Monark bicycle value crack#

Lewis also used his own largely self-taught skills as a machinist and engineer to collect a wide assortment of notable patents, covering everything from sprockets and front forks to crack hanger assemblies, lightweight metal wheel rims, and a motorcycle-inspired bicycle frame that became the Speed-O-Byke.īottom Right: The 1932 Speed-O-Byke, a George Lewis design that brought a motorcycle frame style to a bicycle.Ĭarroll Ave., developing and perfecting an all-aluminum bicycle, Lewis recalls in his memoir, My Early Life in Wichita and Other True Stories.ĭyrenforth, Lee, Chritton and Wiles (Patent Lawyers) were handling the patent end of the new bicycle.Ī few days later I received a call by Mr.

Monark Bicycle Value Crack Hanger Assemblies He was president of Meads dealer-direct division (the Premier Cycle Works) purchased parts from all the top factories and partnered with the big names of the industry Ignaz Schwinn, Horace Huffy Huffman, etc. Lewis served as its sales manager and vice president, watching over the Chicago offices as well as the firms second HQ in Liverpool, England. Their new Chicago-based company, the Mead Cycle Co., became one of the first international bicycle behemoths of the new century, and George S. The glory of our particular artifact may be faded, but the rust-speckled mint paint job, crusty handlebar tassels, blown-out balloon tires, busted headlight, and bent basket wires still have a beauty to themcarrying the ghosts of marvelous sock hops and soda fountains long since past.Īfter finding success producing electric radio and automobile batteries in the 1920s, Monark (originally, it seems, based out of Kansas City) was desperate to diversify its product line as the crunch of the Depression slowed sales.Īfter heading to Chicago to work as a ticket seller at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, he eventually formed a business partnership with an old Wichita chum, James Mead, in the sale of mail order bicycles.

Gives faster speed, greater strength, and snappier appearance.īut post-war, space-rocket tank models like the girls Roadster in our museum collection will occasionally turn up, usually cobweb-covered in someones shed.

Monark Bicycle Value Crack Hanger Assemblies.