The Germans weren't really there at the beginning (1880's) of the era, Pope, Overman, Spalding, Gormully & Jeffrey . Of course Baron von Drais is credited with the invention of the hobby horse, and he was German. Some believe there were others before him because his machine seems to be too refined to be the first...
Schwinn wasn't around until 1895 when the bicycle industry was in full swing. That was the heyday.
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-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Martin Appel Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:07 AM To: Sheldon Brown Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org; marcus.e.helman@gm.com Subject: Re: AW: [CR]Why is there no German threading?
Sheldon Brown schrieb:
> Michael Schmid schreib:
>
>> My two cents here:
>> I think the german bicycle industry was at least as big as the
>> english
>
> Not so sure about that, because the English bicycle industry had a
> very large export market, while the German industry was mainly geared
> to the domestic market.
>
>> and probably bigger than the american inudstry
>
> Quite possibly. It's interesting to note that the early U.S. industry
> was VERY heavily influenced by German immigrants. I'll just mention
> the names "Schwinn" and "Wald" but there are others that I can't
> recall from the early part of the 20th century.
A maybe interesting sidenote; i own a book written by young german Heinrich Horstmann who rode around the world on a bicycle in 1895. When he returned from that juorney he started importing US made "Crescent" bicycles to germany...
Martin Appel Munich, Germany
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