Season's Greetings to All - 2024

 

It is hard to believe we are only five days from Christmas. This time of year, the days are short and the weather is pretty cold around here. I am working occasionally at my indoor "shop", which is a spare room in the upstairs of my house. The bikes are all stored away for the winter.

Around this time every year, I send out my Christmas/holiday type cards. My personal favorites are cards based on the artwork of William S. Rice. William S. Rice was an early 20th century wood cut artist  originally from Pennsylvania, but who worked his most productive years based in northern California. He made some beautiful "arts and crafts" style artwork of the mountain west prior to WWII. I'm especially fond of his works in the 1920s and 30s. 

 

Pomegranate Cards makes a wonderful pack of winter/holiday cards based on the works of William Rice. These are my "go-to" cards, which I've used for several years. They're almost a form of fine art on their own. 

 

I find they're the perfect remedy to the proliferation of internet-based, "do it yourself" type cards that people put together using collages of photos of themselves. The Pomegranate/Rice cards are simple and portray the beauty of winter in the western USA, including some wonderful areas of the National Parks. I'd rather that my cards portray the natural beauty of winter.

Packs of these cards are available again through retailers like Amazon, and bookstores like Barnes & Noble. 

 

Season's Greetings to all. May 2025 be a good year with health and success for you.

Bike History in America: WWII Part 1 - the "Gathering Storm"

 Many people know that the United States fought in World War II between December 1941 and September 1945 (at least I hope many people still know this). Fewer people know that even before officially joining the allied powers, the U.S. contributed war materiel to the allies, especially Britain and France. The U.S. supported the allies for a number of months before joining the war officially. 

 But what you may not know is that even before December 7, 1941 (Pear Harbor), the U.S. government was instructing manufacturers to prepare for a wartime footing. These instructions limited the use of certain materials or limited production to certain models of civilian products.

Bicycles were no exception. Let's take a look at a Schwinn directive, dating to October 1941, around two months before Pearl Harbor. [special thanks to Mark Mattei for making these materials available]

The following pages show how Schwinn bicycles, an American company followed a U.S. Government order to limit production of certain models. By fall 1941, it was becoming clear that the United States would eventually be drawn into the war. Schwinn was able to continue producing several balloon tire models and several "lightweights" (in American parlance, a "lightweight" was a bicycle similar to an English three speed type bike). 

Stricter limitations on use of strategic materials would eventually come, but even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the bicycle industry was like so many other American industries in that it was moving to a wartime footing.