rhm

Alvin Drysdale

SJX426 

No Major Taylor bicycles********** Really?

GMS 

This is on my 1954 Raleigh and Reg Harris had his on brand too. He has to be the Comeback King winning the national sprint title again after 20 years.

GMS 

Ron Kitching - Ron Kit
He was a great long distance racer before moving in the bike supply business and bringing great bike parts to the UK and the world.

GMS 

Hugh Porter

4 time World Champion Pursuit

oneclick 

Quick google shows no indication he was also a racer. What do you know?

rhm

I'm no expert, but there is a thread on The Cabe:

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/al...rything.98320/

In which is a newspaper clip said to come from the Los Angeles Times, Feb 21, 1921:

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/al...20/post-634095

In particular, note the last paragraph:

"There were a number of spills, the first of these arriving in the opening heat of the State championship event. Facing the starter were Arbuckle, Earl Thompson of the Southern California Cycling club, George Molder, Olympic Club, San Francisco, and Alvin Drysdale, Fresno Cycling club. Barney Oldfield acted as starter for Thompson, and Frank Chance was the impetus behind Drysdale at the barrier. Coming out of the last turn, the field was closely bunched with Arbuckle having a slight advantage, Arbuckle and Drysdale coming out of the turn. Luck was with the former. His wheel remained steady while he rode on to victory, while Drysdale did a handspring over his handlebars, hit the track with his head and slid down the steep incline leaving considerable meet from his knees and elbows on the blanked track. He was unable to resume his place in the nest two heats, while Molder dropped out after the second heat."

So, yeah, it looks like Drysdale was competing well with Clyde Arbuckle who, after Drysdale's spectacular crash, went on to win the state title.

dddd

Multi-time French CX champ and perennial TDF runner-up, 100+ years ago.

T-Mar

More Canadians:

Lovell (Jocelyn): 34x National Champion, 4x Commonwealth Champion, 2x Pan-Am Champion. World Championship silver medalist.

Lovell on his revolutionary, self-built, two gear, dual drive, kilometre bicycle...



Cramerotti (Giuseppe); amateur racer, Italian immigrant

Tony Hoar: English pro cyclist, Lanterne Rouge in 1956 TdF, immigrated to Canada, building frames under his own name and in partnership at Canadian Bicycle Specilaists

Andy Houting: Dutch immigrant, 1930s custom framebuilder, Canadian team pursuit member at 1928 Olympic Games

Hutsebaut (Pierre); French amateur racer from a cycling family, arrived in Canada in 1968 as part of a teacher exchange program and stayed. Held several high ranking positions with the CCA, usually on the technical side. Bicycles manufactured by his father's shop in France with some rebrands, notably Vitus aluminum frames.

Hutsebaut track frame, reportedly manufactured by his father...




Louis Garneau: National Champion and pro cyclist, started manufacturing cycling apparel in 1988 and diversified into bicycles in 2002.

2006 Garneau Sonix 6.4 team bicycle for Jittery Joe's- Zero Gravity team...



Miele (Jim): raced bicycles as a youngster in Italy before his family immigrated to Canada in 1957. Jim worked for his father who imported and distributed bicycle, before establishing his eponymous brand circa 1979-1982.

Top of the line, 1988 Miele Suprema...




Morton (William 'Doc'); English immigrant, won bronze medal as member of Canadian pursuit team at 1908 Olympics, Canadian team coach at 1928 and 1936 Olympic Games, legendary mechanic of inter-war Six Day bicycle races.

Interwar Doc Morton with nice fork embellishment...



Photos to come.

Site won't let me upload more photos.

oneclick 

Blood on the track? Ok, he qualifies.

mgopack42 

My wife's Fondriest Carb Level '03 Monumental SAT... I figure Fondriest pictures are as rare as the bikes them selves. 3 main tubes are aluminum, and the rear triangle and fork are carbon fiber. Most posts that mention this bike, tell a tale of a comfortable bike that handles fantastically. and regret for selling it off at some point. My wife loved it for many years, and we will likely keep it as a display bike for years to come, since it is gorgeous!

