I'll be a little Moos-esque®\u2122 and claim that if the Americans had
builders offering 6 different types of track frames, then our Aussie frame builders were offering 12 (at least) :)
Track was big, really big and almost all there was. So much in fact that the most talented cyclist ever ..... Major Taylor, came down here
for a slice of the action. By the 50's things had changed dramatically, and by the early 60's the show was almost over. The 20's
and 30's was the years.
Jerry, I've seen images from the Vel' d'Hiv during the early 20th century and things were definitely swinging. I'm sure more road racing
images and info from Europe is being saved and catalogued to back up and showcase current racing events and there was just as big a track scene in Europe as well.
I think it all came down to money. Attracting top riders by offering lots of money and being able to charge people to watch it. It's only natural that back a whiles the Track would dominate the cycling scene
just as the TdF dominates currently. Could you imagine pitching a business proposal at the time of a race organized throughout the countryside where spectators could see the action just once and not be
charged for it either?
Speaking of the Olde Days ... here's an Endrick frameset from the early-mid 20's (?) that Jim Bundy recently brought back to life for it's new owner/custodian. I think it's smashing. We've always heard the term pencil thins stays ... but these stays are thinner than a pencil !!!! And hollow. Lots of neat details and to my thinking one of
the coolest bikes Australian bikes I've seen. Don't know much else about the marque or history except by the badging - it was built in Leichardt, Sydney which then became Little Italy after the war, with a
Velodrome just down the road at Camperdown.
http://www.wooljersey.com/
ciao,
Ben Kamenjas Kensington, Australia
On 13/01/2009, at 8:47 AM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
wrote:
> Amazing. This reminds us how thoroughly the track dominated
> American cycle racing from the late 19th century until after WWII.
> Can you imagine any builder producing 6 different levels of track
> frames today? I'd be surprised if any European or British builder
> ever produced quite that many.
>
> Interesting to speculate why it was track racing that dominated in
> America. Of course, it the late 19th century, track racing seems to
> have dominated worldwide, but in the early 20th century road racing
> gained dominance in Europe and time trialing in UK. One might guess
> that the roads in Europe were better than in America, although in
> some TdF photos from the early 20th centiry the roads certainly look
> primitive by modern standards. Plus the quality of American roads
> doesn't seem to have inhibited the explosion in automobile ownership
> in America, although those machines too continued the be raced in
> America mosty of closed oval tracks.
>
> I'd be interested to hear what the history of Australian cycling is
> in this regard. Australia, even more than America, remained
> something of a frontier well into the 20th century, so I'd guess the
> quality of roads there was perhaps even worse, and the Australian
> interior, like parts of the American West, was/is sparsely populated
> which probably discourages road racing, at least if one likes a lot
> of spectators. Can any of the Australian members comment on how
> long track racing remained the principal form there?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, in still sparsely populated West Texas, USA