Passenger seat or rear rack?

[Hukah]

Here's a puzzler (at least to me); I was reading some old bicycle adverts and one of them referred to the rear rack as a passenger seat and I've heard others refer to it as such also, so my question is; "Is it a passenger seat or a rear rack?
Let the debate begin.

BTW; does anyone have a link to one of those ads? I have been trying, to no avail, to find it ever since.
I've got to settle a debate on another group.

 

[phantom]

As a kid and now I refer to them as the rear rack that was often used as a passenger carrier, never a seat. Phantoms, Panthers, B6, Hornets & Jaguars prior to 59. I call later middleweight wire racks just that. I don't think they were ever intended to be ridden on. But remember, when we were doing this we were all mostly under 100 pounds.

 

[Freqman1]

I agree--rack, not seat. I believe there were some auxiliary seats designed to fit in place of a rack. V/r Shawn

 

[GTs58]

I highly doubt you'll find an ad calling the rear carrier a passenger seat. Let's talk about law suits if that's a passenger seat. They are called carriers by the manufacturers. Front or rear carriers.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

There are racks that are both and yes it is a seat. The rack came with extra attachments once you put rack in proper position to make it more comfortable. I have one and there was one for sale recently on feebay. It was designed for duel use Rack/seat But it was made for children and yes when I weighed 75# I probably would have at least attempted to ride in it. That larger bracket hanging down flips up and locks into the rat trap part creating a frame at back and sides of seat. Then you would install the extra padding to make it more comfortable but you could still use without. Like most products in the past it would never pass todays standards. I learned some of my best lessons getting hurt on dangerous products from the past. I do not have my bike it is in storage when I do I will post pics of it set up. Theses pictures from feebay.

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

seems like 4 out of 5 of these racks are bent from someone thinking they were a seat.

 

[catfish]

Why not both ????

 

[bricycle]

Why not both ????

View attachment 1329921

View attachment 1329922

Cat, that is AWESOME!

 

[Retro Flutter]

Why not both ????

View attachment 1329921

View attachment 1329922

That's pretty awesome. I bet you could courier some fragile loads with that as well.

 

[Dbubbleguy]

I was going through a late 40s, early 50s Johnson-Smith catalog and came across this...