The bike sold yesterday for my advertised price of $4,000. and will be partially disassembled, packaged, and shipped to a collector in Switzerland who is
also the owner of 26 of my previous restorations. Shipping to Switzerland generally runs in the neighborhood of $500. to $600. which the buyer is responsible for.
This is actually the second Ladies Hartford Model 32 for this buyer; the first one had a red frame and had the Universal solid tires which means it would not, and
should, not be ridden.
I've been asked why I don't recomment riding bicycles with the Universal tires and my answer is that unlike the earlier hard tire safeties that had either solid steel frames or the much thicker walled tubular frames which were able to mostly absorb the shocks brought about by the very rough roads they were being ridden on in the early 1890's the advent of the single tube safty tire, in the mid 1890s followed roughly 30 years later by inner tube type tires, changed everything; bicycles became much more confortable to ride, were significantly lighter with thinner walled tubing now possible since the frames and weldments no longer had to absorb the serious shocks of the early rough roads. The earlier versions of the Universal solid rubber tires used to have imbedded in their sidewall the notice " For Display Only"; apparently Universal Tires no longer view this warning is necessary; I disagree. This is not to say that single tube safeties produced during the period 1895 thru the early 1920's were not ruggedly built, with few exceptions, most were. Having restored nearly 100 single tube safety bicycles over the past 35 years in my hobby/retirment business "Time Machines Limited" I've examined many of the different approaches to building these particular type bicycles and observed first hand just how solidly most were built . I've seen the changes that better machinery and machining techniques have brought about and how frame design and manufacturing strategies, as well as how new alloy's improved and strengthened the products. Developements like coaster hubs followed closely by coaster brake systems, shock absorbing systems, frame geometry, saddle design, steel clad rims, the progession of better lighting systems from oil lamps, through carbide headlamps throught the earlier battery powered electric lights each contributed to making the Golden Age of Bicycle such an exciting period for me to become absorbed in and with. My view is that the develpoement and continured improvements that occured during the single tube safery period assured that bicycle were going to be around for many, many more years and would continue to improve and develop in more ways than we can ever dream.