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.

1997 Bontrager Privateer Comp

1997 Bontrager Privateer Comp

1997 Bontrager Privateer Comp

1997 Bontrager Privateer Comp

Take a trip back to 1997 on this Bontrager Privateer.

This is a light, nimble and efficient mountain bike. Nimble and efficient aren’t attributes ascribed to many mountain bikes these days. New mountain bikes have gone the way of the monster truck, with suspension and tire sizes that simply crush trail obstacles instead of making it fun to pick your way around and over the rocks and roots.
Consider this bike like you would a new “Gravel Bike”. Think of yourself riding out of your driveway, down the street a mile or so to the trailhead. Logging roads and “easy” trails are still in play on a bike like this one, not boring stretches that have to be endured until you get to the downhill (like on your 6″ travel full suspension enduro bike). When you do get to the stretch of technical trails you can relive the white-knuckle exhilaration that we all used to feel while riding our ’90’s era mountain bikes OR you can simply slow down and take the park trails at speeds that won’t get your (or the bike’s) abilities overextended.

Tange Switchblade fork

XTR drivetrain

Turbomatic!

King headset, rigid fork

This old Bontrager is in great shape. It has fresh brakes and drivetrain parts (Shimano XTR), and the wheels and tires look new. The fork is a rigid Tange Switchblade, a rare bit of ‘90’s cool that still fetches $500 on Ebay today. You get an XTR seatpost, a Chris King headset, and a Selle Italia Turbomatic saddle. My favorite.

Anyway, this is a medium size bike (18″) and will work best for a rider between 5’6″ and 5’8″ tall.

It comes with a 1-year warranty from us and it can be all yours for only $1599

By paul|2024-09-23T21:19:20+00:00May 13th, 2021|Museum bikes for sale, used bikes|Comments Off