1896 White Sewing Machine catalog

Butler Swap meet pictures

A bunch of early bicycle catalogs including Monarch, Rambler, Sterling, Columbia, Indian, etc. Also the Major Taylor's autobiography - The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World.

Amazing original Columbia Bicycles poster from the turn of the century.

Visually appealing display of early bicycle hubs.

First year Swing Bike, rare to find with original chainguard.

Huffy Radiobike, yes there is a radio inside the tank.

I have always loved the Tribune headbadge, a bicycle cog. Tribune Model B 80.

Tricked out musclebike.

Delta lights display.

L'Eroica video

L'EROICA (english version) from Edouard Sepulchre on Vimeo.

Swap meet this weekend in Butler PA

Yes, it is an indoor swap meet, keeping in mind it is about 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh! There is no website for the swap. here is where the swap is located-

Days Inn Butler

139 Pittsburgh Road

Butler, PA

map link here

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Nordstjernan Wiklund Swedish bicycle

This Nordstjernan Wiklund bicycle made in Stockholm Sweden was seen at a local bicycle swap meet a year or two ago. I had never seen the brand before and it had some interesting features, but also some signs of a more utilitarian bicycle, rather than the usual vintage lightweight that I like. It was equipped with Cyclo Benelux derailleurs but with an unusual one piece bottom bracket/crankset found on lower end American bikes. The bottom bracket was a smaller diameter than the American Ashtabula design and did not use a locknut in conjunction with an adjustable race on the non-driveside.
It also appeared to use a headclip design, like that found on British lightweights from the 1930s-1950s.
The frame was filet brazed or welded, lugless, and the joinery looked cumbersome, a production bike.

This aluminum "collar" appears to be an owner's ID, maybe Sweden followed a similar system as France in that the bikes had to have the owner's name on them?

Unique one piece bottom bracket crank.

Steel Titan stem and with aluminum handlebars stamped Tour de France S. Maes handlebars and Championnat du Monde M. Kint.  Sylvère Maes was a Belgian rider
Marcel Kint was also a Belgian rider and former World Champion cyclist.

Tribune 3 seat tandem- Hill Cycle

Here is a photograph I recently ran across of the Jerry Casale and Jerry Casale Jr with their Tribune tandem. (middle rider is unknown). The Tribune is outfitted with Williams cranks, Cyclo rear derailleur, and British Hub Company large tandem drum hubs. That is one long Cyclo continuous cable.

Campagnolo Coaster Brake hub

It has been rumored to be a photoshop fabrication or an elaborate fake made of some Campagnolo tooling, a fellow collector had seen it in person. Below is a photograph of the hub, it was owned by an Italian collector. Take a look at more pictures found on Sexy Race Bicycles. The hub is mostly like made by Fichtel & Sachs(German) for Campagnolo. Maybe for the folding bike market of the late 1960s- early 1970s, as it is a low spoke count(28 hole), and travel bikes were becoming more common.

photo courtesy of Sexy Race Bicycles blog

Barra Barralumin frameset

Yet another rare Barra Barralumin has appeared on Ebay. And here is a webpage with a Barra mixte frame


from Ebay auction, the seller's(RhClassics) description-
 item number-360549599869

" 54,5 cm middle of BB to center of seat tube. 
650B wheels.
Nicolas Barra was one of the true geniuses in the history of lightweight bicycles.
His first welded aluminium bike took part in the 1936 Grand Prix du duralumin. He then produced a number of these fantastic sculptural frames under the name Barralumin. They were a total revolution compared to the bolted or glued alloy frames used at the time. A few frames were used in the Tour de France, most famously by Vietto.
The welding required great skill, and a technique that Barra invented himself.
This is a very nice example of a genuine Barra (some frames were licenced out under the Garin trademark but although nice, not of equivalent quality).
Some scratches and marks, four small holes drilled when the bike was modernized; this is an overall nice example of one of the most fantanstic frames ever built.
It is very rare in having the original Barra transfers, a sign that the bike has never been polished up.
Start price is IMO an absolute bargain for an important piece of cycling history, I personally believe that Barra's are totally under-valued."

second

third

forth

fifth

Barra cantilever brakes, that used spokes as the straddle link.

Renzetti modications Drillium

With a rebirth, or one artisan calls a revival, in the process of lightening bicycle components, I recently unearthed this catalog from the 1970s showing some of the results in the Renzetti modifications on Campagnolo parts.  Some of the weight differences(before and after the process) seem to be negligible, it appears to be more aesthetics. I guess in the end, all the combined weight savings does add up, and make for a pretty effect. The costs(in 1970s dollars) of saving 4ozs(1/4 of a pound) would have been $96, that's $470 in today's dollars! That is the weight of a cheeseburger, one expensive cheeseburger. See our Hill Cycle bicycle with lots of drillium and milling. Also check out Drillium Revival, they do awesome work.

UPDATE-(thanks Jamie Swan!)
Robin Renzetti was the machinist doing the modification back in the 1970s.