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A.G. Schladitz Albina, Dresden...1890's?...Just Got It

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HARPO

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Bought this one last night. Why? Because it looked like it was from the 1890's and I've never had a bike this old. Please enlighten me to any info on the bike, because there is precious little on the internet. 🤨
And apparently it will be, for now, the only one on The Cabe. I did a search on here and nothing came up.

I know it was made in Germany and there is a lake in Dresden that bares the same name as on the bike. (Dresden is south of Berlin). They made bikes from the 1800's into the 1900's. There is one here http://www.kpgraphic.com/kpgraphic/schladitz1913.html showing one from 1913.

So...anyone know what I have purchased? It was also ridiculously cheap, another factor for the purchase, and only 12 miles from my house.

This will be photo heavy, so be prepared. I wanted to give as much photo info as I could. 😉

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Hello
You can find on the Rotax hub the year that it’s made , but is it still the original . Maybe you can find also a year in the front hub .
I think the bicycle is made between 1915 and 1925 but I am not a specialist about German bicycles.
This is a link to a German magazine with articles about Sladitz Albina and Rotax .
You can copy the text and use google to translate it .

Greetings Gerrit Kan
The Netherlands
 
@Gerrit Hi Gerrit! Well, I cleaned off the rear hub. No date. 🤨 Since the company was started in 1920, that will be the oldest that the bike can possibly be. 😕

I have a 1946 Schwinn Continental Sturmey-Archer 3-Speed that also isn't dated, and found out that they started dating them in 1947. So possibly the early Rotax weren't dated either?

On a positive note, the pedals came right off, as did the seat post (and clamps after I took this picture). All that rust and no issues. I can't believe it! I have them soaking in EvapoRust right now. To easy, so I'm waiting for something to go wrong, lol. 😀

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I've decided to do what Jay Leno calls a "Preservation Restoration". 🙂

Only addition will be tires and tubes at some point. Everything else on the bike will be cleaned, greased, detailed, etc. This now stands as the oldest bike I've ever owned (and probably will but who knows) and I'd like to keep it as original as possible. Made in Germany is another factor. Just to bad it wasn't a men's bike. 🙁
 
I just found this on the Rotax Company website:

Roots of the Rotax brand and initial success

In the beginning is a pioneer. Friedrich Gottschalk is the owner of a successful bicycle components factory in Dresden. As a member of a cycling association, he’s at home in the saddle himself, too. He is an all-round producer, making everything a gentleman could require in relation to bicycles. Brakes, tires and saddles, but also caps, bicycle clips and gaiters. Then he notices the first bicycle hubs, US-produced models that are spreading through Germany. And he quickly realizes that they could be done better! He files a patent application in 1906, and the “Rotax” freewheel hub trademark is registered and quickly becomes a million-seller. Anyone who rates themselves as a cyclist wants a bicycle with a Rotax freewheel hub. Even competitive cycling, for example the popular cycle races in front of the Berlin Sportpalast, is soon organized under the Rotax banner. Renowned racers are proud to carry the name of Rotax on their jerseys. Whether it’s in an amateur environment or amongst the cycling elite, Friedrich Gottschalk’s bicycle hub is popular and soon leaves the competition behind.
 
More Rotax Company info:

"The New Departure Bell Company from the USA make it particularly difficult for Rotax to start production of its hub. By the time the long-standing patent dispute is resolved in 1909, Gottschalk has turned the Rotax hub into a mass phenomenon, thanks to clever marketing of its in-house innovations".

So...maybe the bike is older than 1920, as I had hoped. 🙂
 
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