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All OurYesterdays——--—»— by Arlene LaRueWhen Syracuse was hub of bicycle world. “Why 'don’t you ever write about the days Syracuse was the center of the bicycle world?” an old-timer recently asked.“It was back in the 1890s, before the automobile replaced the horse,” he added.That was a bit before my time, but I promised to look into the matter. Sure enough, he was right. Our community used to be the hub of the bike world, at one time turning' out as many as 500 vehicles in a single day.The most famous and wealthiest bicycle manufacturer was the E.C. Stearns Co. which produced the popular “Yellow Fellow;” For nearly a decade the Stearns people ruled the bicycle world.Eight different bicycles were made here in the industry's heyday. Professional and amateur racers, using the local wheels, toured the United States, Europe and Australia to vie in various competitions.A seven seater?Not only did Syracuse manufacturers make a “bicycle built for two,” they turned out some built to carry three, four, five, six and even seven.History records an incident that occurred one July day in 1896 when six employees of the Stearns company set out on a sextuple-tandem to race the train, the Empire State: Limited, along tracks near the Town of Geddes.The train fireman frantically poured on the coal, which powered trains in those days. So did the bike riders, pumping madly. From the train's rate of speed, it was figured the bicycle was going about 45 miles per hour. When they neared the pumphouse at Geddes, half a mile away, the;sexfet had pulled their wheels four lengths ahead of the puffing locomotive. .Observers noted it was lucky the riders hadagreed on the pumphouse as the finish line, for it . took the bikers a.quarter of a mile’ to slow down and stop.. They finally 'came to a halt on the brink of a railroad culvert.The sextet included William Bex, Don B. Smith, William Fournier, Robert Darling, William Roth and James Carey; . ,Started in’80sThe cycling.craze,' imported here from.England,started in the early. 1880s. .English wheels, like.the Rugby and the.Reaston-Humber, sold for $150 to $165, weighed 26 pounds and required tires that, cost $25. As the ' craze grew, American builders entered the. field. Edward Stearns brought the industry to. Central New York in 1888, when he transformed his father's hardware and wagon factory in Oneida to a bicycle plant.The following year, the Syracuse Athletic Association was formed, with headquarters in the Lynch block between Salma and Water streets. Soon the Syracuse Bicycle .Club was formed, followed by the Century and Pastime Clubs,. The S.A.A.A. and the S:B.C. were merged through the efforts of Frederick B. Hazard.Fo:* a time ’ the ‘ bike! industry, flourished in Syracuse. One report noted that manufacturers here employed “thousands of hands and (are)paying vast sums of wages every week.” ' ‘Following the Stearns’ “Yellow Fellow,” other popular local bikes included the Barnes “White Flier” in 1895; the Syracuse “Crimson Rim,” designed by John Wilkinson, who in 1892 invented the Franklin automobile; the “Fron-tenae,” the “Dodge” the “Tourist and the Empire”None of these equalled in popularity the “Yellow Fellow.” In 1896, it was also being made in plants at Toronto and Paris, with branch offices in San Francisco, New York and Berlin. “Ridden in every civilized country on the globe,” was the company motto.By 1896, the bicycle industry reached a bitterly competitive crisis. The market was flooded by too many manufacturers.The price for a standard model was $100. Large companies were putting out other models under other names for $75. department stores began selling bikes for as low as $40. But the cheap machines broke down quickly.On March 1, 1897, the bicycle industry reached its peak in Syracuse with the annual show at the Alhambra. Hundreds of makes were displayed and Tom Eck posted ads for his famed cyclist school at the State Fair Grounds. Three months later Kirk Park was the scene of the state championships of the League of American Wheelman and thousands of participants and spectators turned out.Three years later the blow fell. In 1900, the American Bicycle Co. — known familiarly as “the trust” — was formed. It bought up one company after another, to build a monopoly. Even strong companies like Stearns sold out their rights at this time.In a few short years, the center of bicycle manufacturing had shifted to Westfield, Mass. and Hartford, Conn., and Syracuse manufacturers turned to other products.
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Herald American
Syracuse, New York, US
Sun, Feb 13, 1983
Page 144
Full Page
Clipped by
Karen C.
NY, USA 16 Jul 2019
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