  Location in Ohio | |
| Established | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location | 7 West Monroe Street, New Bremen, Ohio 45869 |
| Type | Bicycle museum |
| Collections | Historic and celebrity bicycles |
| Collection size | 700 bikes (208 on display) and 10,000 other bicycle-related objects [1] |
| Founder | Jim Dicke II |
The Bicycle Museum of America is a museum in New Bremen, Ohio, USA. The museum is one of the largest private collections of bicycles in the world.
The museum was founded by Jim Dicke II of Crown Equipment Corporation, the international manufacturer of powered industrial forklift trucks, also in New Bremen, who was looking for a nice attraction for the town. [2] In 1997, Dicke acquired more than 150 bicycles and memorabilia at auction of the Schwinn Family Collection previously located at the Navy Pier in Chicago. Many other bicycles have been added to the museum over the years, but the original Schwinn family bikes form the heart of the collection. [1] [2] [3]
The museum is funded by the owners, and the small admission charge is donated to a local charity. [2]
The museum houses antique bicycles from the 19th century, balloon tire classics of the 1940s and 1950s and banana seat high-rise handle bar bikes of the 1960s. [3]
The museum has more bicycles than it can display at any one time in the 3-story downtown historic building, despite hanging bicycles from ceilings and mounting them on almost every wall, so the museum occasionally rotates the collection. [2] The collection includes bicycle-related objects, such as accessories, cycling jerseys and tools from the past 140 years, and a display of hundreds of head badges from some of the thousands of bicycle manufacturers over the years. [2]
The oldest bicycles are on the first floor. There is a replica of the earliest form of a bicycle by Karl von Drais, an 1816 wooden peddle-less walking bike. The exhibit includes several Penny-farthings, the high-wheelers, including one mounted so people can try it out. There is a 1901 ice bike, with a sled runner in front and a spiked rear wheel. Ammunition and assorted supplies are mounted on the rear rack of an 1896 Columbia Model 40 modified by the military with a machine gun mounted on it. Ignaz Schwinn's 1897 custom tandem bicycle has a seat between the riders to hold a young child. [1]
There is a bicycle that was ridden on the circus high wire, a 1900 Dayton women's bike by Davis Sewing Machine Company, a replica of the Wright brothers' 1896 St. Clair airfoil test bicycle, and an 1896 "Zimmy" named after Arthur Augustus Zimmerman, a racing bicyclist known for his rapid pedaling speed. [3]
The museum has an early 1900s Harley-Davidson bicycle with a sidecar, a yellow and blue 1949 Donald Duck bike by the Shelby Cycle Company with a Donald Duck head on the front and a horn that quacks, a 1955 Huffy RadioBike which has a working radio built into the frame with volume-control and tuning dials, and a dozen colorful 1960s banana-seat Sting Rays. [1] [3]
The collection includes one of the modified 1953 Schwinn DX bikes from the 1985 film Pee-wee's Big Adventure , and four bicycles from Robin Williams' collection — a 1992 high-tech Zipp bike and a white-with-polkadots La Carrera Futura 2000. A shaft-drive Elgin proto-type that was owned by Jesse James, and a mountain bike owned by Mickey Mantle are also on display. [1]
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
A tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement, not the number of riders. Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the mid 1880s. Tandems can reach higher speeds than the same riders on single bicycles, and tandem bicycle racing exists. As with bicycles for single riders, there are many variations that have been developed over the years.
A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Some recumbent riders may choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons: the rider's weight is distributed comfortably over a larger area, supported by back and buttocks. On a traditional upright bicycle, the body weight rests entirely on a small portion of the sitting bones, the feet, and the hands.
A bicycle brake reduces the speed of a bicycle or prevents the wheels from moving. The two main types are: rim brakes and disc brakes. Drum brakes are less common on bicycles.
The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the legs, and comfort, because the large wheel provided greater shock absorption.
