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Re: Autobike
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Home away from home
 
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So... ya like wild drive mechanisms on 2-wheelers, huh?
Every seen one of these??? From 1985. Yes, I have a real one to go with the literature... Attach file:  (344.56 KB)
Posted on: 2020/5/3 14:10
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Re: Autobike
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Posted on: 2020/5/3 17:27
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Mal
/o[]o\ ====  Bowral, Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia "Out of chaos comes order" - Nietzsche. 1938 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD 1941 One-Twenty Club Coupe - SOLD 1948 Super Eight Limo, chassis RHD - SOLD 1950 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD What's this?  Put your Packard in the Packard Vehicle Registry! Here's how! Any questions - PM or email me at ozstatman@gmail.com |
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Re: Autobike
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Home away from home
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That's the same drive design as the modern lay-down cycles, which have a treadle setup. Not unlike the old Cyclops kids cars!
I dare say that the lay-down bicycles have their advantages, but one of them is not visibility in traffic. Guess that's why most have a mast with flag attached. Brian
Posted on: 2020/5/3 18:32
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1941 120 Club Coupe (SOLD)
1956 Clipper Deluxe (RHD and auto) - for the wife, or so I told her! |
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Re: Autobike
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Quote:
By "lay-down" cycle I presume you mean "recumbent"...? I love these things! I've ridden many over several decades. But yes, terrible visibility in traffic. But then I would never take one out in traffic. It is too bad that California's Dobbins Bicycle Freeway and New York and Chicago's overhead bicycle expressways never took serious root and lived on.
Posted on: 2020/5/3 18:56
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Re: Autobike
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Leeedy
Is there anything you don't know about bicycles?! Where on earth did you store 1000 bikes? Yes, the recumbent models are usually seen out on the open road, loaded up with panniers etc. for long distance travel. Rarely in traffic. They seem to get along pretty well. Brian
Posted on: 2020/5/4 0:11
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1941 120 Club Coupe (SOLD)
1956 Clipper Deluxe (RHD and auto) - for the wife, or so I told her! |
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Re: Autobike
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Quote:
Hello Brian, Thanks again for the kind words. I have been collecting old bicycles and vintage bicycle literature since the 1950s. I got really serious with it in the 1960s. Having 1,000 bicycles is nothing. THAT was what I had in the 1970s. At the height of my collecting I had well OVER 3,000 vintage bicycles and 24 automobiles (many were Packards) before I was robbed in 2001-2002. I still have over 80,000 vintage bicycle catalogues, books and photos... original stuff. While I have had several imitators, I was the first in the world to collect and restore vintage balloon tire (what I call Classic) American-made bicycles. I was the first to write about them and to provide accurate history. I did the first TV shows (ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, the Outdoor Channel, etc.). I did the first newsletter. I did the first appearances at industry trade shows like Interbike and its predecessors and had display exhibits there for decades. I did lectures coast to coast. I wrote the first industry history slide show... and later video (shown to over 25,000 dealers). I was in magazines and newsletters from all over USA and even Japan-I was even listed in Forbes as the top bicycle collector once. I wrote the first articles. I did the first news stand magazine series on classic American bicycles (Cyclist magazine 1980s). Bicycling magazine (where I first appeared in the early 1970s) called me "King Of The Classics" in an article they did on me (published in the April 1991 issue of the world's largest consumer bicycle magazine). I did museum exhibits all over the USA-top venues like Los Angeles County Museum Of Art and Oakland Museum. I identified the hottest collector pieces. Coined terms and copyrighted them. I took these bicycles and parts to old car swap meets and was first to advertise in old car publications. I was a consultant to several bicycle companies in the 1970s when people and companies had completely forgotten classic American bicycles. I even collected vintage bicycle movies-meaning films (I have hundreds) and founded a vintage bicycle film festival. I conceived and held the first national event on these bicycles. AND... I was first to collect Packard bicycles and identify them correctly. But people have very short memories. When I started collecting, people laughed at me. Today? Nobody remembers and all that work over all those years and all that collecting and saving and buildings full of old bicycles was for nothing. Now the internet is overrun with people who think they are "experts" on the subject. Some of them even try to lecture me with my own information from years ago. There are all kinds of DIY "forums" and blogs. Some guys fall out of the sky decades after me and end up being stars on TV getting paid megabux to talk about the very same bicycles I was collecting, restoring and talking about 50-60 years ago (and getting laughed at back then). Anyway, thank you. Attach file: (1,106.42 KB)
Posted on: 2020/5/4 9:35
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Re: Autobike
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Leeedy
