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.

1964 Carlton Catalina

1964 Carlton Catalina

1964 Carlton Catalina

Carlton bicycles was born in the original bicycle boom of the 1890’s.

A man named Fred Hanstock founded Carlton Cycles in the North Nottinghamshire village of Carlton-in-Lindrick in 1898.

It was a bike brand that spanned the better part of the twentieth century, Carlton’s heyday began after World War Two and lasted through the late 1950’s, with the company selling lightweight hand-crafted bikes under their own label and secretly supplying bikes to other manufacturers as well. The company was purchased by Raleigh in 1960, and continued under Raleigh ownership until the early ’80’s.

This particular bike is a nice sporty model from 1964, the Catalina. Visually a really interesting bike with Capella model lugs, that have really long and pronounced points, and a neat wrapover band at the seat tube and top tube junction.

Carlton headbadge

Carlton front end

GB Maes stem

A few British Olympians rode Carltons

Williams crankset

Capella lugs

Other interesting bits include the GB Maes handlebar stem with the centerpull brake cable stop going right through it and the bright and shiny chrome Williams cottered crankset.

By paul|2024-10-11T15:43:05+00:00November 18th, 2012|museum bikes|1 Comment

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Know-it-all | The Early Morning Cyclist November 11, 2015 at 9:49 pm

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