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.

Used Litespeed mountain bike

Used Litespeed mountain bike

1997 Litespeed Ti Medium $1849

1997 Litespeed Ti Medium $1849

A vintage mountain bike without the vintage headaches (or backaches).

This is a Litespeed mountain bike from 1997.

It’s an 18” frame size and will fit someone between 5’7” and 5’10” tall really well.

The titanium frame comes decked out with a mix of vintage components (the XTR V-brakes, Raceface crankset and the Shimano Deore XT hubs are all about 25 years old) and modern updates (the 10-speed drivetrain with a Deore XT clutch rear derailleur and Microshift thumbshifters are all brand new). The bike has some great classic goodies like a Controltech seatpost and handlebar stem but their dimensions along with vintage LP carbon riser bars make for a modern, more upright fit than what we would have used back in ’97.

The whole rehabilitated setup is meant to behave more like an upright modern “Gravel Bike”.

Carbon bars, modern thumbshifters

10 speed modern Deore XT

Controltech post, WTB saddle

The Rockshox Psylo front suspension fork works just as well as a modern high-end fork and the bike rolls around on hand-built wheels with Mavic rims and new WTB tires, perfect for a gravel race or mixed-terrain adventures.

When this bike was brand new it would have cost around $3200. It can be all yours today with a full 1-year warranty from us for only $1899.

By paul|2024-09-23T21:11:05+00:00October 21st, 2022|used bikes|Comments Off