Historic Parts & Memorabilia

Antique bicycle lighting

Like boat lamps, green on starboard, red on port

Imagine navigating cobbled Seattle roads with these bicycle lamps

Not very bright, but pretty cool

From back when candlepower meant candlepower

The headlamp still works

Cyclists today are all soft.  Why, in the old days we didn’t have any fancy L.E.D. lights.  Nope.  We couldn’t see where we were going, and that’s how we liked it. Seattle was all cobblestones, gravel roads and there were only seven street lights.  We still rode our bikes in the dark.  Got run over a lot.  Ran into parked cars and a even a few parked horses.  Made us tough…

We have a fun collection of old bike lights in the shop.  Kerosene lamps, oil lamps, old generator systems.  We have some big old D-cell battery systems that weighed a ton.  The funny thing is, with almost all of the old lamps, you still couldn’t see where you were going.

The headlights retract by flipping a handlebar mounted switch

Dual head lamps

Vintage generator and battery lights

Monark headlight made by Seiss of Toledo, Ohio

Early ‘90’s Night Sun bicycle light

Laugh at the “antique” stuff if you want, but we recently put an early ‘90’s Nightsun system on display, and I know a lot of you had one of those…
 
 
 
 

Vintage tire patch kits and bicycle pumps

Vintage tube and tire repair

Made in 1917. Still works.

Wald’s rubber band gun (works like a crochet needle)

Camel cigarettes? Nope, its a bicycle tire patch kit

Wood veneer wrapped Silca frame pump

We know, patch kits don’t seem very interesting.

But did you know that Camel once marketed to cyclists, and produced promotional products like tube patch kits?  Did you know that bicycle and car tires used to be repaired by inserting rubber bands into the tread like working a crochet needle?  How about that bicycle tires, tubes, and repair kits were once almost the exclusive domain of American manufacturers?

O.k.  Still not all that exciting, but we try.
 
 

Vintage bicycle license plates

1942 Seattle license

Bicycle license plates

Auburn bicycle license

We have a collection of bicycle license plates that go back quite a few decades. 

Over the years, some municipalities have considered the bicycle a good source of revenue, and have made bicycle licensing a requirement. 

In more recent years, it seems like local politicians have callously suggested bicycle licenses as a punitive punishment for road users that they felt were undeserving or somehow more “lawless” than other users.

Whatever the motives were behind bicycle licenses, those same municipalities who adopted the requirements often stopped issuing license tabs soon afterward when confronted by cyclists who expected some services in exchange for those license fees.

It turns out that bike lanes, police investigation of bicycle thefts, bicycle parking racks, etc. require much more time and energy than simply ignoring cyclists altogether.
 
 

Vintage and Rare Bicycle Components

Bjarne Riis’ wheels from the 1996 Tour de France

Little weights balanced the wheel perfectly

American derailleurs from the mountain bike boom

C Record Delta brakes

Some of this stuff is hardly a day old, but that doesn’t diminish the museum-worthiness of these fantastic bits of bike hardware. Check out brakes that stopped with style and a lot of hand strength. Wheels that promised high speeds with less effort. Take a look at some notable derailleur designs from the past 75 years. Be amazed by the lengths and expense the average cyclist would go to just to make their bike a little bit more special…

There are wacky designs that don’t work, but keep being tried over and over again (We’re talking about you, oval chainrings and no-nose saddles).

Mid-70s vintage Shimano hydraulic disc brakes

First editions of modern masterpieces

IRD brake a precursor to “V” brakes

Vittoria Margherita shifter

Powercam cranks from 1983

Phillips brake

There are some solid old designs that sat waiting for new materials or even bike styles to turn them into products that could make it in the market. Hydraulic disc brakes for bicycles have been around since the 1970’s. Nobody wanted or needed them as long as rim brakes did a good job. It took fat tires, suspension, and muddy rims on mountain bikes to make discs the preferred stoppers. I think it was carbon fiber rims on cyclocross and road bikes (and the poor stopping performance of cork rim-brake pads) that forced the widespread disc adoption there…

Early Magura hydraulic brake

Hydraulic rim brakes, 1986

Modolo Morphos shifters
The worst.

Roller-cam brakes, a Cunningham invention

Breeze & Angel Hite Rite

On the other hand, there are some neat old bike components that were either leapfrogged by better technology (U-brakes and Roller-cam brakes were supplanted by linear pull V-brakes) or came from ideas that were a bit underbaked. Good examples of the underbaked include the Hite-Rite saddle adjuster, an invention that turned a rigid seatpost into a dropper seatpost. It was priced right and predated immensly popular dropper posts by almost 40 years, but the engineering wasn’t quite there.

Bike Racing Trophies and Medals

1942 Montreal Six-Day with Torchy Peden

Don Hester’s National Champion Medal

1946 National Champion

Charlie’s trophy made out of spoons

Besides racing a bike to win bragging rights or cash, cyclists have been going for the gold (medal) for decades. 

Check out the ornate, beautiful, and weird cycling trophies that we have in this collection.  Art deco masterpieces from the early twentieth century.  The engraved milk jug from the first women’s pro world cup race.  Gold medals from a time when gold was actually used to make them.  The plywood, yes, plywood trophies that Zach took away from the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross…

I am sorry to say that I don’t have a photo of the trophy our friend Kay Henshaw won back in the 1980’s for a women’s World Cup race held in Switzerland. The trophy was made out of a… Milk jug. An engraved, classy-looking pewter 5-gallon milk jug.

We do, however, have Charlie Bergna’s likeness in trophy-form, made out of spoons.

Willy Honeman was the model for trophy tops like this.

