akcapbikeforums

There is a story, oft circulated here, that dramatically suggests Lotus bicycles went out of business because an uninsured load of Lotus bicycles happened to be on board a ship that sank en route from Asia -- sinking the fate of the bike company with the cargo on board.

That's news to Ernst Star, who along with his father Sid, was Lotus bikes... and whom I contacted last week to get the facts on the company, its rise and its demise:

Prior to 1980, Sidney (Sid) Star had marketed Windsor bicycles in the US through his company, Alpha Cycle & Supply Corp. Sid's son, Ernst Star left a university job in 1980 to join with his father to start a new brand, manufactured in Japan -- creating and registering the '''Lotus''' brand at that time. Sid was successful in modifying the designs to be competitive in the US market, and together they formed Lotus International Corporation to handle Lotus bikes exclusively, subsequently dropping Windsor bicycles.

Windsor cycles were manufactured by Acer Mex (Acermex?) and had been good products for Alpha -- but required constant quality control attention due to the reorganization of the factory in Mexico City. Both Windsor and Lotus cycles received top ratings in the Consumer Reports, November, 1985 issue.

Lotus International depended heavily on outside financing to fund its growth and when their bank unexpectedly changed hands and interrupted financing, the company was nearly driven to bankruptcy. A breach of contract suit followed with an undisclosed settlement.

There was still demand for Lotus bikes and the corporation was forced to deal with an assortment of third party distributors to service it's finances. Ernst recalls that one of the smaller distributors at this time called himself Lotus Distributors -- they were unrelated to Lotus International Corp..

Sid Star's health declined and he passed away in 1990. Ernst Star dissolved Lotus International, subsequently forming International Licensing & Design Corp. (ILD) and retaining the Lotus brand. Ernst acquired several licensees and continued to work as a consultant for the design and marketing of Lotus. Other licensees during the 1990s included a company which sold Lotus bikes in China, Sears and Walmart in the US, and Group Lotus (Lotus Cars) in the UK. ILD still exists but is no longer involved with Lotus bikes -- having sold the mark to Group Lotus prior to 2000. In 2000 Ernst Star returned to acadamia, becoming a professor at Hofstra University and Suffolk Community College in New York.

I reached Ernst after tracking down a post by his daughter Katherine, in another forum.

Ernst does recall that a ship was once delayed by a storm at sea and that one of their containers was damaged -- but there was no ship that sank carrying Lotus bikes.

cudak888 

Excellent detective work, and a most interesting story.

Quite glad to see the rumor once and for all sunk - pardon the pun.

-Kurt

repechage

But did you ever hear about the lost Mazdas? the boat almost sank, the cars were not saleable. Or the Volvo freighter that sank in the Baltic?

cudak888 

How about the buried Confentes somewhere in California?

-Kurt

treebound 

I lived in California, I played in the desert and hills some, I have a metal detector - that all I can tell ya. ;-)

cudak888 

I'll see you in a couple of years then

-Kurt

High Fist Shin

Or the hydrogen bomb buried in Georgia! Oh, wait...

-Shin

cb400bill

Or those Nike shoes that keep washing up on shore in the PNW.

repechage

Actually the Volvo problem caused a delay in the launch of the XC90, the initial cars arrived, but the next batch got burned up were the auto freighter caught fire, and sank under tow in the Baltic just short of the Channel.

The Mazdas got loose during a large Pacific storm, and the freighter was almost sunk as the cars shifted to one side, almost a total loss, Mazda 3's and Zx-7's.

A typical auto freighter holds 700 to 900 cars.

More often than one would suspect a container ship arrives at the local port with a number of containers missing, and others barely hanging on in various states of deformation. The ocean is tough often.

cudak888 

Or the capsule NASA launched to space, containing all the questions PatentCad has been asked in Foo.

-Kurt

Amani576

Dear God... That's why America is in such a financial debt!
-Gene-

cman

Great work on tracking down the real story.