A cargo bike is a human powered vehicle designed and constructed specifically for transporting loads. Cargo bike designs include a cargo area consisting of an open or enclosed box, a flat platform, or a wire basket, usually mounted over one or both wheels, low behind the front wheel, or between parallel wheels at either the front or rear of the vehicle. The frame, drivetrain and wheels must be constructed to handle loads larger than those on an ordinary bicycle.
Vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels arranged consecutively, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817. The term bicycle was coined in France in the 1860s, and the descriptive title "penny farthing", used to describe an "ordinary bicycle", is a 19th-century term.
The Schwinn Bicycle Company is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets bicycles under the eponymous brand name. The company was originally founded by Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1948) in Chicago in 1895. It became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century. Schwinn first declared bankruptcy in 1992, in 2001 Schwinn went bankrupt again and was purchased by Pacific Cycle, now owned by the Dutch conglomerate, Pon Holdings.
The Huffy Corporation is a supplier of bicycles with headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, United States.
Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is a Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer, recognized as the world's largest bicycle designer and manufacturer. Giant has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, the Netherlands, China,and Hungary. They have future plans for Vietnam to be the fifth location.
A motorized bicycle is a bicycle with an attached motor or engine and transmission used either to power the vehicle unassisted, or to assist with pedalling. Since it sometimes retains both pedals and a discrete connected drive for rider-powered propulsion, the motorized bicycle is in technical terms a true bicycle, albeit a power-assisted one. Typically they are incapable of speeds above 52 km/h (32 mph), however in recent years larger motors have been built, allowing bikes to reach speeds of upwards of 72 km/h.
A lowrider bicycle is a highly customized bicycle with styling inspired by lowrider cars. These bikes often feature a long, curved banana seat with a sissy bar and very tall upward-swept ape hanger handlebars. A lot of chrome, velvet, and overspoked wheels are common accessories to these custom bicycles.
A cruiser bicycle, also known as a beach cruiser or (formerly) motobike, is a bicycle that usually combines balloon tires, an upright seating posture, a single-speed drivetrain, and straightforward steel construction with expressive styling. Cruisers are popular among casual bicyclists and vacationers because they are very stable and easy to ride, but their heavy weight and balloon tires tend to make them rather slow. Another common feature is their ability to be customized with accessories including fenders, lights and saddle bags. They are designed for use primarily on paved roads, low speeds/distances, and are included in the non-racing/non-touring class and heavyweight or middleweight styles of the road bicycle type.
Waterford Precision Cycles was a small bicycle manufacturer based in Waterford, Wisconsin. Waterford produced high-end, custom, hand-built, steel-frame bicycles, particularly road, criterium, stage, track, and cyclocross racing bicycles, that ranged in price from about $2,500 to $8,500. Waterford built both TIG welded and lugged steel frames to order, and specialized in custom and unique bicycle frames.
As with many consumer products, early bicycles were purchased solely for their usefulness or fashionableness and discarded as they wore out or were replaced by newer models. Some items were thrown into storage and survived, but many others went to the scrapyard. Decades later, those with an interest in cycling and history began to seek out older bikes, collecting different varieties. Like other forms of collecting, bike collectors can be completists or specialists, and many have extensive holdings in bike parts or literature, in addition to complete bicycles.
A quadracycle is a four-wheeled human-powered land vehicle. It is also referred to as a quadricycle, quadcycle, pedal car or four-wheeled bicycle amongst other terms.
A wheelie bike, also called a dragster, muscle bike, high-riser, spyder bike or banana bike, is a type of stylized children's bicycle designed in the 1960s to resemble a chopper motorcycle and characterized by ape hanger handlebars, a banana seat with sissy bar, and small wheels. Notable examples include the Schwinn Sting-Ray and Krate lines and the Raleigh Chopper line. Other notable manufacturers and retailers that offered models include AMF, CCM, Columbia, Huffy, Iverson, J. C. Penney, Malvern Star, Monark, Murray, Ross, Sears, and Vindec.
Roadmaster is an American bicycle brand currently owned by Pacific Cycle, which in turn is owned by Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings.
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| Utility and slow recreation | |
| Sports-related cycling and fast-paced recreation | |
| Health, safety and infrastructure |
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