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.

1968 Schwinn Lemon Peeler

1968 Schwinn Lemon Peeler

1968 Schwinn Lemon Peeler

This is the yellow bike in Schwinn’s Krate series of Sting Ray kids bikes.

On display here at Classic Cycle, this is a nostalgia production machine. We overhear lots of great old stories with this bike (or one of the other color Sting-Rays) as a central character.

The childhood Schwinn is a beloved treasure for much of the baby boom generation, and a large number of them survive today because they were so cherished.

If you were eleven years old in 1968, you were probably more willing to sell your little brother at a garage sale before you were going to let anyone buy your Lemon Peeler.

The design is everything here. Since these bicycles were mimicking trends happening with sports cars at the time, Schwinn naturally asked: What is the next step after racing a stock muscle car? Why, racing a dragster, of course. As you can see from the catalogue page, Schwinn took their Sting Ray “Muscle Bike” idea and went from stock to modified. Here is the dragster bike.

Drag racing, Schwinn style.

Springer fork to smooth out the road

Watch out for your crotch…

Seat suspension and a fat back tire

The Lemon Peeler had it all.
A Five-speed stick shift. A sparkly yellow banana seat with a suspension sissy bar, a front drum brake, a chrome front springer fork, a fat rear slick tire for burnin’ rubber, massive bars to help you pop impressive wheelies…

Kids today are totally deprived.

By paul|2024-10-06T16:03:20+00:00October 18th, 2017|Museum bikes 1966 to 1985, schwinn|Comments Off