fillthecup

I sort of duped this post in classic/vintage, but that forum at a second glance seems to focus on the technical.
I had accompanied my girlfriend to Dayton OH for a bellydance convention, which sounds like an interesting premise BUT!, men not being invited, I found myself alone for a few days. So I spent some quality time in museums there.

Who knew the Wright Bros were bike mechanics? (not me) I saw one of their bike workshops, then made my way to a Huffy museum. This pic is of a ladies bike called 'Cygnet'. The mesh of cords over the rear wheel was to prevent long dresses from tangling in the spokes. It also looks purty.

I posted this because I never thought about artistry in bicycles before. Why NOT have cool ornamentation on bikes? Why NOT have masonic symbols in my chainring? (www.blackbirdsf.org/chainwheels/), or fins on my fenders? I feel kind of cheated by the market these days. I also had no clue prior to this about bicycling history, which turns out to be totally COOL!

I thought I'd give a big thumbs up for the museums in Dayton, and see if the old timers here can recommend anything along these lines.

Big Tommy C

Perhaps the products from Dirty Dog MTB will be to your liking:

https://www.dirtydogmtb.com/

As You Like It

Hah, that ladies bike from back in the day is cute! I wish my Schwinn had skirt-guards on its finders, as I could feature riding in a couple of the longer skirts that I own.

cyclezen

nice. And wheel skirts aren't necessarily a 'vintage' thing. I would guess that there are still plenty of daily riders in Europe who's bikes have full coverage chain guards, friction based lights/generators and purtty string fenders skirts.
That Cygnet is sure a purtty bike.

jur

And note the saddle with anatomical cutouts...

The Dutch have a standard fitting around the rear wheel, to keep skirts and coats out of the rear spokes.

giantcfr1

Pleanty of full chain guards here in Japan. These are a couple of police bikes.

I-Like-To-Bike

You ain't kidding. The air(plane) museum at Wright Patterson AFB is superb.

buzzman

I was riding through the countryside in the Netherlands one Sunday and was in a small village while virtually everyone in town was in church- I could hear them singing. Outside were hundreds of bicycles all unlocked and the women's bikes all had hand-knit (or perhaps crocheted) fender guards over the rear wheel. They were all unique and quite beautiful I stopped and looked at them for a long time before I moved on.

fillthecup

That sounds very very cool (picture?). I'd love to bike through the Netherlands.

My girlfriend recently took up knitting. I've thought about commissioning her to knit some covers for my toe clips. They'd get all torn up on the ground though.

genec

If you ever get a chance, try the Titan Missle silo outside of Tucson... amazing what was built in secret in such a short period of time.

genec

Two comments... You missed the Wright brothers as bike mechanics? Were you absent that day in school? Yikes!



I love the brake rotors from Dirty Dog.

Check out this dropout from Vanilla bikes:





Or this dropout:



Bikes can be full of art... the sad fact is the fillet welded frames of today are missing some great cut lugs at the joint of the tubes. Bikes that display "artistry," "hand cut lugs" have often been a nice "gem" on bikes.

DataJunkie

My mother lives north of dayton. I visit that museum everytime I visit. Last time was april of 04. Superb is almost an understatment.

buzzman

I did take pictures but it was pre my digital camera days. I'll see if I can locate them and scan the pix- it was pretty cool. and none of the bikes were locked. And the Netherlands rock. I would go back there in a heartbeat.