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And... another request. Ever since we posted a Packard Pedal car in this thread, that got a lot of attention.

So from one of our bicycle catalogues from the late 1920s, here ya go...

This luxurious Packard pedal car actually had a real tail light/stop light, leather seat, detailed simulated controls and real spring suspension!

But that's neither a Cormorant nor a Pelican ornament on the radiator...! The pedal car company that made this little treasure called the radiator ornament an "Eagle" but it doesn't look like one of those either...!

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And here is a photo I thought you might enjoy of a prewar Schwinn-Built Packard bicycle. This one was ordered with very rare optional V-shaped gothic fenders.

When we got this Packard bicycle in the mid-1970s (when this photo was taken), it was missing the Delta Silver Ray headlight. Bicycle people don't know this, but these bicycle headlights were made based on 1932 Buick parking lights. Delta Electric of Marion, Indiana was the supplier of power window switches for 1955 and 1956 Packards.

Anyway, we filled the mounting hole for the Delta Silver Ray with a bicycle accessory Packard Cormorant ornament as we have described elsewhere in this thread.

Prewar Schwinn bicycle collectors may pick out more details of this unusual Schwinn-Built Packard bicycle.

Image and bicycle courtesy of Leon Dixon / National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com)

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If you have been following this thread, you may recall when someone had a Packard bicycle for sale at the beginning and was seeking information.

Several claims were made about this bicycle and I attempted to correct those claims. However information I provided was ignored.

Particularly vexing was the wild claim about the handlebar stem being somehow related to a Packard Motor Car Company design. Oh!

Lately these stems keep turning up (often on the western end of the country) with still more claims. Usually people swear these are "prewar"... of course they are not.

So? Without further ado, here is a post I just made on a bicycle site where this stem has once again popped up...
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Ahhh. One of these stems again. One was only recently for sale on this CABE site.

These stems keep turning up and I keep identifying them... and the IDs I provide keep getting ignored. As a big hit record star that I used to perform with during my music days (we were even in the Army together) used to say to me... "Mannn... people are gonna believe what they wanna believe and say what they wanna say! You can't change it."

But I will try here one more time.

These stems are almost always claimed to be "prewar"... they are NOT. They are postwar and appeared in the late 1940s.

One of these stems showed up in recent years on a circa teens-1920s "Packard"-branded bicycle originally sold via California wholesale-distributor, Bean Son Company (BSCO). The bicycle was claimed to be authentic (it wasn't). This Packard bicycle was posted on a Packard automobile web site with a flowery description claiming the design was somehow done by Packard Motor Car Company in the early 1900s. The design of the stem was claimed as follows:

"It was built by The Bean & Son Company of San Francisco, CA to follow the design of the Packard automobile with the goose neck handle bar stem being made from aluminum (precious metal at the time) and to have the lines of the cormorant feathers at it's sides like the hood ornament of the Packard automobile. "

A ridiculously absurd claim. The bicycle in question was NOT "built by Bean & Son Company." It was wholesaled and distributed by (not built by) Bean Son Company– NOT "Bean & Son" (no such company). And the stem had absolutely ZERO connection to Packard Motor Car Company, nor any or their designs. This is pure hallucination. (see attached photo).

But like so many others in the bicycle history world where often the blind are leading the blind and anybody can make up and say anything... people actually believed this outrageous fantasy.

I tried to correct the "information" online... and my correction and accurate identification were –as usual– ignored. The Packard bicycle (which also had postwar girl's J.C. Higgins parts) later turned up in San Francisco and was auctioned off. For a hefty price. All with the silly story for the stem intact and my corrections again, ignored!

I suspect like my Japanese "DuJee" aluminum bicycles, these stems were made of scrap and surplus aluminum left over from World War II. DuJees were made of aluminum intended for Japanese Mitsubishi "Zero" fighter aircraft. Likewise I believe these stems and other postwar American-made bicycles and items of the 1940s came from a similar American source. I won't go into the minutia of why here in this thread.