Redmond 25 mile time trial “perpetual trophy”

Some modern cycling trophies and novelty checks…

All from one rider

Washington state champion, 1965

Speaking of customized trophies, most of the antique bike racing trophies handed out in this country feature one particular rider whose likeness is preserved on the top, and we know his name. That’s Willy Honeman on the top of your grandfather’s old bike racing trophy.

Modern bike racing has some great awards as well. From the 1999 Coppa I Maggio we have an entire box of ceramic tile, each engraved with a stylized racer along with the name and edition of the race. Perfect for a bathroom remodel? From the 1998 Tour of Morocco we have an antique musket that was awarded to the American stage winner…. That was really a really fun trip home through security and customs.

We have many of the stories of these racers and their awards.

Don won a lot of races…

1937 National Champion

Our fantasy league trophy

Paris-Roubaix was not held in 2020 because of the pandemic, so somewhere out there is a 30 pound granite cobblestone made into a trophy that was never claimed. We’ll have to keep our eyes open on Ebay for that one.

The most fantastic awards have to be our Tour de France and Giro fantasy league perpetual trophies… The bobblehead Fausto Coppi dolls perpetually bobbing for the winner.

Vintage Tools

Our vice in use inside Madison Square Garden, 1934

Bob Seal’s Cool Tool

We have, and sometimes still use, bike shop tools that go back over the past 100 years.

A big part of our tool collection comes (via Jeff Groman) from the old Brennan bike shop in Newark, New Jersey.  John “Pop” Brennan was a master mechanic and framebuilder.  He frequently worked at the Newark Velodrome and Madison Square Garden during the six-day track races.  Pop built bicycles in his Newark workshop for many of the best racers of the day including Bill Honeman, Frank Kramer, Tino Reboli, Micky Franciose, Charlie Logan, and Alf Goullet. Pop began his metal working career as a chandelier maker. He learned the fine art of tube bending and joinery while fabricating exquisite chandeliers for theaters in New York and other major cities. Later he used this skill to bend steel for handlebars and frames.

From the Brennan shop we have the old wooden blocks that were used for forming custom handlebar shapes.  There is the old Wilton Vice and the custom wheel truing chair.  Pedal wrenches, spoke threaders, bearing presses and frame milling tools.  You name it.

Pop sat here and built many a wheel.

Use your thumb as an alignment guide

Spoke threading machine

Fenders roller tool made in Bremerton, 1940’s

Nagoya Wheel Truing stand, 1946

From our side of the country we have a fender roller and dolly, used to smooth out dented bicycle fenders, that was made in Bremerton some time in the 1940’s.

From Bob Seals, a pioneer in the mountain bike world, we have the Cool Tool. Bob was the founder and original builder of Retrotec mountain bikes, and he came up with the Cool Tool in the mid 1980’s.  The Cool Tool was the first bicycle-specific multi-tool around, and it gave you 10 different tools in one palm-size gadget.  Countless multi-tools were inspired by the original Cool Tool, and we’re all pretty happy not to have a jersey pocket full of individual tools when we go out riding these days.  By the way, Bob sold his design to Gerber (who subsequently killed the tool), and later invented the Klean Kanteen aluminum water bottle.

Brennan’s blocks for forming handlebars

Mystery tools from Pop Brennan’s workshop

Brennan rim bending tool.

Holland Mechanics Wheel Jig

Camel cigarettes? Nope, its a bicycle tire patch kit

Some of the fun we have with our old tools is figuring out what exactly they do.  You see, the simple everyday tools wear out (note to archeologists out there: it’s the tools that nobody used or liked very much that last eons).  The stuff that lingers around are usually extremely specific (like for adjusting a specific bottom bracket style that came and went in just a few years).  Stop in and take your best guess as to the use of some of our “mystery tools”…

Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Tour de France Yellow Jersey

One of Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Tour de France Yellow Jerseys

Here’s an interesting piece of memorabilia from the Tour de France.
One of Lance’s yellow jerseys, signed by the man himself.

We know a lot of you feel betrayed by Lance and don’t even like to hear his name mentioned anymore. We understand your viewpoint.  We just don’t share it.

Like it or not, Lance Armstrong is a big part of cycling history.
He was one of the most successful racers to have ever pedaled a bike. He finished first (we’re going to refrain from using the word “won”) in seven Tours de France including dozens of stage victories, he was World Champion, won a handful of semi-classics and a dozen smaller stage races.

Lance was an inspiration to millions following his comeback from cancer.

He dated rock stars and partied with celebrities.

There are some of you out there who practically worshipped the man (admit it, you did). We all wore the yellow wristbands and asked ourselves “What Would Lance Do?”.
In the end, he fell from grace. Cheating in sports! Performance-enhancing drugs! Lying to Oprah! The shame!

In the end, we realized that Lance was a bully and a jerk.

Lance’s sporting career is history now. We’re not, however, going to erase that history here at Classic Cycle. No destroying old statues or looting museums just because they offend our sensibilities.

We here at Classic Cycle want to see clean sports. We do. But like every other human endeavor involving money or pride, we’re aware that there is cheating going on. Bike racing, like football and baseball, and boxing, and soccer, and hockey, and running, and horse racing, and table tennis, has performance-enhancing drugs.

But to us, history is important. Sports as entertainment is important.

Don’t feel bad if you want to watch old Tour de France videos. The Lance years (like the Indurain years, Riis’ win, Landis’ win and Contador’s “Tainted beef” win) had some great action. Enjoy the racing for what it was.

Just remember, as sports fans we need to be careful who we deify.

