Beaver Cleaver's Bikes

"Leave It To Beaver" re-runs are being shown on cable, and I ran into two
episodes about bicycling while channel surfing.

In one episode, Beaver wins a new bike at a movie theatre when he's supposed
to be grounded at home for misbehaving. The bike is "a real English racing
bike" that he eventually donates to charity.

In the other episode, Beaver wants to ride his brand new bike to school with
a couple of friends. His parents think it's too dangerous. His father tries
to dissuade him by pointing out that taking the school bus would be faster
and much more comfortable. They finally give in and let him ride to school.
On the first day, he lets another kid try out his bike which has "hand
brakes, a gear lever to make climbing hills easy, and real racing tires."
The kid takes the bike for a ride "around the block" and never comes back.

What's amusing to me is what was considered a "racing bike" in that era
(circa 1960). Both of the bikes had upright bars, wide saddle, etc.

Art Harris

"Arthur Harris" wrote in message
. net...
"Leave It To Beaver" re-runs are being shown on cable, and I ran into two
episodes about bicycling while channel surfing.

In one episode, Beaver wins a new bike at a movie theatre when he's
supposed
to be grounded at home for misbehaving. The bike is "a real English racing
bike" that he eventually donates to charity.

In the other episode, Beaver wants to ride his brand new bike to school
with
a couple of friends. His parents think it's too dangerous. His father
tries
to dissuade him by pointing out that taking the school bus would be faster
and much more comfortable. They finally give in and let him ride to
school.
On the first day, he lets another kid try out his bike which has "hand
brakes, a gear lever to make climbing hills easy, and real racing tires."
The kid takes the bike for a ride "around the block" and never comes back.

What's amusing to me is what was considered a "racing bike" in that era
(circa 1960). Both of the bikes had upright bars, wide saddle, etc.

Yes, it is odd that these bikes got this name in the U.S.
Sheldon Brown notes:

"English Racer
This is a term used by ignorant people in some parts of the U.S. to refer to
a 3-speed "sports" type bike. This is a very foolish designation, because
the bikes involved, while usually English, have absolutely no connection
with racing."
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_e-f.html

That's a bit harsh, but accurate.

So, why did this name get currency? Well, a couple of kids in the
neighborhood had these, and they were a lot faster than the rest of us, who
had various forms of single speed bikes.

We'd never seen "10 speed" bikes in our neighbhorhood in the early 1960's,
and had no conception of racing beyond who could get to the corner faster.
The English 3-speeds would definitely do that.

Sat, 2 Oct 2004 12:58:29 -0500,
1096740141.LDXZ/wwW80hLl6AmcgGcHg@teranews, "Mike Kruger"
wrote:

So, why did this name get currency? Well, a couple of kids in the
neighborhood had these, and they were a lot faster than the rest of us, who
had various forms of single speed bikes.

We'd never seen "10 speed" bikes in our neighbhorhood in the early 1960's,
and had no conception of racing beyond who could get to the corner faster.
The English 3-speeds would definitely do that.

John Stoffel had the first one in my gang and I'll never forget the
look on his face when I beat him with my gas pipe J.C. Higgins on 24"
balloon tires. The course was two miles to Wolf Road and back.
I was highly motivated because I believed that if I beat him my
grandfather would buy me an "English racer" too. As it turned out, I
had to save for and buy my own though he did help me pay for it - a
metallic red Robin Hood. From then on it was simply a matter of my red
bike being faster than John's black one.
--
zk

"Zoot Katz" wrote in message
...
From then on it was simply a matter of my red
bike being faster than John's black one.

Well, duh, we all know red bikes are faster.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 12:58:29 -0500, Mike Kruger wrote:

"English Racer
This is a term used by ignorant people in some parts of the U.S. to refer
to a 3-speed "sports" type bike. This is a very foolish designation,
because the bikes involved, while usually English, have absolutely no
connection with racing."

That's for sure! But if you flip the bars upside down and pump up the
tires nice and firm, an old 3 spd can be rather speedy.

Weren't most club bikes from the 50s and 60s basically three speeds, but
with drops instead of upright bars?

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 20:09:24 +0000, Claire Petersky wrote:

Well, duh, we all know red bikes are faster.

yeah, but they corner like crap.

White bikes tend to oversteer btw--so be careful out there.

Weren't most club bikes from the 50s and 60s basically three speeds, but
with drops instead of upright bars?

Sometimes I wonder If I need more than 5 speeds.
Mostly I stay in the middle front ring and spin my ass off.
The fascinating thing is that there were fixed gear 2 and 3 speeds 50 years
ago.
It was a fixed gear rear hub.
Details on sheldon's page.

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 00:34:18 +0000, Fx199 wrote:

The fascinating thing is that there
were fixed gear 2 and 3 speeds 50 years ago.

try 100 years...and aren't those old penny-farthings fixed gear? I don't
think they came with a flip flop hub though. LOL

:P

Every ridden those old two speeds where you backpedal just a smidge to
switch gears? I remember borrowing my grandpa's old bike when I was a kid
in Sweden and it had that type of gearing.

Odd.

Subject: Beaver Cleaver's Bikes
From: maxo
Date: 10/2/2004 9:07 PM US Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 00:34:18 +0000, Fx199 wrote:

The fascinating thing is that there
were fixed gear 2 and 3 speeds 50 years ago.

try 100 years...and aren't those old penny-farthings fixed gear? I don't
think they came with a flip flop hub though. LOL

:P

Every ridden those old two speeds where you backpedal just a smidge to
switch gears? I remember borrowing my grandpa's old bike when I was a kid
in Sweden and it had that type of gearing.

Odd.


Dude, those 2-3 speed fixed gears were pretty complicated...OK dude?
NOT 100 YEARS AGO!
There were tiny gears inside a hub...never mind.....bye

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 00:28:44 GMT,
, maxo
wrote:

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 20:09:24 +0000, Claire Petersky wrote:

Well, duh, we all know red bikes are faster.

yeah, but they corner like crap.

White bikes tend to oversteer btw--so be careful out there.

A Scott branded Taiwanese butted cro-mo compact rigid MTB I've
acquired has a white front fork and head tube breaking to black on the
main triangle and stays where it breaks to red.

Rides like crap. Would repainting it help?
--
zk