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.

Late 1940’s Mike Moulton

Late 1940’s Mike Moulton

Late 1940's Mike Moulton track bike

Quite a few layers of paint to scrape off before restoration

It is a little confusing.

There have been three different Moultons making custom bikes over the years. There’s the British Alex Moulton who made neat small-wheeled bikes with suspension designed into them. There’s Dave Moulton (also British I think, but he moved to the States), who sold bikes under the label “Fuso” (which means “molten” in Italian).

And then there’s Mike Moulton, a Californian who made some great track bikes in the ’40’s and ’50’s like this one here.

Nice lines on the front end

Check out the head tube details

Looks like five layers of paint in the "before" photo

Mike Moulton lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Tujunga California. His day job was as a mechanical engineer for Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank. He loved building bikes. His work shop was the unattached garage at the back of his house.

Mike built bikes for a number of local bike racers in those days. Among those locals was Joe Cirone, the junior national champion in 1947.

Great pinstriping on this restoration

Joe Cirone's chainring on Otto Eisele's crank arms.

Want to lose weight? Get the drill!

This particular bike was built for a guy named Rusty Baker, but we actually have Joe Cirone’s saddle and Chater-Lea chainring on the bike. A lot of hand work is evident in Mike’s frames, and visitors to his work shop have noted that his tubing and frame fittings never touched a grinder but were all filed by hand.

By paul|2013-01-24T22:50:21+00:00January 24th, 2013|museum bikes|0 Comments

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