Drysdale

Alvin Drysdale Velox Cycle Co. head tube. New York, NY.

Random shelf photo

Alvin Drysdale Velox

At a recent swap meet, a seller brought this Alvin Drysdale Velox bike. The graphics awesome, and the seller said the bike was original condition, other than the handlebar wrap and tires. It has a nice Titan adjustable stem, Bayliss & Wiley hubs, Stronglight headset, Lam(French) aluminum front brake and lever, and an unmarked chrome cottered crankset.

Various swap meet pictures so far of 2010

Below are some various cool things I have seen so far this year(that I have not posted about yet).

Nice 1970s Schwinn Paramount with a Campagnolo triple crankset.

Schwinn Krate seats

A Drysdale Velox

Bowden Spacelander

Chillion wood ladies frame

1907 Ohio Bicycle Day

Quick Correction

A week or so ago, I discussed a rack of bikes up on the third floor of the shop and stating one bike as having something to do with Alvin Drysdale. That was inaccurate. The bicycle has a Pop Brennan Shop decal on the headtube, not Alvin Drysdale. I still have no idea who actually made it, and I have not had the time to properly look it over, but it not like any Brennan that I have ever seen, and could have just been something sold through his shop. It appears to be early, but i have to really photograph and get a closer look at frame details to properly identify(or at least try to identify) and maker.

Sorry for any confusion. The bike in question can be seen below(it is the top black frame in the photo)-

1959 Schwinn Paramount Track

I know I have already talked about Schwinn Paramounts on the blog before but for some reason, we really have an affinity for them here. They were the pinnacle, or paramount(ha!), of an American made assessable bikes. Sure there were other high quality American frame builders- Brennan, Drysdale, and others, but they were much harder to buy and somewhat unknown outside a small elite circle. Many Americans were importing and racing on European lightweights. Schwinn really threw their hat in the ring coming out with the Paramount, on the heels of the Schwinn World. They imported on all top of the line parts and even used produced many parts themselves.

This Paramount is from the turning point with Schwinn. They had just recently started importing some derailleur gear stuff, releasing 5-10 speed derailleur geared Paramounts. This 1959 model is right around the cut off date when Schwinn was discontinuing their proprietary cranks, hubs and stems, for those made in Europe by Campagnolo and Cinelli, that would become ubiquitous on the racing circuit even to this very day. Campagnolo had been producing parts for about two decades at this point and had recently developed and produced their own line of cranks, seatpost, bottom bracket, headset, pedals, and hubs. Almost a full group, minus the brakes. With this, a Paramount could be outfitted with the latest Italian components from front to back.

The 1959 track bike here is all strictly Schwinn produced or approved parts. The bike parts would have been the same as found on an earlier Paramount from the 1930s, minus a few minor details.

The frame shows progression from the earlier Paramounts as Schwinn started to import French Nervex Professional lugs, found on all the high end European lightweights. Also Schwinn's use of chrome reflects upon the European influences. Schwinn did not use Campagnolo dropouts on this bike, but I have seen road racing models from this time that did.

The bike has Schwinn Paramount hubs, bottom bracket, crankset, handlebars, adjustable stem, and capped off seatpost. The rims are made by Weinmann. The saddle is a Brooks b-17 swallow. The color of the bike is Radiant Coppertone, a translucent copper color sprayed over a silver undercoat.

This bike had very little use, if any when we got it, and we have only cleaned it up. It is a rare time capsule piece that shows an original finish, box-lined, Schwinn Paramount in it's glory.