Period Discussion Of American Lightweights- 1947

[SirMike1983]

I came across this the other night: the 1947 League of American Wheelmen Guide.

http://john-s-allen.com/LAW_1939-1955/publications/leagueguide1947.pdf

Pages 12-14 of the pdf file (23-27 on the book) detail the types of bicycles made and ridden in the US. What is particularly interesting is that the book actually discusses American lightweight bicycles in at least some detail. There's a lot of period literature and discussions of English and French bicycles of this period, but not much on non-ballooner American bikes.

This book is a great little look at an attempt to get adults bicycling right around and after WWII. It coincides with attempts by Westfield, Schwinn, Dayton, and other American manufacturers to get adults to ride road-going or touring bikes.

Ultimately the 1940s-50s were a high point for the automobile, and it would not be for another generation that adult riding in the US took off. While the period from 1938 to 1960 produced some outstanding American adult bicycles with a variety of features, very few people actually know about them. In fact, many people I've run into on the bike trail assumed all American bikes from the period were ballooners.


Anyway, I want to make a webpage and photo book devoted to these bikes sooner or later. Maybe reading more of this sort of thing will motivate me to finally collect the pictures and literature online and do it.

 

[Gasbag]

The best article that I have read, and should be *must* reading for American lightweight enthusiasts, is "What The Tariff Means to American Industries" by Percy Wells Bidwell, ISBN 9781258347123

Chapter 4 is devoted to bicycles but specifically points to the lightweight market. It follows the lightweights from beginning to the end of production years. The statistics and the article on the whole shed a lot of light on why the American lightweights never took hold.

It can be accessed online at Google books on an Android device. I was able to access the entire chapter on the preview.

 

[SirMike1983]

The best article that I have read, and should be *must* reading for American lightweight enthusiasts, is "What The Tariff Means to American Industries" by Percy Wells Bidwell, ISBN 9781258347123

Chapter 4 is devoted to bicycles but specifically points to the lightweight market. It follows the lightweights from beginning to the end of production years. The statistics and the article on the whole shed a lot of light on why the American lightweights never took hold.

It can be accessed online at Google books on an Android device. I was able to access the entire chapter on the preview.

This is really outstanding. It's really an interesting question whether the English bicycles were creating a "new" market or whether they were part of a monolithic bicycle market overall. I tend to agree with the original Eisenhower position that the English bicycles were somehow tapping a different market than the common ballooner models. Even more interesting, if you look at the old catalogs (especially Schwinn), they tend to market the lightweights as different than the heavy bikes, though at the same time they were telling the Eisenhower administration that bicycles really only formed a single, large market.

It looks to me as well as if the report shows the lightweights as marketed toward juveniles who want "something different", as opposed to adults. The report seems to dismiss adult ridership rather quickly, though some teenagers were riding them.

I also like how the article points out the Atlantic seaboard as a hotbed for English bicycles. Even 60+ years later, I see many of the really old English bicycles coming from barns and garages here in the eastern US than anywhere else.

It really does seem that by 1955-56, the English manufacturers (Raleigh and Hercules probably most of all) were ahead of US manufacturers for lightweights. I own both English and American lightweights from that period, and they really are great machines, though each a little different.

 

[bikiba]

This is really outstanding. It's really an interesting question whether the English bicycles were creating a "new" market or whether they were part of a monolithic bicycle market overall. I tend to agree with the original Eisenhower position that the English bicycles were somehow tapping a different market than the common ballooner models. Even more interesting, if you look at the old catalogs (especially Schwinn), they tend to market the lightweights as different than the heavy bikes, though at the same time they were telling the Eisenhower administration that bicycles really only formed a single, large market.

It looks to me as well as if the report shows the lightweights as marketed toward juveniles who want "something different", as opposed to adults. The report seems to dismiss adult ridership rather quickly, though some teenagers were riding them.

I also like how the article points out the Atlantic seaboard as a hotbed for English bicycles. Even 60+ years later, I see many of the really old English bicycles coming from barns and garages here in the eastern US than anywhere else.

It really does seem that by 1955-56, the English manufacturers (Raleigh and Hercules probably most of all) were ahead of US manufacturers for lightweights. I own both English and American lightweights from that period, and they really are great machines, though each a little different.

I have a few friends in london and they have told me no one really cares for the old bikes out there and they go for pretty cheap. I bet they are around, just not "moving" from hand to hand.

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