Not so,Ted. The Ford Model T was several years later. Bike oversupply and price wars in the late 1890's caused prices to drop fro the $150 range to under $40. This lead tto the American Bicycle Consortium, which many manufacturers refused to join. Many simply went belly up. There was such a glut of perfectly adequate used bikes that the new bikes with minor technical advances found fewer and fewer takers. Used bike salesmen enjoyed the same shoddy reputation then as used car salesmen do now,using every guile to move the inventory. The next big assault on the industry came with the motorization of the bicycle. Hendee a Us National champ on the ordinary, manufactured the Indian bicycle,which quickly morphed into the Indian Motorcycle. Daimler, Overland, Pope and others made high priced cars inaccessible to the masses. Henry Ford and the Model T in the early 1900's put the nail into the bicycle for most Americans,as everyday transport, but not for the rest of the emerging industrial world even to this day. Art Link,San Antonio,Texas,USA
ternst <ternst1@cox.net> wrote: From: "ternst" <ternst1@cox.net> To: <artlink@flash.net>, "classic rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: Re: [CR]Fontan Pau Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 18:16:59 -0800
That's because they were a-FORDING something else.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
> Jerry Moos asked if there was any previous pro cyclist who marketed his
> own brand of bike while still racing.i.e. before retirement. That would be
> Arthur Zimmerman of New Jersey an American champion in the 1890's and who
> also wowed the Brits and rode for Raleigh in the 1890's. He was involved
> with the Zimmerman Manufacturing Co. of Freehold,N.J. (1895-1898) and
> raced until 1897 and retired to run a hotel. The bike boom was rapidly
> deflating due to oversupply and price cutting. Art Link, in sunny mid 80's
> F , San Antonio,Texas,USA
>
> _______________________________________________
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