Bikes of America (and Canada!)

[Canuk]

1939 Schwinn track bike, inch pitch chain

 

[Canuk]

For the USA, the Schwinn bicycle company’s historical dynasty is very important. Many interesting bicycles were made by Schwinn but the most fascinating and now collectible are the Paramount models. From their introduction in the 1930s, the Paramount models were the dominant racing lightweight in America for 50 years.

This Schwinn track bike is the epitome of the style and quality of production available in the era. Adoption by, promotional deals with film stars of the 30s and 40s helped solidify the brand in the American psyche as the go to bike builders of America.

 

[Canuk]

Albert Eisentraut

 

[Canuk]

Another of Albert's

 

[Canuk]

A typical workshop build scene from Albert's shop

 

[Canuk]

Tamarack Cycles of Canada, Hetchins homage.

 

[Canuk]

During the mid 1980’s, a fellow named Greg Smith started to build frames under the Cyclesmith name in a workshop on Pier 23 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Like probably a lot of people who get into framebuilding, he found out how much work was involved for limited returns, so he turned Cyclesmith into a retail store.

In 1989, a bike mechanic named Michael Thomson convinced his friend and fellow mechanic Mark Beaver that they should take over Smith’s old framebuilding shop on Pier 23 and build their own bikes. They bought Smith’s framebuilding and painting equipment, and learned how to build bike frames. Thus was born Tamarack Cycles.

Thomson went back to school to pursue an engineering degree a few years later but Mark Beaver carried on and became a full time framebuilder in 1995. After a year, he bought Greg Smith’s Cyclesmith store and with his new responsibilities, his frame building started to taper off, only building one or two frames per year in the off season. In 2021, after a twenty-five year career running a retail store, Mark sold his shares in Cyclesmith to his younger partner Andrew, built a new building at the end of his driveway to house his framebuilding shop, and resumed making custom frames under the Tamarack Cycles brand

 

[vtwinvince]

Has Alex Pong of Magic Motorcycle been mentioned?

 

[Canuk]

Has Alex Pong of Magic Motorcycle been mentioned?

Not yet. Feel free to post some photos

 

[bulgie]

Excellent! Your scans are great, did you do them all in one go or are you regularly updating? I use them as reference at least once a month

I only scanned a few of them myself. The rest were digital files sent to me by others.
This was back in an era before you could get tons of online storage for free or cheap. I had a little hobby website, that I didn't think anyone would look at, I just wanted to see what it took to make a website with nothing but a Windows desktop PC, and no software beyond Notepad for the html coding. I didn't bother learning much html either, just the bare minimum. I put it up in the late '90s.

Richard Sachs, the American framebuilder, mentioned he had a pile of catalogs, and Duane Kennard offered to scan them if someone else would host them, so I raised my hand. After that first tranch of catalogs, various other people sent in more. I scanned a few myself, but it's work, and I'm lazy! Always glad to have more, but nowadays there are better places to put them.

The current server is ~15 years old, but it's a high-quality "real" server with everyhing redundant, so it may well continue running for another 10 years (touch wood). Or it could die tomorrow. I probably won't stand up another server if this one dies, so you should consider it "at risk" and download anything you wouldn't want to lose.