chuckography

A Bicycle Built For Two

That's my Dad on the right. Waiting his turn.

His older brother Eddie has control of the bicycle.

Bike expert Dave Moulton sent me a catalog so I think that may be a 1918 Columbia Superb. Apparently they have to share it.

Wearing short pants means never getting cloth stuck in the chain and I seldom saw my Dad wear a tie. Guess he stopped early.

When I was about 9, my older brother and I received beautiful - yep, you guessed it - Columbia bicycles for Christmas. They came with all the bells and whistles. Literally.

The 1948 models had a headlight (battery) and a red tail light (battery) built into the luggage rack and a horn button(battery) and lots and lots of chrome.

Within a few days we had modified them to look like all the other bikes our friends rode.

Both fenders were gone. We removed the horn. We no longer had the luggage rack/tail light. We kept the headlight.

Dad never said a word.
He never was able to control bikes. Or tie a tie.

Labels: 1913, 1918 Superb, Columbia bicycle, Eddie, luggage rack, necktie, neighborhood boys, red tail light, short pants

posted by chucker @ 3:37 PM