Classic & Vintage - Bike Radios? Anyone know much about this thing?

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katezila
04-13-11, 08:29 AM
Spring's arrived and I'm putting my radio back on my Schwinn, which got me thinking, anyone recognize this thing? I've never been able to figure out when it was made or what it might be worth.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/4844902782_47ded9fd8f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/katezila/4844902782/)

I got it last August, right about when I finished bringing the Schwinn back into attractive, working condition. I'd been talking about how cool it would be to have a radio and just ride around listening to NPR when fate would have it, I found one at a flea market in the last stall I stopped at! The guy had just picked it up the previous week, didn't even know if it worked so I gave him five bucks and hoped.
Hope, some confused battery installation, and rigging a boost to the antenna resulted in a working little red radio. :)
Yet as irony would have it, I now live only a third of a mile from the Public Radio brodcast station and the signal overwhelms the little guy.

Italuminium
04-13-11, 08:37 AM
That's charming! has it got an iPod jack :)?
CV-6
04-13-11, 08:38 AM
Bike radio from 60s (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270726837798&nma=true&rt=nc&si=6p4wIW%252BTFnqNPch%252FjZ%252B5lIxd97o%253D)

There were probably others. I think I recall one that mounted on the front fender and also had the light in it.

Found this also...

http://i.pbase.com/u42/kayakbiker/upload/27685382.RadioBike.jpg

katezila
04-13-11, 08:45 AM
Bike radio from 60s (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270726837798&nma=true&rt=nc&si=6p4wIW%252BTFnqNPch%252FjZ%252B5lIxd97o%253D)

There were probably others. I think I recall one that mounted on the front fender and also had the light in it.

Found this also...

http://i.pbase.com/u42/kayakbiker/upload/27685382.RadioBike.jpg

Yup, the archer is the only one I come across when I try to research. Any history of the Lafayette company doesn't touch on their portable transistors. I think they make marine radios now?

And yesssss to the huffy radio bike. I'm going to ride one of those one day, and I'll feel damn cool doing it.

And to Italuminium, I thought everything was iPod compatible these days. Do you mean to tell me there's things that aren't!? ;)
w1gfh
04-13-11, 08:50 AM
It's a Lafayette Radio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Radio) bicycle radio of a style and color consistent with the 1970s. IIRC, somewhere there are old catalog pages online you may be able to look at. Bike radios had been around in some form since 1948 (http://books.google.com/books?id=89gDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA273&lpg=PA273&dq=lafayette+bicycle+radio&source=bl&ots=fyn9-8-2Ee&sig=fY7_4oBCTOI6TgI9z82uiOnNBEc&hl=en&ei=7ralTeCiCNCatwew69i9Ag&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=lafayette%20bicycle%20radio&f=false) or even earlier.