Head tube badges

Brand image is everything in head badges

Fabulous graphic design

President and Senator models from Wasington Cycle

Emil Wastyn”s head badge

The head badge lists the shop address

The craftsmanship and pride of a bicycle brand really comes through in the label.  Head tube badges are the brand logos, the coat-of-arms of the bicycle world.

Around the turn of the last century, the brass
ornaments on the front of bicycle frames tended to be overly ornate and grandiose.  Bike builders of the era would hire artists to create an image for their label, something to bring customers to their door and differentiate their bikes.  These early graphic designers would try to infuse their clients’ bicycles with all kinds of different qualities.  Images evoking regal lineage, pictures of birds in flight, gods on high, industry and weaponry were all popular.  Mercury’s winged feet showed up on a few early head badges.

Some brands were more practical than others.  Wastyn Cycles, for instance, didn’t go in for fancy logos or images of arrows in flight.  They just wanted everyone to know where to get one of their bikes, 2629 Fullerton Avenue in Chicago.

In the 1920’s through the mid-century Art Deco style took hold, as did imagery borrowed from comic books. The Monark Silver King badge is a cool one, evoking images of skyscrapers and the machine age. The Ludwig badge made it look like a bi-plane was bearing down on anyone too slow to get out of the way.  The Paris Cycle badge features the Eiffel Tower (of course). The French Rochet badge has a lion sitting proudly on top of the Earth. The Armstrong brand also features a globe, and it looks like it was taken from the top of Clark Kent’s Daily Planet office building.

Monark head tube badge

I think that’s a lion on the badge

Lincoln head badge

Late 1950s Frejus headbadge

Champion stripes on the Eddy Merckx badge

Beginning in the mid-century, it seemed that bike brands were trying to convey a modern image above all else. Simple and clean lettering, badges and brand logos that featured rockets and evoked the space age were not uncommon.

The Olympic Rings and World Champion stripes show up on a number of bicycle badges.  Bike builders have been generally pretty honest, using these easily recognized symbols only if an athlete had actually won a gold medal on their bike.

Economics probably played a role as well.  Early on, Schwinn had fairly intricate badges, and had different ones made for different models in their line-up.  Over the decades, those badges got simpler and standardized somewhat across the line as they sold more and more bikes.

Armstrong badge

Head badge or a coat of arms?

A bit modern, a bit of history

Badges that wrap around the head tube

Badges with flight motif

Overly ornate head badges

Sometimes a bike brand will reinforce their building style and image with their head badge. The British brand Hetchins often utilized curvy tubing and intricate ornate lugs when building their bicycles. For a busy design like a Hetchins, a simple logo with block lettering just wouldn’t do.  If the Hetchins badge looks like a royal coat of arms, it should.  Hetchins incorporated the seal of the city of London in their logo. Dario Pegoretti, a gifted modern craftsman, is known as much for his abstract paint jobs as he is for custom steel bikes. When the paint on a bike has more in common with Jackson Pollack than with Schwinn, the badge needs to preserve that vibe.  Pegoretti’s modern stainless-steel badge is edgy and elegant.  A perfect fit.

Modern, carbon-fiber wonder bikes still employ head badges, but in decal-form to save the weight.

Want to admire this bicycle jewelry in person?  We have a showcase on the wall full of bike badges from famous and historic brands.

Cycling Club Insignia, Banners, Tattoos

Cycling club tattoo from 1900, worn by Otto Jacoby

Irvington cycling club banner from the 1930s

Classic Cycle biker gang

Gopher Wheelmen temporary tattoo

Cyclists have been swearing allegience to their teams for decades.

There have been whole generations of bike racers tattooing themselves with their club insignia, naming their pets (and children) after other famous cyclists, and literally flying the flag.

Young racers take note, all things that seem new to you have probably been around for over a century at this point.  Check out the tattoos designed by Otto Jacoby and worn by his teammates around 1900.
 
 
 

Historic cycling footwear and pedals

Bata “Biker” shoes

Frank Bartell’s shoes went 100 mph in 1935

1940s cycling shoes

Vittoria Stephen Roche shoes, 1988

Sidi shoes from 1984

Of course, there are shoes that are specific to just about any activity that you can think of.  Golf shoes, climbing shoes, hiking boots, ballet slippers, soccer cleats.

Cycling has had its own footwear for almost 100 years now.  Visit the shop and see some of the great steps forward and some serious missteps.

Pedals have changed a little bit over the decades, and some of the old designs are kind of fun to check out too…

Cinelli M71 clipless pedals

The original “clipless” pedals

Phil Wood pedals

120 year old pedals

Campy pedals, Binda toe straps

Fantastic 1940s Bianchi pedals

By the way, if you’re planning to do one of the Eroica historic bicycle tribute rides and need to buy or borrow some appropriate footwear, it’s likely that we can help. We have a fair selection of actually old cycling shoes as well as new old-looking shoes from Vittoria and other brands…

Historic Jerseys

Zach McDonald’s Cyclocross National Champion Jersey

Gilberto Simoni’s pink Giro d’ Italia winner’s jersey

Mads Pedersen 2019 World Champion rainbow jersey

We have some fairly significant jerseys in our museum collection. Come in and check them out.

First there are the stage-race awarded jerseys. In bike racing, the race leader (and sprinters competition or climbers competition leader) are often awarded special jerseys for their achievements (and to mark him or her as the racer to beat).  Notable jerseys in this category include Gilberto Simoni’s 2003 Giro d’ Italia pink leaders jersey, Zach McDonald’s USGP of Cyclocross series winner jersey, Peter Nowadnick’s Tour of Enumclaw (I know, impressive!) jersey, the climbers jersey from the 1988 Coors Classic (worn by our own Gavin O’Grady), Tim Rutherford’s 7-Eleven Gran Prix jersey and Lance Armstrong’s yellow jersey from the 2001 Tour de France.

