Harry Nettleton’s 1907 RaCycle Pace Maker

1907 RaCycle

There are a lot of names here so lets see… This is the Pace Maker model RaCycle, and RaCycles were made by the Miami Cycle and Manufacturing company of Middleton, Ohio.

Bikes like this one followed high-wheelers onto the cobbled streets of early 1900’s America. With newly invented roller chain and pneumatic tires, this would have been a luxuriously smooth ride compared to a Penny-Farthing.

One of the selling points of the Pace Maker was the massive front chainring (equivalent to a modern 84-tooth ring) that was meant to attract attention and suggest higher speed (but the big ring was actually offset by a big back cog that ended up producing a comfortable gear ratio).

The new air-filled tires were mounted (using shellac as glue) to wooden rims (maple, I think).

Head badge

Adjustable handlebar

Oversized drivetrain

Fork pegs

42 skip-tooth chainring

A RaSaddle?

The handlebars on the Pace Maker are really cool. They pivot at the stem, and can be adjusted in width and height, depending on a rider’s desire.

Foot pegs on the front fork allowed the rider to enjoy speeding downhill on his fixed-gear bike. Sure, without your feet on the pedals to control the speed there would be no brakes, but brakes are overrated.

Racycle advertisement

Check out the old ad that we found for RaCycle bikes. The copy in old advertising and press releases like this one was so earnest. According to the manufacturer, a 1904 Worlds Fair jury “consisting of the ablest consulting and manufacturing engineers in Europe and America, were unanimous in their decision that the Racycle was the most perfectly constructed, easiest running bicycle in the world.”

However they were judged, early “safety” bicycles like this one really brought inexpensive personal transportation to the masses. They connected people with jobs and schools, connected rural areas of the country with cities, connected extended families (and liberated family members from one another).

This bike was originally owned by Harry Nettleton of Red Wing, Minnesota. Harry raised the original $16.50 purchase price by collecting clam shells from the Minnesota river and selling them to a local button factory.

By the way, if you take a look at the Iver Johnson Truss-bridge bike from the same era, you’ll note that the RaCycle was about a third of the price of the Iver Johnson.

1961 Bianchi Competizione

1961 Bianchi Competizione

1961 Bianchi Competizione

A Bianchi. Coppi’s bike. Gimondi’s bike. Argentin’s bike. Pantani’s bike. A lot of racing heritage over the decades with Bianchi, and a lot of magical properties associated with bicycles that are, after all, just bikes.

If you have checked out the other Bianchis in this section you know that we’re repeating ourselves. That’s okay, because reproducing great (or at least pretty good) work over and over again was how Bianchi did things in the 1960’s too.

This is the mid-level Competizione model.

A popular bike for it’s sporty handling, good looks and solid components, Bianchi produced the Competizione virtually unchanged throughout the mid 1960’s. It featured Campagnolo’s Gran Sport components along with Universal brakes, 27″ touring wheels and a Cinelli Unicanitor saddle.

Campagnolo here

Cinelli Unicanitor

Campy Gran Sport

Gran Sport drivetrain

Desimone’s Cycle & Toy shop

The thing with Bianchi was that even if you couldn’t afford the team replica bike or the higher-end Specialissima, you still got great styling and that Bianchi heritage. Looking at this Competizione, you can almost feel the epic rides that were undertaken and the great stories that were told after the fact.

This particular bike came out of Desimone’s Cycle and Toy shop in San Jose.

By paul|2024-10-07T17:17:07+00:00May 5th, 2014|museum bikes|0 Comments