In the United States, the 1950s are remembered generally as the decade of Eisenhower, suburbanization, white picket fences, and automobiles.
Many of the "classic" cars that come to mind today were built in the 1950s: Chevy Bel Airs, Cadillac Eldorados, Corvettes, Ford Thunderbirds, Studebaker Hawks, and the like. Even classic import cars like the VW Beetle, Jaguar XK series, MGT, MGA, and Porsche 356 found a growing market. Likewise the decade is remembered for its children's and youth's bikes: Schwinn Phantoms, Corvettes, and Wasps; Columbia Deluxes and Superbs, and similar.
But did you know that even during those years, there was still at least some active trade in practical bicycles for adults?
In a previous article, I wrote about the rise and decline of practical and sporting bicycles for adults between 1910 and 1960. I also wrote about the popularity of English three speed bikes in the USA during the 1960s. And although the 1950s might have been a generally "lean" time for high-quality "lightweight" bicycles for adults in the USA, there was still quite a bit of activity in some corners of the market.
Let's take a look at a few newspaper and magazine ads for shops, sales, and parts in the USA during the 1950s.
Above is a 1951 magazine ad for U.S. Royal (later Uniroyal) bike tires. Although this ad came during the heyday of the balloon tire cruiser (the Schwinn Phantom was hitting its stride), this ad focuses on three-speed and similar bikes for adults. Today we associate the term "lightweight" with racing style bikes. But in the 1950s, this term also referred to any kind of "skinny tire" type touring bike, including the venerable Raleigh Sports, Schwinn New World, and Schwinn Continental.
The focus in this ad is on performance, with the silhouette appearing to be that of a late 1940s Schwinn Continental ladies model (not to be confused with the later 10-speed Continental). The ad shows a common, straight-groove tire tread. I've owned a few of these tires over the years. They were pretty well made, though now 70+ years later, they're too dried or worn out to get much more mileage. It's too bad we don't have a wider variety of traditional yet premium tires for these old bikes. Sometimes you want a traditional style tire and tread made to a high standard.
Above is a newspaper ad from the late 1950s for the "Spin-Trim" bicycle roller. Today we associate rollers and trainers with hardcore cyclists on racing or road bikes. But this ad shows a more pedestrian, 3-speed Schwinn Racer on the roller. Apparently children were also to be included in this ad, though I find it hard to believe children were riding on rollers during winter months (they were probably out playing in the snow instead). I am not sure how well these rollers sold, but at least there was some market for them.
Above is another late 1950s ad. This ad shows a classic 1950s Schwinn Traveler bike, which was Schwinn's premium touring machine of that time. It was meant to compete with the Raleigh Superbe and similar higher-end touring and utility bikes.
During the 1950s and into the 1960s, Schwinn exerted extraordinary efforts to control dealer floor space and to trim out under-performing dealers or dealers who dealt primarily in other brands of bikes. The ad above shows the kind of ad Schwinn would have liked. It features the Schwinn logo, authorized deal banner, and Schwinn bicycle prominently. If Cadillac was the "standard of the world" for automobiles, then Schwinn wanted to be that same standard for bicycles. Interestingly, the Traveler was advertised alongside "Everything for the Racing Cyclist", as well as tandems. This store probably did more business than most in adult bicycles, even though that segment of the market was still very small compared to the youth side of the market.
Bicycle historians tend to focus on Schwinn's attempts to control dealer floor space in the 1950s and 60s, with exclusive-dealing type arrangements and the "total store" concept. But some dealers tended to resist this model, particularly where other brands of bicycles might sell well. In the ad above, we see a mixture of brands and Schwinn is not listed first. In this case, Raleigh is the more prominent brand and is apparently the "Champion of Bicycles".
The repair focus of this ad also may account for the mixture of brands advertised. Perhaps more than selling bikes, they were fixing them at this particular shop. Schwinn would also try to control this side of its market through its factory service school and approved mechanic system. This particular shop was probably adept at repairing three speed bikes at a time when most bicycles in America were single-speed coaster brake models for kids.
In this small sampling of ads, we see that even during the automobile- and youth-dominated 1950s, the market for bicycles aimed at serious, adult riders still had some momentum. It might have been a relatively small market in those times, but it was not entirely lost.