Kiel Reijnen’s cycling career in clothing

Jimmy Lauf’s 1949 National Champion stripes

Jimmy Lauf’s jersey from the 1952 Olympics

One of Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Tour de France Yellow Jerseys

Doris Kopsky, first female national cycling champion

State, national and world champions are awarded jerseys as well as medals in bike racing. From this category we have the Washington State Champion jerseys won by Rolling Bay Wheelmen Zach McDonald, Peter Nowadnick and Lucas Weyand. National Champion jerseys from Doris Kopsky (the first female national champion in cycling) Jimmy Lauf (1949), and Zach McDonald. Mads Pedersen, the professional road race world champion in 2019 (and our friend Kiel’s teammate) donated one of his jerseys to us as well.

Washington state champion jersey, worn by 3 different Classic Cycle riders

The USGP of Cyclocross winners’ jersey

Mountain Leader Jersey, 1988 Coors Classic

Old Renault team jersey signed by Bernard Hinault

Willie Honeman’s Bay View Wheelmen Jersey

Signed National team jersey, 1998-2000

Significant past cycling teams, riders and clubs are alive on our walls with their old clothing. We have a 1999 U.S. National Team jersey that was signed by all of the riders Paul had to wrench for that year. There’s Willie Honeman’s Bay View Wheelman jersey from the 1930’s.

Jimmy Lauf’s 1952 Olympic team jersey, Eric Zabel’s pink 2002 Deutche Telekom jersey, Kiel Reijnen’s Jelly Belly and UHC team uniforms, Jonathan Boyer’s Lejeune-BP trainer from 1978, and Bernard Hinault’s Renault-Elf team kit.

Photos

Patrick Mulvey and a crash in progress

Crash!

Early attempts at flight…

Detroit bike shop, 1920

Chicago’s CYO Club in the 1940’s

Not all cycling history is black & white.

Race start, 47th Chicago Six-Day

Behind the scenes and in action…

Dan Priest 1995 NORBA Nationals

New old photos every year.

Old cycling club photos (Chicago 1937)

Some of the earliest cyclocross pics

Frank Kramer, one of the greatest.

Oscar Juner and Frenchy Gilles

Alexi wins the ’84 Olympics

Early cyclocross (note the tie)

Glenn Ford & Rita Hayworth

Debaets and Hill goof off.

Before there was Facebook and Instagram, cyclists created photo albums.  We got our hands on some great stuff.  Most of our photos come from Jeff Groman’s personal collection of photos that the riders and their families gave him, as well as years of scouring old photo albums and cycling periodicals for the best shots.

There are the old staged publicity shots.  Think about athletes posing for their trading cards.  We have Frank Kramer, Sammy Gastman, Alf Goullet, Bill Honeman, and Charlie Bergna’s publicity shots just to name a few.

There are the old action shots.  A track-race crash caught in mid-air.  A rider attempting to break the human-powered land speed record.  A cylocross race back in the 1930’s.  Two riders clowning around, passing a basketball between them while riding.  Fun stuff.

There’s the archival stuff.  The U.S. Cycling team at the 1960 Rome Olympics (or one of the U.S. Cycling team at the 1999 Tour of Morocco).  Glen Ford and Rita Hayworth astride a tandem on a Hollywood back lot.  The Madison Square Garden venue during the 1934 Six-Day race.

Don’t let this history slip away,  come in and study the old photos on our walls.

Them’s the brakes

It’s a thankless job…

Bicycle brakes don’t get much love.

You typically don’t gush to your riding buddies about being able to stop.  Instead, the latest shifting gizmos earn your praise.  You’ll boast about your wheels or talk about a new carbon fiber handlebar making the ride so enjoyable.  Mountain bikers love suspension, but would they ever thank disc brakes for making their suspension design possible?  Cyclocross riders might mention that their brakes are quiet, but will quickly change the subject to discuss the air pressure in their tires.

Bicycle brakes deserve our love and attention, they’ve always been there for us.  Let’s take a look at some great brakes from the past 100 years, and see how progress leaps forward in starts and stops.

The first bicycles came into existence before the invention of pneumatic tires.  Smooth solid rubber tires provided a nice even surface that early spoon-style brakes would press into and slow down your Penny-Farthing.  While early cyclists appreciated the ability to stop, they didn’t like the harsh ride of hard rubber tires.  As soon as squishy air-filled tires (with tread) became the norm, cyclists needed a stopper that didn’t touch the tires.

Musselman brake add featuring George Chapman

Pull the handle and the spoon slows the wheel

1920’s bolt-on rim caliper

Rod brakes pull up on the underside of the rim

Coaster brakes, like we see today on children’s bikes and beach cruisers, haven’t changed much since their inception.  Packed into the rear hub shell, the mechanism stays away from the elements and provides solid stopping power activated by a simple change in pedaling direction.

Coaster brake designs usually employ wedge-shaped shoes or a series of plates that will drag on the hub shell, slowing the spinning wheel.  The problem with coaster brakes is heat.  A long downhill can make the hub red hot, liquefying the bearing grease and producing a cloud of smoke.  Obviously a smoking hot coaster hub won’t stop a bike very well, and cyclists encountering long downhills have to take frequent breaks to let their hubs cool down.  An old tip for touring cyclists with coaster brakes suggested that they drag pine boughs like anchors in order to keep their speed in check.

