coventry, naming him the "Father of British Cycle Industry."