How do I know about these stems? I've been collecting and saving bicycle history for a lot of years. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, I saw quite a few of these stems on bicycles... and for sale in shops. I bought several and kept them. This, of course was a long, long time ago.

These special aluminum stems were made by a company on what used to be known as Detroit's "East Side." The company was located on Gratiot Avenue. The name of the company was Midway Machine and Tool Company. Advertisements for these stems first began to appear in bicycle industry trade magazines in the late 1940s. I am attaching an original ad for this stem from a 1947 issue of American Bicyclist & Motorcyclist magazine (yes, we have most issues from 1920s through the 1970s with many in original bound volumes). This stem was also advertised in other bicycle trade publications like Bicycle Journal (we also have every BJ issue in bound volumes from beginning to end). I also interviewed an engineer involved with making these stems decades ago.

I had about 50 of these stems in boxes I saved and brought out to California in the early 1970s. Unfortunately, these all disappeared when my buildings were robbed over 20 years ago. Over the years since, these aftermarket Detroit-made aluminum stems continue turning up on the western end of the country. Often with crazy stories of what they are.

So if anyone on the planet today knows these stems, it would be me.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)

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And since we're on the subject of Packard bird ornaments, you might find this catalogue page from 1954 interesting.

Gem Ornaments Company made aftermarket accessory and replacement car ornaments for cars. But they also made smaller versions of their ornaments for bicycles and motorbikes.

Of course their most popular of these ornaments were patterned after Packard Cormorant (or Pelican if you prefer) hood ornaments. Gem called them "Swans." The smaller versions were "Swanettes."

There were numerous Gem ornaments but in this case, these were super-whizz-bangs with gold plating on the bird bodies.

You might be surprised today, but quite a few of these ended up on bicycles in the 1950s. Especially on Packard bicycles!

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And now... a bit of detail on scroll-type Packard bicycle headbadges and Colson-built Packard bicycle headbadges.

As I have pointed out in the past, this type of headbadge was installed on both Westfield-built(Columbia) AND Colson-built Packard bicycles.

The finish and actual appearance of these headbadges is almost always wrong as seen today.

This will be argued about by those who believe this headbadge finish was all brass in addition to red lettering.

However, a New Old Stock un-bent headbadge reveals more colors with nickel plating on the raised areas.

Today's collectors tend to polish off this delicate plating. Or they usually don't even realize the plating existed.

Take a look at one of headbadges as found today. Then compare it to a New Old Stock original below...

Images all courtesy of Leon Dixon / National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com)

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Wow, fascinating! I was never so lucky as to have had a Packard-badged bicycle with or without the extra plating intact even though I’ve owned Packard cars since I was a teenager. I didn’t even know they existed until your thread appeared!

Hello... glad you and many others are enjoying the thread!

Packard bicycles are indeed a fascinating subject. So keep watching. There is much more to come!

And... if your Colson-built Packard bicycle was made as a factory Colson model or line (in this case, "Flyer"), here is what the headbadge looked like when new.

Compare this NOS headbadge to the NOS Packard version we posted earlier. Again, note the nickel plating on the raised portions of this headbadge.

Of course, image is courtesy of Leon Dixon and National Bicycle History Archive of America.

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Interesting to see (folks today who restore classic-era bicycles still have not learned that the manufacturers never painted over the heads on fender brace rivets. The rivets came AFTER the paint job– not before). Also interesting coloration job on the headbadge...and certainly not the usual factory colors.

Although the Colson Company (and later, the Colson Corporation) did indeed manufacture SOME Packard bicycles, it is not accurate to say that Colson also "marketed" these bicycles or the notion of Packard bicycles.

One needs to thoroughly understand just how bicycles were marketed in the USA during the 20th century. Problem is that almost nobody in the vintage bicycle hobby today truly understands the process and the methods used. This is why so much guessing and presumption goes on with the various brand names and headbadges on vintage American bicycles.

National Bicycle History Archive of America has perhaps the largest collection of Colson and Colson-built Packard bicycle literature that exists today.