Drum brakes have been around as long as coasters, and they have similar strengths and weaknesses.  On the plus side, drum brake hub shells are generally bigger, which helps dissipate heat, and they are activated with a cable and hand lever, instead of pedal action.  The big minus is that they are tricky to incorporate into bicycle designs, as they require long torque arms that could stress lightweight frame and fork tubing.

Brakes that squeeze on the rim seem like a better way to go.  They’re lighter than hub brakes, most of the designs are quite simple to make, there’s no problem with heat build-up, and they make removing a wheel to fix a flat tire much easier.

GB Coureur 66 brakes

Engraved Campy Nuovo Record brakes

Roller-cam brakes, a Cunningham invention

Mountain bike cantilevers

Rim brakes have come in many varieties over the years. A common design element in the 1920’s and ’30’s was to use cork or felted wool pads that would drag smoothly across lacquered wooden rims.  For heavy bikes with slippery chromed-steel rims, stout brake calipers had to be made that could crush into the hard steel.  Hard rubber pads slowed steel rims the best.

Rod-actuated calipers, which used thick metal rods instead of thin brake wires for actuation were typically found on heavy Dutch-style utility bikes that sit out in the weather. Rod brakes, while being pretty powerful, didn’t give bike riders much flexibility.  A simple change in handlebar height required one to completely rework the brake set-up. Rod brakes pull up into the rim instead of squeezing the sides, so these brakes are also in the way when you have to fix a flat.

If you were a bike racer fifty years ago, the big debate amongst your friends would have been side-pull vs. center-pull calipers.  Center-pull calipers from Universal or GB stopped great (if you were looking for that feature in a brake), but they weren’t as light or sleek as side-pulls from Campagnolo.  Side-pull calipers omitted the center-pull’s hard-mounted cable stops on the frame and the extra straddle wire.

Campagnolo’s big and beautiful Delta brakes

Hydraulic rim brakes, 1986

The rising popularity of mountain biking in the 1980’s provided the demand for newer, more powerful brake designs.  The first mass-production mountain bikes came with cantilevers (and motorcycle brake levers).  They stopped alright, but took a lot of hand strength.  Roller-cam brakes, first designed by mountain bike icon Charlie Cunningham, had more leverage than cantilevers but were tricky to set up.  Shimano came out with the U-brake, a U-shaped block of aluminum which bettered the stopping power of cantilevers as well, but they mounted under the chain stays where they would collect mud and grease.  These U-brakes were not bike-mechanic favorites, and were soon replaced by Shimano’s linear-pull V-brakes.  V-brakes (which resemble more of an “H”) provided even more power and the rear brake mounted back in the normal spot on top of the seat stays

Hydraulic road brakes aren’t as new as SRAM would lead you to believe.  Washington-based Mathauser and the German Magura company developed hydraulic road calipers in the 1980’s.  The designs were powerful and they worked well, but without carbon fiber rims (and their irregular braking surface) driving demand for more powerful road brakes like we have today, these designs failed to find a market.  Instead, the ’80’s were all about aerodynamics and style (stopping power was secondary).  Campagnolo took great advantage of this atmosphere with their heavy and under-powered Delta brakes.  Deltas, with their sleek and shiny futuristic look heralded the modern age of bicycles.  While riders loved their Delta brakes and everyone talked them up, it was superficial.  We just loved them for their looks.

Mid-70s vintage Shimano hydraulic disc brakes

If any brake is feeling the love these days, it’s the disc brake.  Believe it or not, people have dabbled with discs brakes on bicycles since at least 1950.  Schwinn Manta-Rays had cable-actuated versions in 1971.   In the mid-1970’s, Shimano had a line of hydraulic brakes that ended up on utility bikes of the era.  These disc brakes added about 8 pounds to the weight of the bike, but they stopped pretty well and sure looked cool.  Earlier disc versions probably didn’t take off simply because we didn’t need them.  Caliper brakes rubbing on aluminum rims stopped bikes that were being ridden on the road just fine.

It took the advent of mountain biking, with steep off-road trail gradients to make us yearn for the power you could get from hydraulic discs.  Disc brakes also freed mountain bike suspension designers from the constraints that wire cable runs and cantilevers brake posts placed upon them.

Today we can stop with confidence thanks to refined designs, great materials and 100 years of dealing with brakes that didn’t work so well.

The next time someone asks you about your bike, make sure you give your brakes some praise.

Antique Speedometers, Odometers & Computers

1980 Entex cycling computer, as big as a shoe box

Greg LeMond endorsed the Avocet 20

The Avocet 30 came in about 12 colors

The first wireless computer. Early ‘90’s

Cateye’s first computer

Cycling “computers” have been around for quite a while.  We have a collection of vintage cycling odometers and speedometers going back to the 1930s.  

Come check out the first cycling heart rate monitor (the chest strap had wires that led to the computer monitor).  We have an Entex cycling computer that is the size of a small shoe box.

If you’re over 50 you may remember Greg Lemond and how some of his product endorsements were so groundbreaking. Way back in the 1980’s he endorsed and rode with an Avocet cycling computer, the first bit of electronics in the pro peloton.  In the early ‘90’s he was also one of the first riders to wear a heart rate monitor in competition and later to ride with an SRM powermeter crankset on his bike.

Lucas cyclemeter 1950s Velorite 1960s Schwinn 1960s

Schwinn approved speedometer, late 1960s

Huret speedometer, predecessor to the Multito and Mutitronic

Stewart Warner Cadet, U.S. made in the ‘40’s

Sting-Ray speedometer

Even powermeters have been around long enough that we have a couple of “antiques” on the shelves. There is an old SRM crankset on one of the mid 1990’s national team road bikes. We also have a couple of the early Powertap hubs, a first generation model with wires going up to the handlebar-mounted display unit, as well as one of early wireless models, the one with the big yellow computer that went on the handlebars.

