# 1890's Rambler from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"



## jimbo53 (Aug 15, 2019)

Tried to find info on the bike used in the movie, but not much on the internet. What I did find was a uncorroborated statement that it is a Rambler. Any confirmation pro or con on this? Also that Paul Newman did all the stunt riding except the crash into the fence scene. A stunt double performed  that. 

Also tried to find out where the iconic bike is now and any history as to what happened to it after the movie. Found out it was auctioned by Southey's of LA in 1971. This was excerpted from the New York Times:

"One of the keenest competitions was for the bicycle that Paul Newman rode in “Butch Cassidy and the Sun dance Kid” in a scene that also featured Mr. Bacharach's song, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” for which he won an Academy Award.

Mr. Bacharach, with his wife, Angie Dickinson, bid from a gallery, out of sight of most of the audience. Bids quickly got above $1,000 as Miss Dickinson several times prodded her husband to bid. But Mr. Bacharach decided to stop at $3,000 and lost to the television producing team of David Winters and Bert Rose, who said they bought the bicycle as a gift for Mr. Newman's wife, Joanne Wood ward. They paid $3,100."

Anybody able to add anything to this?


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## bike (Aug 15, 2019)

top pic seems to be of a different bike-


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## jimbo53 (Aug 15, 2019)

bike said:


> top pic seems to be of a different bike-




Wouldn’t be surprised if they had more than one bike for the production, and would probably have had a hard time finding exact period correct bikes of same model and manufacture. Remember reading they used 3 different Captain America bikes in “Easy Rider” and several different Mustangs for “Bullitt” and “Gone in 60 Seconds”


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## bricycle (Aug 15, 2019)

First bike pic has an extended fork tube(neck).
All three have a coaster brake.


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## jimbo53 (Aug 15, 2019)

bricycle said:


> First bike pic has an extended fork tube(neck).
> All three have a coaster brake.




Wonder if that extended fork tube was created for Paul to do that side stand trick shown. I’ve looked at a bunch of other stills of the bike from the movie and this is the only shot with that extended fork tube. Here are 2 other shots of the bike from the movie. 
Would bikes of this era be fixed drive and not coaster hub? Not very well educated on these turn of the century bikes, so appreciate the knowledge base here.


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## bricycle (Aug 15, 2019)

believe 1 or 2 coasters came out in 1899 some more after 1901-2
first pic MAY be a different bike as well the fork head seems taller in second two pics.
>> could be he broke the top tube front weld and we are seeing the top tube edging past the frame fork head?(why he is wearing that silly grin)


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## jimbo53 (Aug 15, 2019)

Here’s the clip of the bicycle scene. Looks like the side stand trick wasn’t in the final cut. Gotta give Paul Newman props for his riding skill and Katherine Ross for her balancing skills and not getting her toes cut off in the front spokes!


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## DonChristie (Aug 15, 2019)

What a classic! Paul was the man!


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## ccmerz (Aug 15, 2019)

Bike looks British to me.....


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## gkeep (Aug 16, 2019)

Some of the shots he seems to be wearing hi-top converse Allstars painted black, others pull on leather boots.

Those scenes were shot at the town of Grafton outside the south entrance to Zion National Park. A friend of mine's family were original founders of Grafton in the late 1850s. We stopped there about 10 years ago. The old cemetery holds some of his Gibson ancestors. Cool place to check out if you ever get to Zion. Bring your bowler hat, TOC bike and plenty of camera memory, it's very iconic southwest scenery. 
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1674014,-113.081274,91m/data=!3m1!1e3.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Aug 16, 2019)

It doesn’t resemble a Rambler


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## Rambler (Aug 16, 2019)

The bikes look British or English to me, I agree not Ramblers from what I can see.


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## jimbo53 (Aug 18, 2019)

CABE'er andybee75  from Sweden found this 1898 Rambler and said I could post some of the pictures from his post. Thanks, Andy! There is a likeness, but like giovanniLiCalsi said above and most likely not a genuine TOC Rambler. Movie prop directors in 1969 probably weren't so particular to get a genuine Rambler but could have cobbled together something that would be a close facsimile based on some research and look OK in the movie, which it did.  It's an interesting piece of bicycle/movie history and it was fun digging into it a bit. Didn't find much of anything on the net about it, but the CABE community helped a bunch as usual!


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## slcurts (Aug 23, 2019)

The first bike's seat stays and top tube don't hit the seat tube together like they do in all the other photos, so it's definitely a different bike. None of these have fork crowns like G&J Ramblers. Has anyone figured out what that thing is behind and below the seat?


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## ccmerz (Aug 23, 2019)

Appears to be a tool pouch


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Aug 23, 2019)

Metal brace to hold the saddle in place, while Paul had his foot on it...


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## Egads (Jun 2, 2022)

In the third picture you can see the footpegs for her feet attached to the bottom of the front forks.


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## SKPC (Jun 3, 2022)




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## STEVE NUTT (Jul 2, 2022)

Thanks for posting jimbo53, great story.
I think the bike is English too, looks like BSA or Williams chainring.

I rented 8 bicycles out for the ELVIS movie, for a scene with a lot of bicycles, saw the film last week and only bike in the movie was one with a rear rack passing in the background, was so short couldn’t tell if it was one of mine or not.


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