When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

ebay vintage track racer.

-

piercer_99

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=133158985506

Nice lugged frame, pretty sweet looking bike.


from the listing

opening bid $500.00 plus 100 shipping

"
Vintage 1920s BSA track bike fixed gear. 53.5 cm. Condition is Used. Will ship to US and Europe only

This is a great piece of cycling history; it belonged to my father, a serious track rider who rode in the 1950 Olympictrials. He got it from an olderItalian man named Rossi who raced it at the legendary Newark, N.J. Velodrome in the 1920's. My father had the wooden wheels at one point but they have been lost. I don’t know much about bikes but it is in good overall condition. The bike appears tohave the original paint and has name of the racer, “Rossi”, hand painted on the horizontal part of the frame. The sticker on the down tube says “Built by Kopsky NJ”. Kopsky was a well-known New Jersey bike builder in the first part of the 20th century—his daughter was the national woman’s champ. The chain has a early spacing that was common then—I think it is called an inch pitch chain. The wheels are modern and I'm told they are valuable. There are plenty of paint chips and a bit of surface rust—this bike is not pristine. I will try to show that clearly in the photos.


1567827975021.png

1567827986990.png

1567828000982.png

1567828011074.png

1567828023674.png
1567828034692.png
1567828046720.png

1567828060132.png
1567828070325.png
1567828078938.png


1567828088541.png
1567828097648.png
 
It gets better.

The woman (girl) in the photo, Doris Kopsky who was an awesome cyclist in her own right, well her Dad was also, Joe Kopsky, and the bike for sale was built by him.



1567886080787.png



Doris Kopsky in 1937, Buffalo, N.Y. On the left is Furman Kugler, Junior Boys' champion and on the right is Charlie Bergna, Mens' Open Champion. Photo from Jeff Groman Collection.​

Eighty years ago when the women’s division was introduced at the 1937 Amateur Bicycle League of America (predecessor to USA Cycling) nationals program in Buffalo, New York, Doris Kopsky of Bellville, NJ was fifteen and primed to win.

“I was used to racing against men,” she told me in 1992 when she was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. “I was a member of the Bellville Bicycle Club, which had a lot of old-time bike riders.”

One was her father, Joe Kopsky, a member of the 1912 Olympic cycling team that won a bronze medal in the 200-mile individual time trial, which served as the road race in the era of one-speed bikes. Kopsky used to tell how he finished on his bike’s wooden wheels after coarse roads shred his tires. He turned professional and made a name for himself in six-day races. Kopsky became known for stamina and for keeping the pressure on during the 144-hour grinds.

In the mid-1920s Joe Kopsky retired from racing and opened a bike shop in Belleville where he made custom frames. Doris turned 13 in 1935. Her father built her a track bike like all racers competed on. Joe Kopsky brazed a head badge featuring a large D for Doris on the crown of the frame. He taught her how to race.

“I did my sprint training on a flat half-mile stretch of road between Nutley and Belleville,” she said. “My father used to tell some of the old bike riders who came into his shop to race me. He told them, ‘She will beat you.’ I did, too.”

How did her mother, Genette, react to her daughter, an only child, following in her father’s wheel marks? “My mother was mad at my father for getting me into cycling. She didn’t consider cycling lady like. But it was only natural that my father would get me into the sport. I was the son my father never had.”

Race programs then consisted of the men’s open, a race for junior boys 16 and younger, and the women’s open. Doris Kopsky raced in events around the Middle Atlantic and Northeast. One of her first races was a 10-miler in the 1935 National Capital Sweepstakes, around the one-kilometer Ellipse behind the White House in Washington, D.C. “I won the race and received a china tea service. My mother was pleased with the prize.”

In 1937 in Buffalo the ABLA introduced a Girls’ division for women in the weekend program on roads in Humbolt Park. The Girls’ championship was the first ever sanctioned cycling nationals for women, more than a half-century after the League of American Wheelmen, the sport’s first governing body, held its debut nationals for amateur men in 1880 in the Atlantic Coastal resort of Newport, Rhode Island.

“There were three races that made up the first nationals for women,” Doris Kopsky Muller said. “Races were the half-mile, 5-mile, and 25 miles, with points awarded to the top five finishers of each race. There were about a dozen of us, including a few girls from Canada. My sprint training on that half-mile stretch paid off. I won the national championship.”

She was awarded a gold medal with a diamond chip in the center and a silk national champion’s stars and stripes jersey. Triumphing in the Men’s Open was Charlie Bergna of Paterson, NJ. The Junior Boys’ winner was Furman Kugler, a neighbor from Somerville and occasional training partner.

“After winning national championships, Furman and I really celebrated,” she said with a laugh. “We broke training and went out to eat a banana split and a strawberry soda.”
 
Back
Top