Early heart rate monitor with wired strap

Powertap hub

Dura-Ace/SRM powermeter crank

Waterproof used to be as simple as covering a sofa

Pre-WWII odometers

Cateye is well represented with their first computer, the first model (only?) bike computer that operated partially via solar power, and the first digital cycling computer that came without sensor wires.
 

Bicycle Advertisements & Promotional Material

1940 Camel Cigarette ad featuring Cecil Yates

Musselman brake add featuring George Chapman

Arnold, Schwinn & Co. Advertisement featuring Pop

Rossin bicycle ad, late ‘80’s

Advertising goes back further in history than the bicycle.  Come in and check out the old race posters, cigarette ads, team banners and magazine inserts.
 
 

Bicycle Gifts & Old Timey Stuff

The 1926 Tour de France

Feel like taking a bit of our bike history home with you?  We have produced and procured some stuff that will look great in your home, or make a good gift for other bike riders in your life.

How about a framed print of Tour de France riders from 1929?  Coppi and Bartali dualing on the slopes of Mont Ventoux?  The famous “smokers” poster from the 1920’s?

We have postcards and greeting cards with some of Jeff’s rarest shots on the front.  Doris Kopski’s first national title in 1935, Torchy Peden at a Madison Square Garden six day race.  Glen Ford and Rita Hayworth riding a tandem on a Hollywood soundstage…

Don’t forget to check out our book shelf.  There are rare and out of print cycling books that you are unlikely to find in any bike shop in this country.

Newark Velodrome 1925

The old racing bikes in our museum share a number of things in common.
A lot of them have wooden rims, sure. Pop Brennan or Willy Apelhans may have built a number of them, sure. Nearly every one of them has sat above the bar at the Harbour Pub, but that’s not what we’re getting at.

We figure that most of the track bikes that we have were raced on the East Coast (that’s where most Americans lived in the first half of the last century). Of those bikes that were campaigned before WWII we guess that almost all were raced at one time or another on the Newark or Nutley New Jersey velodromes.

The Newark Velodrome was a wooden bicycle track and grandstands located on South Orange Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. Today most velodromes that are built for Olympic-level events measure 250 meters in length. The Newark track was six laps to the mile (about 300 meters).
The Newark track was built in 1907, and would be the premier racing venue for two decades. In 1912, the world championships were held in Newark.

The 1912 event, like many of the weekly races, was over capacity drawing 20,000 fans even though the seating capacity of the venue was just 12,500. Some fans would get standing-room only infield tickets or hang out by the railings. According to Carmine Bilotti, part of the management team, the venue drew 17,000 fans twice a week during the season. In fact, the bike races outdrew the baseball games at Ruppert stadium where the Newark Bears played. The fans who couldn’t get into the bike races spilled over and went to the Wilson Avenue stadium to watch baseball.

Newark Velodrome sign

Newark crowd

A motor-paced track race

Frank takes bit of a spill, October 1928

Getting tickets for the bike race

Parking at Newark

All of the cycling stars of the era raced in Newark. Frank Kramer, Alf Goullet, Frank Bartell, Bill Honeman and Reggie McNamara drew big crowds to the track with their exploits.

The Newark Velodrome was fast. World records fell repeatedly on the Newark boards over the years. Australian cyclist Reggie McNamara set five world records from one to 25 miles at the velodrome in 1915, 1916 and 1917.

Fire damage 1926

If you look back at old racing programs, you’ll notice a warning that seems a little weird to us today. Patrons at old sporting events were constantly reminded to step on all matches, cigars and cigarettes after discarding them. For good reason. In 1926 the wooden grandstands and part of the Newark track was damaged by a fire. Repairs were made, and the races continued for a few more years until 1930 when the lease expired.

Located on some pretty prime real estate, The aging Newark track was demolished in 1930 and replaced by an apartment building. Bike racing was still a big draw in the early ‘30’s, and work began on a replacement for the Newark track, the Nutley velodrome, the following year.

Hill, Marinetti & Honeman on the Nutley track

Christmas card

Faces in the crowd

Race start

Located about ten miles north of the Newark track site, The Nutley velodrome took up where the Newark venue left off. The over-capacity crowds, the most prestigious races and the marquee names were all there at Nutley.

The Nutley track, nicknamed “The Saucer”, was pretty close in size to a modern Olympic venue. At seven laps to the mile the velodrome boasted the steep sides, constant turns and fast action that we see with today’s 250 meter ovals.

Nutley race program 1935

Alf LeTourner at Nutley

The first races at Nutley were held in June of 1933.
The velodrome filled to its 12,000 seat capacity for weekly bike races. There are a lot of bikes from the shop walls that (with their respective riders) thrilled the crowds. Bill Honeman, Frank Turano, Mickey Franciose, Tino Reboli, Cecil Walker, Alf LeTourner, Norman Hill, and Frank Bartell all raced on Nutley’s boards.

The show didn’t last beyond the 1930’s.
When the Nutley venue closed for the season in the fall of 1940, it was the end of an era. America was attacked at Pearl Harbor a few weeks later, and for the next four years, young American athletes joined the Army or the Navy, not the local cycling club. After The war, American sports fans moved on to new entertainment, and big league bike racing on New Jersey’s tracks became a relic of an earlier era.

A big thanks to Jeff for all of the photos in this section. Click to enlarge them and see some great historical shots. Please do not re-post or use any of the pictures without asking permission.

Eddy Merckx

King Eddy on black velvet

Eddy is the king.