Andy_K 

One of my favorite head badges:

bikingshearer 

Cino did win a couple Monuments: Milano-San Remo (1943 - okay, there was a war on, but still . . .) and the Giro d'Lombardia (1938).

merziac

You have to show up to race, then you also have to race to win, if you do then you did.

I won half my championships at the dragstrip partly by not missing any races.

oneclick 

Ok, he's in - he did make a bike or two:

martl

One could distinguish between brands where the rider just sold the rights to their name to another brand (Merckx->Falcon, Kessels, etc) and those where the rider actually founded his own company, developing his own product (Merckx-Merckx). For a long time, there also was the stereotypical ex-Pro who opened a bike shop and sold OEM frames with his name on them (every ex pro between 1890 and 1980)

In Germany, you name them. Rudi Altig, Hennes Junckermann, Rolf Wolfshohl,
Jan Ullrich all were bike brands at some point.

oneclick 

Good point, especially as the line might be blurry. Great for arguments.

I will start putting a $ after racers who only did it for the money.

martl

i noticed i ownb a few myself:

The Golden Boy 

non-fixie 

Jan de Reus sr was a professional racer, who started his own shop and started building frames ...




However, it was his son, Jan jr, who turned out to be the really talented one. His bikes were ridden by quite a few local racers.

Mrs non-fixie has got one:



Not all bikes branded "Jan de Reus" or simply "Reus" are built by one of the Jans, though. Their 2nd tier offerings came with Belgian-made frames.

Here's one of mine:

Oldairhead 

Lino Messori! A short video about the man, link below.

https://vimeo.com/109480079

T-Mar

There's also a case to be made for distinguishing between those who raced and those were popular enough to market on the merits of their cycling career. While all these people raced, a lot of them got never went beyond the amateur level and even of those who did, many never had enough success to make their names marketable beyond a "local hero" level. Basically, they got into the industry for the love of the sport.


For instance, while I dearly love Marinoni bicycles and the man himself, he built the brand on his expertise in frame building, particularly his apprenticeship under Rossin at Colnago. Nobody that I've known has ever bought a Marinoni based on his racing career. Probably the only two Canadians who could justify marketing success in the industry based on their careers were Steve Bauer and Jocelyn Lovell. Even then, Lovell's appeal would be almost solely within Canada and while Bauer had some international success, it still wasn't enough to justify any notable brand success outside the domestic market.


What I find most curious is that Lance Armstrong never marketed a brand or licensed out his name for a brand. For a period, it had the potential to be very successful. However, that boat has sailed. I believe the closest thing I saw were some Trek 'Lance Armstrong' replicas and some Livestrong exercise bicycles.

non-fixie 

Gerrit Bontekoe was a professional track racer a century ago. After an accident which stopped his career his friends, among whom world champion Piet Moeskops, helped him set up a bike shop in The Hague in the early 1920's.

This flyer shows him and another of those friends, Piet "Black Pete" van Kempen:



His son Gerrit jr, also a fairly successful track racer, took over the shop after WWII and is said to have built frames as well. Many, however, were sourced elsewhere (Locomotief, Alan, Altec) and built to customers' specs.

Gerrit Bontekoe jr:



The shop still exist, is still owned by the family and still takes good care of local racing enthusiasts. This is Gerrit Bontekoe III:



I own a few Bontekoe bikes, but the pretties one I know of is this track machine which belongs to fellow enthusiast Peter Ravensbergen:

martl

I guess for many, it was the best way to start a second career, always an issue back in the days for pro sportsmen, when you couldnt earn enough for a comfortable life after the active time.Merckx era riders would tour one day races for starting money, that is where they made the biggest paycheck of the year, at a few 100$ a race.
Staying in the industry they already knew was the best way of doing this, either that or go take some rather poor job, as an unlearned 30-something.

I think he owns a part of trtek? or was that nike?

T-Mar

If you're going to include Tullio, then you'd better include André (Huret). His professional cycling career was interrupted by the Great War but he did compete in the 1912 and 1919 editions of the Tour de France.