Backpedaling

What a great design for a bicycle-shipping crate! I’m pretty sure that it can also double as a caddy for enormous slices of toast or as the armature of a hoop-skirt.

The Victorian-era crate (with bicycle) was sold recently at the final auction of items from the now shuttered Pedaling History Museum. It’s yet another sad story of historic and cultural preservation gone awry in Buffalo, NY.

Lots of cyclenalia(?) to ogle at the Copake Auctions site.

Shawmut racing safety bicycle new in crate (c. 1913). Never uncrated. “New old stock,” as they say.

Some modern “crates.”

Bicycle stand, 1896

Rex bicycle, c.1898

Quintuple five man bicycle, signed "Francisco Cuevas" on frame.

Rollfast ski bike, DP Harris Co. NY.

Identified simply as "Bicycle Photograph."

What will they think of next?

Racer’s map for the Tour de France

While there are maps galore for the Tour de France, they are most often for fans and viewers of the race. I’ve seen many vintage maps--usually souvenir-type posters filled with information about the race and the riders, or maps issued as advertising vehicles that are covered with tourist attractions and logos.

The map here, from the 1950s, was one that would have been used by a racer. The seller of the map says it was found, along with one for the Giro d’Italia, folded to fit into the back pocket of a bike jersey. How cool is that? It is for sale here.

Low Rollers

When I found this cigarette card of a ‘horizontal bicycle’ in the archive of the New York Public Library, I just had to send it to my friend Shelly Mossey at Urban Mobility Project. You may have seen him on the streets of NYC or on Martha’s Vineyard—usually with his wife Rachel and son Jackson—and always on a recumbent bike. His fleet includes a recumbent pedicab and a recumbent tandem. Always looking ahead, he shot me this futuristic creature called the Pardo, short for cheetah in Spanish. It’s been prototyped and tested, and I hope to see Shelly on a family version sometime soon. See details on Treehugger.