With over 500 wins during his career as a bike racer, Belgian Eddy Merckx definitely earned his status as the best bike racer who ever lived.  “The Cannibal” raced bikes for 18 years, and during that time Eddy essentially won every third race that he entered (and was on the podium about half of the time).  He won five Tours de France (collecting 34 individual stage victories), five Giri d’ Italia, one Vuelta Espana, the World Championship and nearly every classic and minor stage race on the calender.

While racing the 1969 Tour de France Eddy managed to win six individual stages, the climbers’ classification, the sprinters’ jersey, the combination classification, the combativity award and he walked away with the yellow jersey for the final victory.  He did this at the age of 24, so if they awarded the best young rider jersey back then, he would have won that as well.

So, how do you properly honor a king?  We decided to go a popular (and classy!) route.  A portrait painted on black velvet.  In a frame worthy of a velvet Jesus or a velvet Elvis.  Like Elvis Presley, Eddy rocked some impressive sideburns in the 1970’s.

The artist, Ken Sellen, gave us an older and somewhat regal Eddy to watch over the cyclists who make the pilgrimage to Classic Cycle.

By the way, Ken Sellen is an extremely talented and versatile artist.  If you would like to see some other great examples of his work (or commission a painting for yourself) check out kensellenart on Instagram or call the shop and we can put you in contact with him.

Shifting Times

Wireless Electronic shifting

These days, modern engineering greets us every time we walk into a local bike shop. Steel tubing is a rare sight compared with the amount of carbon fiber littered about the showroom floor. Bikes utilize hydraulic fluid to activate disc brakes, and modern suspension keeps the tires on the trail. Once clunky mechanical contraptions, derailleurs are now sleek and smooth, some with battery-operated electronics controlling the action. These days you can get a couple dozen gear choices all operated by push buttons.  Ever wonder how we arrived at this point?  Let’s take a look at the technological progression bicycle derailleurs have made over the decades.

In the beginning, bikes were direct-drive and the only way to get a different gear ratio was to change the size of the wheels.  One gear dictated the action, but since the days of the high-wheeler it was obvious that a single gear was less than ideal when faced with big hills or stiff winds.

The earliest multiple-gear bicycles usually employed flip-flop hubs with two or three cogs, or internal gear boxes in the rear hub or the bottom bracket shell.  These designs still survive a hundred years later, but have never offered much gear range, and they sure don’t offer the visual fun that external derailleurs give us.

Devices we would recognize as derailleurs really started to appear in the 1930′s.  Two popular shifters were the Vittoria Margarita and the Osgear. The Osgear, fully known as the Constrictor Osgear Super Champion was named after the designer Oscar Egg, a famous Swiss-French cyclist from the era.  The system was light yet sturdy, and fairly simple to operate.  Fitted to the chainstay was a cable operated guide arm that moved the chain right or left across three sprockets.  A tension arm near the crankset took up the slack of the chain, and a guide-loop of metal on the tension pulley kept the chain from coming off.

3 speeds and “quick release” wingnuts in the 1920’s

Gino Bartali won the 1938 Tour de France with the Vittoria Margherita shifter

Constrictor Osgear Super Champion or simply “Osgear”

1947 Conloy Osgear derailleur

The Vittoria Margerita was a simple and wonderfully designed Italian system from the same era. In order to use the gears, the rider would simply reach down to the lever and move it forward, releasing some of the chain tension.  Next, he would back-pedal while pushing on the chain with his right hand.  The chain would jump to the next cog over, and then the rider would take the slack back out of the chain by moving the lever rearward again.

Early race organizers worried that wide variations in equipment would skew the results of their events.  Single-speed bikes were standard equipment at the Tour de France until 1937, when teams with derailleur systems were allowed to compete.

The Osgear and the Margerita look exotic and still don’t seem that familiar to us.  The 1940′s saw the development of derailleurs like those from Simplex, Cyclo and Conloy, and in these systems we see steps toward modern parallelogram designs and controls that use a single shift wire.  These devices seem kind of similar to what we have today, but some like the Conloy only had a single pulley, so the total gear difference could only be about six teeth.

The cogs move sideways, the derailleur stays in place

The Paris Roubaix shifter. Sometimes known as the suicide shifter

The double lever Cambio-Corsa shifter

Simplex Touriste

In the middle of the last century there were a few missteps as well as leaps forward.  One of the goofier ideas was the Trivelox shifter, a derailleur that operated by pulling the freewheel cogs side-to-side under a stationary derailleur. If you can imagine holding a pen over a piece of paper, and writing by moving the paper underneath it, you can understand the limitations of this system.  The more gears the Trivelox was asked to shift between, the wider and heavier the rear wheel had to become.  Campagnolo also had the bike world take a technological step backward in the late 1940′s with their Cambio Corsa and Paris-Roubaix “suicide shifters”.  To use these shifters, you flipped a lever on the seat stay that disconnected the rear wheel (while the bike was moving).  The chain was then pushed onto the next cog over with a guide lever, and then the rider would re-tighten the lever to secure the rear wheel. The first version, the Cambio Corsa, had two levers managing this action, and care had to be taken not to lose the wheel out of the dropouts.  The later Paris-Roubaix version operated everything with a single lever, and some refinements made this system slightly safer.  In both of these systems, long serrated dropouts would keep the rear wheel aligned while the shift was being completed, and rearward force on the wheel would keep the chain tensioned.  To anyone who has dropped a chain while shifting their modern bike, it is understandable that these systems required quite a bit of finesse to operate.