What you're describing is the curse of the internet. The refuge of the instant expert and purveyor of dubious facts. But it has it's advantages, too. Not the least of which is this website. I had never heard of Packard bicycles until I came across you on here. Such things would not appear today, but it would be surprising if somebody (actually, more than one) had not latched on to the value of the Packard brand in the past. It was indeed a premium product in its day. Of course, it's a different story today. When I'm asked what I'm driving and tell them it's a Packard the response usually is "It's a what?". Not many even recognise the Packard name. The conversation often starts with "What sort of Chevrolet is that?" At that point, I bite my tongue and say something about Packard being a premium brand of American motor car - a bit like an American Rolls-Royce, which get nods of recognition. This is not so far from the truth. My right hand drive Clipper Deluxe was sold new in 1956 by one of the leading Rolls and Bentley dealers here. The price new was in the same league as those brands, so somebody knew about Packards then. Actually, the first owner was an engineer who became a leader of Australia's foremost auto engineering business (Repco). Packard owners seem to have a leaning towards bicycles (or in my case, motorcycles). At its peak, my motorcycle collection numbered over thirty and I had a big time storage problem. But probably nothing compared to yours! There are people on here who do understand the depth of your knowledge, and value it highly. But as you say the media these days is looking for instant experts. They never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Have you written much of this down? Or catalogued your literature collection? Cheers Brian
Posted on: 2020/5/5 0:06
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1941 120 Club Coupe (SOLD)
1956 Clipper Deluxe (RHD and auto) - for the wife, or so I told her! |
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Re: Autobike
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Quote:
Hello Brian, Again, thanks for the kind words. To answer your questions... ? Yes, over the past 50+ years, I have written lots and lots of this. Some was published in magazines and newspapers and trade publications. BUT... a generation or two goes by and people can't even remember it. AND I tried publishing this all in a book (a real book, not some thingie Xeroxed at Kinko's on spiral bindings) starting in the late 1970s. Sent manuscripts out to various publishers who ALL turned it down, totally baffled why anyone would be interested in what I was calling CLASSIC BICYCLES. To show just how out of whack things were, some "editors" wanted to know if I was including "diet, exercise and cadence pedalling tips" in my book and if not, why not? So help me. And yes, I still have the reject letters-including from one of the largest car book publishers who after lying and saying they would never do so (who would be interested?), later pirated both the concept, the theme and the title. They used an imposter poser imitator of me as "author" and added ONE WORD to my original title (I guess this was to get around my copyright-such paragons of publishing!). Was I recognized for my pioneering efforts and knowledge? Even mentioned? Nope. But the imposter/poser became a bogus celebrity years later. Perhaps it was timing-in addition to outright GREED. ? Yes, about 55% of the collection is catalogued in archival format. But it is a huge job and has taken years. Again, I was doing this out of my own pocket and with no assistance from any of those who often were benefitting from my efforts. I would write about a bicycle, get it all kinds of FREE publicity, then the carpetbaggers would swoop in, buy up all they could or start reproducing and selling and declare themselves "experts" on whatever bicycle. And that was that. Nobody could remember how it all got started. And they still don't. ? Yes, I had my share of motorcycles once, including Indian, Harley-Davidson, Cleveland, Kawasaki, Honda and others. Long gone now. You say you like usual modern bicycles with unusual drive systems? Here is another from the mid-1980s (BEFORE those picker guys claim they got into it) and yes I own one. Actually, my friend, the late John Bond (once publisher of Road & Track magazine) and I got interested in these German shaft-driven bicycles. John and I bought two of them. This red one is mine. And yes, I wrote the first history of it published in the USA in 1986. AND I got prototype parts. The bicycle has a 3-speed hub, gas shock rear suspension, front and rear lighting, whitewalls and (thank heaven) a soft seat and upright riding position. Yes, mine is in mint condition and I still have it. No idea what happened to John's black one which seems to have disappeared since his passing. You'll even read some interesting automobile-bicycle history in this article that most people didn't know at the time (but several have repeated this info without acknowledgement). What happened to the magazine? They decided they could use posers (who charged less and could fake their "history") to imitate me and continued using my title (without authorization)... for a while. But they, uh, went out of business (with a shoe print on their pants)... Attach file:  (398.10 KB)
Posted on: 2020/5/9 14:13
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Re: Autobike
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Hello Leeedy
Thanks for that. I'm pleased to hear you have been beavering away cataloguing your stuff. If you don't do it, who will? What you describe about publishing is a sorry tale, but all too common. I have a very old friend (and former top level motorcycle racer) who has been gathering and editing all the material for a widely admired antique motorcycle magazine (Old Bike) for as long as I can remember. It's a huge task - more so when the publishers moved it from quarterly to two-monthly issues. Now that it's firmly established, they are complaining about the cost and looking for somebody else to take it on. Same old story. The same guy actually did publish a couple of excellent books on the history of specific motorcycle events, but I suspect a lot of the investment came from his own pocket. I wonder whether you'd get the same reaction to your approaches today from the same publishers. Sadly, you probably would. Quality does not really sell in their eyes and they are inclined to underestimate the value of specialist publications. It's interesting to note that the Packard "bible" now changes hands for far more than its original selling price. The one consolation is that there are people on this site (and no doubt elsewhere) who understand and appreciate what you have done. Cheers Brian
Posted on: 2020/5/9 19:27
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1941 120 Club Coupe (SOLD)
1956 Clipper Deluxe (RHD and auto) - for the wife, or so I told her! |
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