Tobacco Cards

Before there were baseball cards there were tobacco cards, they came packed in with chewing and smoking tobacco and showed everything from sports to botany. Cycling was a very popular subject and the history of the bicycle was beautifully recorded in these illustrations. Nothing goes better with some armchair athleticism than a pack of smokes.

path racers

Path racing was popular with clubs in England in the first half of the last century. The bikes generally have clearance for wider tires for a paved or unpaved course and were often run as a fixed or single speed.

My six day racer and pictures of the Polo fields track in golden gate park. These pictures were the original owners of the bike. I havn't been able to find many pictures of this era of track racing in San Francisco and would love too see more if they're out there. I believe the track was used by local clubs for practice. This one is for Oscar Juner, Peter Rich and all the old timers who never stopped setting the pace and made the Bay Area the cycling epicenter it is. Oscar Juner was the first person to ride a bike on the golden gate bridge, a wood rimmed track bike. The deck had not been installed and Juner's front wheel went through an incomplete section, breaking it in two.