Bad Lag

Here's a link to a story of one of the pioneers of the bicycle industry. It is someone I'd never before heard of and might have been a contemporary of the Wright Bros, or more likely a predecessor.

John William Kiser - Wikipedia
Monarch Cycle Manufacturing Company - Wikipedia

Check out the links below the articles, they are more fascinating than the articles, themselves.

One link is to a googlebooks edition of Cycling in Chicago by Chris McAuliffe. Chicago = Schwinn and Paramount, no? Must read more when I have time.

repechage

There was a term, all in with Schwinn to win.

specialized tried the concept store too, watched a modestly successful shop transpire into a debt ridden oasis, owner expiring to heart failure. The Big S yanked their inventory pronto and that was that.

Road Fan

Back when I was in high school I pedaled past that store several times!

T-Mar

Chicago was the USA centre for the bicycling industry in the 1890s. There were literally 100+ companies that manufactured bicycles in Chicago or its vicinity during the last decade of the 19th century. Schwinn was actually a relatively small player at the time. The largest Chicago based manufacturer was Western Wheel Works (Crescent brand) who, circa 1897, employed 1500 workers and produced 350 bicycles per day. Not far behind was Gormully & Jeffery (Rambler brand), which is arguably the most interersting of the Chicago based bicycle companies. They invented the clincher tyre, the only major detachable tyre of the 1890s, beside Dunlop's wired-on tyre. After selling the bicycle business in 1899, Jefferey would focus on automobiles, giving them the Rambler name from his bicycles.