5. A piece of bicycle history – head badges
I recently made a roadtrip in the nearby country of Belgium to visit some friends and to enjoy the exceptionally good early summer weathers. While at Leuven, the first of the three cities we were going to visit, I noticed that the city was awash with old city-bikes in everyday use. The style was somewhat different from the typical dutchie bikes, could I dare to say, more brittish and/or french? My significant other got an 80s Raleigh some time ago which is exactly in the same alley with most of them. She just adores the bike even though it looks like a kids bicycle due to minute frame. Perhaps it’s the geometry but the bikes looked smaller compared to the dutch bikes, but for some reason the look of the bikes was very pleasing to my eyes.
In any case I thought I would start to document these fun looking bikes with a bit of history under their wheels. As my photography skills and attention span leaves something to be desired for, I settled for one detail only, the bike head ornament.
Top left: Cové, Blerick, one of the last remaining old bike manufacturers in the Netherlands founded in 1921 (bicycle manufacture started in 1945) and still up and running.
Top right: Magneet, founded in the beginning of 20th century, started bicycle production around 1923. Closed the doors 1969, brand name sold to Batavus
Bottom left: Locomotief, Amsterdam. Started making bicycles in 1929, closed doors in 1952 after merger with Simplex
Bottom right: L’avenir (french: ”future), an iconic Belgian bicycle manufacturer http://cybermotorcycle.com/euro/brands/l-avenir.htm
Top left: Velos Flora, no idea about this one and internet returned nothing on this brand. The lower text ”Gedeponeerd” suggest a trademark
Top right: Raleigh, needless to say an iconic British company from Nottingham.
Bottom left: Bull-Dog Luxe, one more for the ”curio list”, no idea…
Bottom right: Gouden Leeuw (Golden Lion) from Valkenswaard, Netherlands. One of the more abundant brands around northern Belgium.
Top left: Vitas Cycles, no idea at the moment
Top right: Another variant of Cové
Bottom left: Novy, a Belgian manufacturer that phased out their cycles somewhere in the 80s
Bottom right: Wembley (obvious..), no idea where from but in the same category of the Oxfords,Cambridges etc which we saw.
Top left: Motobecane, France. An iconic French manufacturer of porridge and petrol fueled twowheelers. Went belly up in 1981 and was acquired by Yamaha.
Top right: Gazelle Rijwielfabriek, Dieren Netherlands. Started making bikes in 1902 and is still one of the most visible bikes in the Netherlands and besides Batavus, the most known brands abroad. Has acquired many many other brands along the way.
Bottom left: Burgers ENR or ”Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwiel- en Machinefabriek v/h H. Burgers”, founded in 1899 in Deventer, Netherlands and stopped production in 1961 after bankruptcy and takeover by Pon (and later even, Union).
Bottom right: Vendex, another for the dusty books of history…
Top left: Olympia Rijwiel, nope, no idea.
Top right: Rolls Well, sounds like a cheap knock off of Rolls Royce and probably is one. As it is still in use, I suppose it rolls well still. No idea who what or where it came from…
Bottom left and right: Union, Geder, Holland. Started production in 1911 and sold out in 2005. Very abundant presence in Benelux with beautiful casual and racing bicycles.
Top left and right: Velos Sport, two models; Monta Sport and Diamant. On the M.S. there’s the name of Scherpenheuvel muncipality, which would suggest a belgian manufacturer. Funnily, I found only one document on this brand and it was a flickr gallery…
Bottom left: B.S.A (The Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd.) located in Small Heath, Birmingham. Once the largest producers of motorcycles in the world had also well respected division for the bicycles. Some bad luck with the finances led to the sale of the Cycle division to raleigh and eventually to the discontinuation of the brand.
Bottom right: Vervos Rijwielen, Nederlads Fabrikaat. One for the road, no internet memory of this brand, though the text boasts that the machine has been built in the Netherlands. Could be a short lived model of a larger brand or a small time entrepeneur once upon a time…
And back to the first, if somewhat neglected, beauty spotted at the very last minutes of our road trip in Maastricht. This ”Prince de Liege” head piece would put the origin of this bike to Belgium to the town of Leige, but sadly I could not find anything else on it.
The saddle seems to be in a good condition and has seen both wear and care.
The Prince of Liege has seen very little modernization along the way, it has Vitadyne bottle style dynamo (original?), tires used almost to the bone, but the original red/white on dark green decals are still visible and the rust has not destroyed the bike completely. I just wish someone would do the bike a favour and restore it towards itś original shape and take the poor prince inside from the elements. On hindsight, perhaps I should have left a note on the bike with my contact details.. Maybe the owner would have not minded to pass it on for modest sum of money, and I would have gotten a restauration project to last a lifetime.
It´s a pity that at least superficial look into the history of the bike brands returned quite little information. Perhaps that just tells that unlike cars or motorcycles, they were manufactured both globally and locally alike. At least a look in the Dutch history of bicycle manufacture showed that over the last hundred years smaller firms died out and merged gradually into the behemoths of today; Raleigh, Batavus and Gazelle.
In any case, I found the head pieces beautiful and fun to collect along the walks. Looking at these bikes in Belgium and in southern Netherlands gave me a crave to acquire one of these for my self, which again is irrational and silly as I have a serviceable bike already, and one coming in the near future. Nonetheless, marktplaats.nl is under heavy scrutiny for a bargain find…
That’s about that. Here’s a funny ”calling card” from a yarn shop in the Maastricht, a bike covered in knitwork.
Info about bicycle companies here and there:
http://www.socalbicycles.com/BikeHistory.htm
http://www.rijwiel.net/merken_e.htm