Vintage Bicycle Advertisements; good, bad. ugly...

[drossall]

Lets go and invade some where on one of these bikes.....

My first proper bike, as a child, was a Norman of England. It seemed huge at the time, but I guess I was about eight years old. I had wooden blocks on the pedals at first, to help me reach them. I remember my Dad running alongside, teaching me to ride.

[Mike_Ayling]

larger version of the above, plus some others

I used to look forward to each issue of The Meccano Magazine in the nineteen fifties!

Mike

[bagpussctc]

I rather like this one from Germany . Munich 6 day track poster .

munich-6day-2002-355x400 by rebalrid, on Flickr

[Brucey]

Opel; 'die siegerin' ('the winner'). Opel started out making sewing machines in 1862 and made bicycles from 1886. In 1899 they started making cars and under General Motors control (majority shareholders from the early 1929, full ownership from 1931) they were (and still are) joined at the hip with the British brand Vauxhall. Since 2017 they have been owned by PSA (Peugeot-Citroen). Opel were the world's largest manufacturer of bicycles in the 1920s and the TdF was won on Opel bicycles. Opel bicycle production ceased in 1937, the bicycle plant being sold to NSU, who continued to make bicycles.

Its not clear to me the exact date when this ad was produced, but I'm guessing about 1900; as usual the artist seems to have been more interested in the girl than the bike....





this advertisement must be from prior to 1911; sewing machines were not produced after this date


More Opel bicycle history here; https://opelpost.com/05/2014/production-of-bicycles/

[gxaustin]

Wow - the size of that chainwheel on the Opel!

Epic collection by the way.

I note that American kids bikes are tarted up with all sorts of "jet age" appendages and unnecessary tubes to add weight and detract from the beauty of a nice double triangle frame.

[bagpussctc]

Some thing I have always hackered after is an Opel bicycle . Used to have a M1 and M2 Manta . Shock horror saying that on a cycle fourm.

[bagpussctc]

Puch from Austria had some nice adverts . Good quality machines in there day.

puch 4 by rebalrid, on Flickr

puch 1 by rebalrid, on Flickr

[Brucey]

Sunbeam bicycles were aimed at the posh end of the market and had both a price and a specification to match; beautiful finish ( Marstons started out as a Japanning specialist) oilbath chaincase, aluminium wheel rims, two speed epicyclic gear in the chainwheel (like a schlumpf), and a three speed hub gear were all options by about 1910. If both gear types were fitted together then a six-speed bike was the result.
Clever features abounded; for example the rear axle was split in two, so that the LH half could be removed with the wheel still in the frame. This allowed the tyre and tube to be changed with the wheel in situ, thus avoiding having to dismantle the chaincase; clever stuff.

It is said that the name 'sunbeam' was suggested by Mrs Marston, having seen how the sun caught the japanned finish on an early machine.

The sunbeam works was called 'sunbeamland'. Eventually they made motorcycles, cars and the cycle division was taken over. You could buy Raleigh built Sunbeams after WWII, but there were hardly any differences between these and other Raleighs; good bikes for sure but not like sunbeams had been.

They used their own design of 3s hub at first, quite unlike the SA offering of the time.

[gxaustin]

Something else I've noticed is that the saddles are often depicted in an extreme forward position. The rear of the saddle is often almost level with the seat post.

[bagpussctc]

Elswick Hopper at a price .
1937_Elswick_Hopper_44 by rebalrid, on Flickr

Another British brand consigned to the pages of history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elswick_Hopper

[RickH]

Thanks Rick I'll take a look at it.

If you are out this way, you can always come round & have a look/play with the program here.

[reohn2]

Thanks Rick I'll take a look at it.

If you are out this way, you can always come round & have a look/play with the program here.

Thanks for the offer,if I should decide tovgo ahead with it I'll let you know.

[JohnW]

[quote="JohnW"]

[JohnW]

This thread is for folk to post vintage cycle ads which they find interesting; here's a few to get you going



cheers

You weren't asking for favourites Brucey - but this has to be mine -

Quiet English scene.
Quiet English village.
Quiet English young lady.
No motors.
Someone enjoying quiet, relaxed leisure cycling,
No pressure,
No rain, and whilst you can't see it, the sun is shining..............
All when the world was young - a world that will never come back - peace and quiet.

Those were the days - the days when I first road from Halifax via Keighley to Morecambe Bay with my school gaberdine strapped around the top tube in case it rained, on what is now A629, A62 and A683 which were quiet and there was little traffic - and the few motorists respected the life of a 12 years-old cyclist.

Tony Hadland in 'Raleigh, past and presence of an Iconic Bicycle Brand' says the 'Lady in Red' first appeared in Dutch Raleigh's 1922 catalogue and he points to the un-English village scene in the background as evidence that neither the girl or the advertisement are of English origin.
Certainly the cottages in the background look continental to me.

.

I'm coming back to you on this RubaDub.
I did concede the point to you, but re-kindling of my own memories and, amazingly, having watched a 'Midsommer Murders' episode (on TV) just before the last weekend I'm fairly confident in claiming that the village scene is redolent of certainly one village scene in England. The TV sequence was amazingly similar to the Raleigh advert under discussion, to the size, height and colour of the cottages, to the curvature of the street but with planting pots in front of them.

The village scene is somewhere in Sussex (west I think, rather than East) and whilst obviously not exactly similar certainly has the same 'feel'. I can't remember the exact place though.

Isn't the 'Lady in Red' lady in orange though? I'm not Dutch, but I exclusively wear orange cycling tops; we don't need to be Dutch to wear orange .

Whatever the truth of that the girl is pretty and relaxed, and it remains my favourite advertisement of those we've seen so far.

It is a fact, however, that the peace illustrated isn't to be found on English roads anymore.

[JohnW]

Elswick Hopper at a price .
1937_Elswick_Hopper_44 by rebalrid, on Flickr

Another British brand consigned to the pages of history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elswick_Hopper

......does anyone remember? - did anyone see it happen? - did blokes ever drop their pipes in the road when they hit a pothole?