Show your Davis built bicycles

[bike]

Someone mentioned earlier maybe we need a Mead thread, I think we do. Why? Well, how much do we actually know about the Mead company except they were a huge mail order outfit that marketed bicycles very well. But were they a manufacturer? Or were they an assembler? My thoughts they were assemblers. We know through the 30's and beyond they were buying bikes from Schwinn, Columbia and Manton Smith, and used their own color and labled them as Meads.

Isn't it more probable Davis sold Mead frames, forks and other sundries and Mead painted and assembled to make their own bikes. I have always heard that Mead bought manufacturers overstock and assembled them to be Meads. Maybe a old wives tale, but then again maybe not.

Let us learn...Mead experts speak up, I know I need the education.

Maybe we need to break motorbikes out of pre 33- from early diamond with an under bar to the ~c1908 gendron and iver "Trumpet" models- also a debate rages who built the 15~21 Indian deluxe motorbike -one original carries a davis decal on the seat tube, I have lit that says "BUILT AND BACKED BY THE FAMOUS MAKERS OF THE INDIAN MOTOCYCLE," And other say Westfield-due to construction points.

Then there are the Excelscior la porte bikes that came under many names including elgin... dead ringer to the eye except for the "volcano"...

 

[hoofhearted]

PRESENTED HERE ARE SOME Excelsior-Built motorbikes .. referenced by BIKE. They really do look
like a Davis frame design .. remarkably so. BIKE's reference to a VOLCANO can be seen in the pics.

 

[chitown]

Look at the chain ring + frame. This is a 1918 catalog. I won't go so far and say that the Elgin is a Mead because I think this post-dates Meads liquidation of older stock and frame building equipment... so sometime past 23-25ish.

 

[hoofhearted]

Oh, Those Motorbikes !!!

FOUND THIS ARTICLE TO BE fairly interesting ... am hopin' a reader can place the copy into
their picture folder .. enlarge it and read on.

 

[bud poe]

FOUND THIS ARTICLE TO BE fairly interesting ... am hopin' a reader can place the copy into
their picture folder .. enlarge it and read on.
I believe a member posted this article in his blog (can't remember who, but I think he's from "across the pond"). I too thought it was interesting, I had never considered that "serious" cyclists would have been so offended by the trend of American manufacturers designing bicycles to resemble motorcycles. It seems as these "motorbikes" were regarded by some as gimmicky toys with all sorts of superfluous bells & whistles....To me they have always represented some of the most interesting design ideas and marketing strategies of the time...
I've always been fascinated with the complex relationships bicycles and motorcycles have had over the years, bikes giving birth to motorcycles and then trying to mimic their bastard sons ever since....It seems that the motorized revolution in the early 20th century also played a major role in the demise of the love affair America had with the bicycle...
Didn't mean to sidetrack the thread with my ramblings, I've got another Davis built (I think) frame to post soon to get us back on topic....
Thanks again everyone who contributed to this one, TONS of knowledge (and laughs) shared here....

 

[dfa242]

Look at the chain ring + frame. This is a 1918 catalog. I won't go so far and say that the Elgin is a Mead because I think this post-dates Meads liquidation of older stock and frame building equipment... so sometime past 23-25ish.

Interesting - my '24 Elgin appears to have the same chainring as this mead.

 

[chitown]

FOUND THIS ARTICLE TO BE fairly interestingView attachment 67810

Interesting indeed. Interesting because the American motobike is purely that... American. What the English were missing is that these weren't just bikes to get kids to and from school. What they didn't understand was the Boy Scout movement here and the influence of marketing to kids that were in the Scouts. Some high ranking scout members were also VP's of major bike distributors/manufacturers...

Many of the bikes that have the lower cross-bar that has "Volcano or Fluted" ends and attached appear to be converted from older frames. I believe many of these were added to frames that were unused or overstock. This was evident by the drop in bicycle production from 1900 up to WWI. There are very few frames that were designed to be moto-bike but very many of them appear to have been converted from roadster type frames. Why would you have these lovely internal and external lugged frames that were being made and having these clumsy add-on pipes for a cross bar. They didn't care if the welds were smooth, they just had to make more moto-bikes because the kids were buying them... well the parents were buying but either way, a moto-bike was cooler than a camelback if you knew anything about being cool. But with the war in Europe growing the US manufacturers were being asked to conserve on materials used, besides the fact that many of the bicycle manufacturers were also making motorcycles for the government or filling 75mm mustard gas shells and such.

The reason for all of these "converted" frames may lie in the government limiting the styles, design features and accessories for bicycles because of the war effort.

 

[hoofhearted]

chitown (Chris) the War Department Restrictions Regarding Bicycle Manfacture During WWI is a
phenomenal read !!! If you readers have not peeped this article ... save it to your pic folders ..
go there ... enlarge the document and read on !!!

WOW !!!

GOIN' BACK TO READ IT ONE MORE ONCE ........ pleasde doi yourserlf a big bih flavor ,,, go raed
thatr atrticle ,,, my typoing iis goihn' shizz axx ,,.. outra heer ,,,,,,,,,, patchcreek

 

[Gary Mc]

Chris, Thank you!!!!! I agree with Patric on phenomenal read, I had no idea these type restrictions were placed on manufacturers during WWI. This explains a lot of things we see on bikes just after 1918!!!! It also helps explain the items that should be used to restore them correctly.

 

[hoofhearted]

IT APPEARS THAT the War Manufacturing RESTRICTIONS were to be in effect beginning Oct. 1, 1918 ... recalling a few
American Motorcyclist And Bicyclist magazines .. i can remember seeing some Davis ads from this period of time .. the
ads featured Davis Dayton models ... indeed .. the bicycles had non-dropside fenders (as in restriction) ... with no more
than four models offered .. and MAY have had blackout features where nickel was intended. The ads were patriotic ..
as in, Let's All Do Our Fair Share For The War Effort ... or similar. The peace accord was signed Nov. 11, 1918. Had the
war ended much later, we may have seen a lot more of these WWI War-Time Bicycles.

.......... patric