Show your Davis built bicycles

[hoofhearted]

BILL .. (wspeid) ... go to Nostalgic.net ... when there .. refer to Restoring A 1918 Harley-Davidson Bicycle ... Chapter 8 .. Pedals ........

also .. peep this 1920 Dayton Catalog (from Nostalgic.net) ... BTW .. those pedal blocks don't always hafta be white.


.......... patric

=============================================================================================
=============================================================================================

BILL ... just responded to your PM ... 5:30 pm --- you're very welcome !!

.......... patric

 

[coin1812]

Davis made Mead

Hi all. Thoughts on this one?

 

[coin1812]

Davis made Mead?

Few more photos

 

[hoofhearted]

Hi all. Thoughts on this one?

coin1812 ... am not convinced your machine is a Davis. How about some fotos
of the bottom of the bottom bracket.


thanks ......

... patric


================================================================
================================================================

 

[coin1812]

Here are a couple photos. Who else attached the truss rods directly to the fork? Thanks

 

[hoofhearted]

Here are a couple photos. Who else attached the truss rods directly to the fork? Thanks

coin1812 ... Davis machines have their numbers placed very-close to the crank cups and run in the same direction
as the wheel layout. These numbers can be located near either cup. Very often there is an isolated single number ...
this number denotes the model-year.

By the late teens ... an extra set of numbers may appear. More on this when I understand the purpose of this extra set.
Some CABEr may have some insight.

The unknown manufacturer that built your machine ... in addition to The Excelsior Cycle Co. in Michigan City, Indiana ...
early-teen's era Schwinn-built of Chicago, Illinois ... Miami Cycle & Manuf. Co. in Middletown, Ohio ... The Davis Sewing
Machine Co. in Dayton, Ohio ... are the companies that come to mind .. that have the truss rods attached directly to
the fork. There are probably others .. but none that I can name at this time.

Thank you for those fotos, coin1812 ....

........... patric cafaro

=============================================================================================
=============================================================================================

 

[chitown]

H-D Proof!!!

H-D and Davis together in print! The timing of this ad is interesting also. Davis Sewing Machine was sold by the Huffmans in June of 1922 from what I've found. A July 6th trade magazine has Huffman Mfg forming to manufacture bicycles. In August Huffman Mfg sold it's manufacturing equipment to Excelsior Cycle co and agreed to not produce bicycles for 5 years. Just after the Huffmans are out of the picture Davis has ads showing H-D as part of the line of bikes made. Davis shortly afterwards filed for bankruptcy. A story of stock manipulation emerges from a 1995 Dayton newpaper story:

http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/youngindustrialist.html

The Huffman family sold the business early in the 1920s to a man in the East for about $1 million, Webster told McNees. The new owner hired a company to redesign the plant, which had grown to about 20 buildings, and issued new stock in the company. Hearsay had it that the stock was inflated eight to one and sold by a brokerage. Then the new owner took bankruptcy. He paid $1 million for the company, issued $8 million in stock, and sold half of it. "That's $3 million in profit," said Webster. `That was how the old railroad barons had made fortunes on the railroads."

 

[chitown]

March 1922

Hearsay had it that the stock was inflated eight to one and sold by a brokerage.

 

[chitown]

Planned failure...

Looks like some should have read this article in 1920 warning of the unproven hard sale tactics of Dubiske & co.

Dubiske forced a sale without the client being able to investigate for themselves the stock offered. Referred to as the "one interview" system of selling.

 

[hoofhearted]

Chitown ... here is an impossible to find DAVIS badge, issue sometime in late 1922 ...
just a few months before Davis shut the doors on bicycle production. It is listed as a
brand in your 1922 Davis sales document. The only other one i have seen is in the
collection of Scott McCaskey.

Stamped copper with bottlecap feature.

............ patric

=================================================================================
=================================================================================