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For anyone waiting for photos of my Bellis, here she is. As I said, it's pretty generic looking. The frame has a lot of pitting and had been painted blue, as shown in the original badge photo. I was going to paint it for use as a prop, but now that I know what it is I may have to rethink that...

My 1897 Acme Stormer tandem came with two of them, so the 1896 announcement wasn't just vaporware.

Aha, so that’s where that photo came from. I just found it elsewhere but couldn’t tell whose bike it was.

Iverider posted an ad from 1897 that shows what it looked like. The bike is in pieces in a bucket right now; I'll have to spread it out for a photo.

According to The Wheel, Bellis was organized in 1895 and may have started production by late in that year. They ran a lot of ads in 1896, but sometime in 1897 the ads stopped and by '98 the only news from them was that they were trying to collect money owed from their dealers.

This is great! So what I have is a Bellis Model F, probably 1897, made in Indianapolis which is where I live. That group photo in the catalog is in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Monument Circle. It was under construction from 1888-1902 and is very much unfinished in this photo.

Bump?

Where did you find a Racer listed? I have a '94 Waverley catalog pdf, and it only lists Scorcher, Complete, Amateur Scorcher, and Scorcher Junior. They all have sloped top tubes. I also have a '96 catalog that only lists the Scorcher and the Belle. That Scorcher looks similar to the '95 ad...

I too just now saw this; I don't know why they say "watch and receive emails" when they never send an email. Anyway I'm reading that as 3/16". Sorry, I'm looking for a 1/4".

What's the width of the chain?

What year do you think it is? I have a Waverly with similar bottom bracket that I think is ~'94, but it has the wrong chainring and maybe the whole crank is wrong.

Hey, that's Mark Dayton in, uh, one of the other 3 corners. He was my HS chemistry lab partner. He was plainly visible in many of the racing scenes in the movie owing to the orange jersey with blue stripe that he always wore.

So it seems the answer is that there were slotted forks in the early 1890s (and I would guess sooner), then it looks like most but not all companies stopped using them, until the late 30s when everybody went back to them.

That actually seems like a great compromise between safety and being able to get the wheel out.

I was just at a bike show with bikes from 1890s-1920 and not a single one was slotted; one of the experts there said he thought they started doing it pretty close to 1930. It's wild that a company thought to do it in 1897 and no one else copied the idea for 30 years!

I wonder if those slots were cut later? That’s something I sure would have done after I saw them elsewhere.

What brand? Or from where? I have bikes later than that with no slots, and I'm pretty sure I've seen unslotted ones well into the 20s.

When did it finally occur to someone that slots in the front forks would make it a whole lot easier to put the wheels on? I've never seen a date for this.

Some tandem riders like the captain's pedals a little ahead of the stoker's.

Any idea what that #6 chainring is from? What thickness are the teeth?

The Wayne County Historical Museum has a Henley in their collection, and probably some info about him. They also have 5 other bikes made in Richmond. https://wchmuseum.org/about/

It's a 1937. That's the only year Raleigh made a 3-speed tandem.

I know this thread is 13 years old, but I recently acquired a Richmond bike so this thread turned up in an info search. My bike has the same frame, fork, and badge as petestorm's - and similar screws holding the badge on - but his has an obvious G&J crank that I'm surprised nobody mentioned...

Just now saw this; I thought this thing sent emails when you had new messages? Anyway the diameter is 5/8" nominal (.625") though mine measure more like .620". The overall length is about 7 1/2", maybe a hair more, but I'm not super fussy about that. Raleigh arms are actually a pretty good match...

Tell me more...

Actually it's an 1897 Acme Stormer, which I'd swear I saw a picture of yours on here yesterday but I can't find it today. Anyway here's mine.

I have a TOC tandem that uses cottered crank arms, but the two left-side ones are missing. Modern Raleigh-type cranks fit fine but of course don't look right. Need two left-side cranks, cottered, 6.5" center-to-center, TOC-appropriate, that use 1/2" pedals.

I'm still looking for the two left-side crank arms for my Acme Stormer tandem! Cottered, 6.5" long.

Maybe you already know by now then, but for anyone who doesn't, that just means one of the cotters was in backwards.

Hey all, Probably a long shot, but does this head badge ring any bells? The bike is a pretty generic-looking TOC ladies' bike with wood rims, handlebars, and rear fender. I'm sure there would have been an insert in there.

What's the wheel diameter?

Link to event http://ohiowheelmen.org/memmeet/2021-mem-meet.html

Posting actual links instead of pictures of links would work a lot better! https://www.touroffarmington.com/ https://steelbikerendezvous.com/

I have an 1894 Waverley Scorcher that has a similar geometry to your frame, and it should have the same chainring on it, but your bottom bracket is different than mine. The Waverley bottom bracket at that time was pretty distinctive - a very thin tube, barely bigger than the crank axle. I agree...

Old thread, I know, but for the sake of posterity: They were designed by Scheuer and built in Germany until about 1960, then moved to Japan. They had Shimano 333 rear hubs, a pretty sure sign they had nothing to do with Raleigh. Here's another thread about them...

I know this is a very old thread but I'll post this anyway for the sake of future researchers. I have a "The Londoner" identical to the OP's except it was made in Japan. Apparently production shifted there sometime around 1960. Some people in other places are guessing that these are English...

I might be interested in the Hercules chain guard. It doesn’t by any chance have the front clamp with it, does it? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No one's mentioned Craig Allen yet? He restores actual old bikes, high-wheelers from the 1880s and safeties from the 1890s, making whatever parts can't be bought which is quite a few.

A relatively new option for 28" tires is tubular (aka single-tube aka sewups) 700c CX race tires. They can be stretched to fit the wood rims if you choose to keep those, and are cheaper and much lighter i.e. easier to ride than the Robert Dean tires. They can be tricky to search for because some...

I live in Indiana and that's the first bike I've seen from Marion. The Wheelmen database says this brand was made 1896-99; the coaster brake was almost certainly added later, which was common as soon as people figured out that having a brake was better than not having one. There will be an...

Ben Hur was an Indianapolis bike company, as the headbadge says, though it's not clear to me whether they made bikes themselves or just badged someone else's. I think they made the early ones then badged others later; the brand was sold up into the 50s at least. This one looks early, 1890s or...

Yeah, LaPorte is in Indiana.

Heck I had a pair of these in the early 70s that I used when I rode to class, and I bought them new.

It also has the model number stamped into the seat tube lug right there behind the top of the stay. -Stan

It's 1900 or later from the rococo lugs; is there not a model # stamped on the top right seat post lug, like my 1899 has?

I concur that the 1899 ad I posted was advertising the new 1900 models and their Rococo lugs. I've since seen something somewhere, maybe the original source of the ad, and it was late 1899. So I'd say we've established that the rococo lugs were first used on the 1900 model year.

The Rococo lugs were first used in 1900, although either they were advertised in 1899 or the 1900 models came out in late 1899. Here's an ad where they were first advertising them.

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?

Do you still have the #26 badge? I have a 26 with a badge on it, but somebody acid-dipped it and ate all the detail off, not to mention the patina.

I have an early-1899 Model 26, per the tag in the seat tube. SN 52256. It has the less-fancy lugs. Attached is a G&J ad from 1899 advertising their new rococo frames, though, so they must have started that year.