[CR]Drysdale

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2007)

From: "Joe Bender-Zanoni" <velo531@hotmail.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 04:18:23 -0500
Subject: [CR]Drysdale

This is off the top of my head so please fill in the blanks and errors.

Drysdale certainly started by the early 1930s. At the peak Drysdale had a factory that builtquantities of high quality racers. There were different price points. All the bikes I have seen from this era have Reynolds and maybe Accles and Pollack Tubing and Brampton lugs. I have seen a picture of a Drydale dealer in upstate NY with at least 15 bikes parked outside the shop. Red is the predominent color. The production bikes were called Velox Red Devils and the original factory was in the lower part of NYC, which then moved to Long Island, maybe Queens. I believe Drysdale also built custom 6 day bikes, aside from the production bikes, that looked totally different from the Velox bikes. I own one of those and it will be at the Cirque.

Post WWII I have only seen handmade road bikes and they are very nice. I believe he had moved to Asbury Park, NJ. Braze on shifters, Campy ends and Nervex lugs, I used to race against a guy named Sherwood who bought his bike in 1962 (how I remember that I don't know). All equipped with Campy. We used to be in Nutley Bicycle Club races in Brookdale Park, Montclair/Bloomfield NJ circa 1972. Sherwood was in in his 60's, I was 16. That guy was a foxy rider and I saw the rear of that "old" red bike many times at the finish line.

Joe Bender-Zanoni
The finish line is in sight for Las Vegas