Cyclo Benelux rear derailleur

Benelux rod shifter

Campagnolo Gran Sport

Campagnolo Nuovo Record drivetrain

Derailleurs that came out in the 1950′s look pretty close to what we see today.  Some popular ones, like the Simplex Touriste, had two cables to operate the derailleur.  On this derailleur you’ll see a steel pull chain (like on a 3-speed hub) actuating a telescoping pulley arm.  A second cable rotates the pulley arm, fine-tuning the chain tension.  Derailleur pulleys were still smooth and round in the ’50′s, and didn’t acquire their toothed profiles until the 1960′s.  Typically derailleurs like the Simplex could handle 4 or 5 cogs on the back wheel with a 12 tooth spread.  Rod-actuated front shifters (reach down the seat tube by your water bottle to operate them) managed chainrings with a range of just a few teeth.

The 1950’s and 60′s brought us Campagnolo’s Gran Sport and Nuovo Record derailleurs.  Popular for decades due to their smooth shifts, good durability and light weight, Campagnolo’s beautiful derailleurs have become icons in our sport.  It’s easy to know these were hits, as typing “Campy derailleur tattoo” into an image search engine will yield lots of results.  Reliable shifting systems like these also meant that road bikes became known as “10 Speed bikes” in popular vernacular during the ’60′s and ’70′s as gear capacity expanded.

Positron indexed shifting came out in the ’70′s.  The predecessor to Shimano’s Indexed Shifting (SIS) system of the late eighties, it was the first good “click” shifter.  Shimano built the freewheeling mechanism into the crankset, so you could shift gears anytime the bike was moving, not only while you pedaled.  This feature made Positron pretty heavy, and use was limited to lower-level utility and sport bikes, not racers.

Positron gear selector

The first STI lever

Downtube “click” shifting

Push button shifters and a battery in the bar

Mavic Zap electronic derailleur

In the 1980s, Shimano took over the bike world with click shifting and Shimano Total Integration (STI) levers, which moved the shifters up to the handlebars where we could reach them.  This idea kept a rider’s hands on the bars, and was a stroke of genius that made road cycling safer, more fun and certainly faster.

Mavic unveiled the first commercially viable electronic derailleur in the ’90′s with their Zap system.  The Zap derailleur received signals from battery-powered buttons on the handlebar, but the spinning upper derailleur pulley generated the juice to move the chain.  When Zap worked, it worked perfectly.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t protected from water and vibration all that well. Today’s electronic shifting builds upon Mavic’s foundation.  Shimano’s Di2 and Campagnolo’s EPS derailleurs add automated front derailleurs and give us push button, customizable gear shifts across a wide range of gear ratios.

In the early days, a cyclist was lucky to get more than three gears. The difference between a low and a high gear could mean only a few teeth on a chain ring. Today you can get a bike with 30 “speeds”. We have electronic derailleurs from Japanese and Italian companies as well as”infinite” ratio hub shifting systems and computer-controlled automatic shifting. We take indexed shifting for granted, and demand that controls are placed right at our fingertips. All of this precision is expected today, along with knee-friendly gear ratios spanning dozens of chainring teeth.  Times, and gears, change.

Vintage Helmets

leather hairnet helmet

Spanish tanker helmet repurposed for motorpacing on the track

Leather helmet from the 1930s adjusts with ties in the back

1920s Motorpace helmet

Jimmy Stillmakers hairnet from the ’70s

1960s Brancale leather helmet

Bicycle helmets have only been around since the 1930s, when Bill Honeman led the charge to get effective head protection for himself and his professional bike racing colleagues.  Originally head protection meant a leather bowl or several leather straps going over your head with cotton, leather scraps or wool usually used as padding inside the leather. Sometime in the 1970’s or early ‘80’s hardshell helmets with styrofoam padding became the norm, and we have been working with this same basic technology ever since.

This old touring helmet weighs over three pounds

The Giro Prolight ushered in modern lightweight head protection

Skid Lids from the ’80s were known to exacerbate head injuries

1991 Specialized Sub 6 helmet. Under 6 ounces

The Bell V1 Pro, one of the first popular hardshell helmets

Troxel “golf ball” aero helmet, 1997-2000 Nat’l team issue

Clearly, since the early introduction of the leather hairnet, bike helmets have changed a bit. 

We have a bunch on display in the bike shop, some more effective, and some more attractive than others…

Vintage exercise equipment

Giant indoor training rollers, circa 1930

Wooden rollers from the 40’s

Riding rollers in the winter

Vintage trainer

Fred Lauer trainer

Public perception of exercising just for the sake of improving ones’ health has changed over the years. Exercise for the sake of fitness was a weird concept to our ancestors. It took influential (but admittedly strange) public figures like William Kellogg, Charles Atlas and Jack Lalanne to popularize the notion that exercise was good for you.

The machines that contestants use today on reality shows like “The Biggest Loser” would have once been reserved for “sporting fanatics”, or worse yet, “lunatics”.
We have a fun collection of old exercise equipment in the collection. One of the vintage indoor bikes is a cast-iron model that was one used in the Western State Mental Hospital.

1890’s stationary bike

Built to last

From the mental hospital near Sedro Wooley

Everlast machine, 1920’s or 30’s

Exercycle, 1950’s. Lucille Ball got stuck on one in an episode of her show

We have a giant set of wooden rollers that can be paired with a second set for head-to-head indoor racing. There’s the classic exercycle machine, which was a common prop for early television sitcom mishaps. There’s the coil-spring tensioned folding trainer from the 1940’s that was perfect for the traveling bike racer or “exercise buff”.

You don’t have to be Charles Atlas to appreciate this old exercise equipment. You know the phrase “They just don’t build ’em like they used to”? Well, that’s the case for this stuff.

Hardwood, iron and steel make up most of the component parts, and it would take a hurricane to move some of these pieces. Come in and take a look.