Now for bikes lost at sea there were some.

from oldroads.com

Here's what I know and it's straight from Cheetos Headquarters in Texas. Crayola Crayon and Cheetos teamed up for the Color My World promotion. They order 1500 bikes from a company in Taiwan. After this company started building them they figured out that they wasn't going to get rich and stoped building at 1000 bikes. They shipped the bikes and durring the trip over the ship they were on was caught in a bad storm and the entire load on board the ship shifter, crushing the load of bikes. Cheetos sent a insurence adjuster out by helicopter and they wrote off about 650 bikes as being damaged. Then the crew of the ship was order to throw the damaged bikes overboard. The remaining bikes made it to the warehouse in the USA. About 150(approx.) bikes were taken home by Cheetoes big shots or given to thier buddys. The remaining 200(approx.) were put on display in stores thru out the US then given away as 1st prize in the Crayola Crayon/Cheetos Color My World Contest. It's also listed in a book called "The Evolution Of The Bicycle 2"

cudak888 

And despite only 350 surviving or so, they pop up on the open market with surprising frequency.

-Kurt

HSean

Throw them overboard? thats a sin and a waste, not sure if america does what we are doing but we ship bikes over to africa for people who need them, I think other places get them too. plus the sea aint no dumping ground lol

jgedwa

Logistics is a ruthless industry. I have no trouble imagining them chucking the damaged bikes over the side. I think that if people knew what went on in the shipping world, we would have a revolt.

jim

tero

A few years ago one of the Hyundai cargo ships sank in front of Singapore. It was carrying 3,000 new and 1,000 used cars, all cars ended up on the bottom of the ocean.

akcapbikeforums

Ok, but for sure the purple Chester Cheetah bikes lost at sea weren't Lotus bikes, let's clarify that point.

For what it's worth, in my discussion with Ernst Star, he did say, referring to the bicycle industry: "if there's an industry more prone to inventive gossip, I haven't come across it."

One need only read this thread to see what he means!

noglider 

I sold them in their first year. We liked them a lot. It was clear that Sid loved bikes. At the time, they came from the Tsunoda factory. I think Tsunoda OEM'd a few brands that were sold here.

Mos6502

Interesting myth about the lost bicycles sinking the company.

I wonder if it was inspired by this true story:
https://www.american-automobiles.com/...-Cyclecar.html

A passenger list confirms that Mr. Trumbull was on the ship that day. Though I supposed he could have made up the story about the cars just to make his tale more interesting.

robtown

Did someone say LOTUS?

Primitive Don

Thanks for the update and debunking of the myth about Lotus. I must say I've become obsessed with this particular brand since acquiring a late 80s Excelle and an early 80s Elan a while back. It's crazy think that Lotus might have been sold in Wal Mart at one point! Now to locate some touch-up paint for my candy apple red Excelle ...

top506

Actually, that's a legit 'Broken Arrow' case.
Top

roccobike

I have a Lotus Challenger, clearly one of their entry level bikes. Despite the stem shifters and turkey wing brake levers, the over-all bike speaks clearly of quality. The frame is double butted, Tange 900, Cro-mo steel. The rims are Araya alloy 27" QRs. The derailers are Suntour AR and the brake levers, although they have turkey wings, are hooded. I've said in previous posts, not just here, that IMHO Lotus and Shogun made some of the nicest entry level bikes. I've never owned one of their higher end bikes, but I would not pass one up if it showed up where I find most of my bikes.

akcapbikeforums

I guess the question for Ernst is did they sell the bikes they licensed to Walmart under the Lotus brand... or some other brand.

KonAaron Snake 

My first "real" bike was a Lotus Odyssey with racks and panniers...I LOVED that bike and really want another. It had a disagreement, with me on it, with a Federal Express truck...the Lotus lost.

You can all laugh about myths...but I WILL find the missing train car filled with Hetchins that was robbed by Mexican banditos on the way to Scottland. I've even heard from a reliable source that Jimmy Hoffa was on that car.