Hercules Bike 1920's??

[The Junkologist]

Hello and I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

I just picked up this Hercules bike that was made or sold by The Luetkemeyer Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Can anyone offer up some info on this relic? Any others out there?
Thanks! Mike

 

[redline1968]

cool bike. alot of other bikes used the same motor- bike frame and parts 1920's is a good guess.

 

[The Junkologist]

Thanks, redline.

I was just looking at the serial number on the bottom of the crank housing and it has the number 272 and upside down underneath it is EPD. I was told that this bike came from an auction sale in Elyria, Ohio. Could the "EPD" stand for Elyria Police Department?? Maybe I'll have to try and find some photos of the Elyria cops from that period. This might get real interesting!

 

[kunzog]

I doubt that this was a police bike but local police departments often stamped bicycles and recorded serial numbers for registration purposes to help locate a lost or stolen bike.

 

[jdw]

man, merry xmas to YOU!

gorgeous. the paint and tires and all....good on you!

 

[jdw]

Luetkemeyer Company

The company name didn't ring a bell, but I found this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uB...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

 

[The Junkologist]

Thanks. I found the same info and that's where it ends, unfortunately.

The good news is I found that I had a nos Allstate 28" tubular tire out in the barn still wrapped in the paper. I found it in a lady's garage when I was buying an old Schwinn from her a couple years ago. It was still pretty good except for a couple little hard spots. I mounted it on the front wheel this morning and pumped it up with no problems. The wood rims are in amazingly great shape. I actually rode the bike across my basement! My wife thinks I'm absolutely nuts!

I'm sure I will end up getting tires from Harper Machine, but is there a good way to preserve the tires I have? Is there something that can be put on them to rejuvenate them at all?

Something else I have been wondering is if there was a definite point in time where the plain wood rims were phased out and the metal clad wood rims came into use. My bike has plain wood rims.

 

[jdw]

well,...

"My wife thinks I'm absolutely nuts!"

well..... :lol:.

dunno about your other questions.................

 

[The Junkologist]

I made a little video of the Hercules bike today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3oEW8e3XZE

 

[jdw]

Hercules

Hi Mike...when I google up Hercules all I get are links to an English company by that name...all along I figured Hercules was just a badge/brand name made for a cleveland company by a US maker, but maybe it's an English bike?????????