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GUIDE TO CORRECTING THE CLASSICS
(NBHAA GTCC)

–FACTS INSTEAD OF FUDGE !!

Welcome to Classic Bicycle Heaven and the web site for serious bicycle historians! This website is dedicated to identification, cataloging and restoration advice on bicycle history, especially Classic American bicycles 1920 thru 1965. We have the world's largest library of original classic bicycle literature- over 80,000 catalogues, photos and books. We also have the world's only classic BICYCLE FILM ARCHIVE (including nearly 300 actual bicycle films- not videos). Be it Schwinn, Shelby, Columbia, Evans, Evinrude, Elgin, J.C. Higgins, Western Flyer, Hawthorne, Hiawatha, Roadmaster, Pierce, Iver Johnson, Indian, Rollfast, Firestone, B.F.Goodrich, Good Year, Bowden, Manton & Smith, Mead, Ranger, Ingo-Bike, Murray, Mercury, Huffman, Huffy, Dayton, Colson, Monark, Silver King, Rocket, Stelber, Ross, Harley Davidson, Whizzer, Dynacycle, Wasp, Pow-wow, Travis, Marman, Jack & Heintz, Sherrell or what have you, National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA) can identify virtually any American-built bicycle or motorized bicycle from this period.

We can assist private collectors with information and advice on history and restorations. We are available with original bicycle movies, videos, slide shows, speaking engagements, and have access to the curator's collection of over 1,000 bicycles. NBHAA is not affiliated nor connected in any way with a defunct museum. Although we do have specific fees for certain services such as copies, we have never and do not ask for "memberships" of any kind. Furthermore, we are not represented by nor connected with any other persons or organizations. Although we do not sell bicycles or parts, we can assist you in locating those who do.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly via E-mail Remember, ALL identification requests and inquiries MUST be accompanied by a photo (and self-addressed stamped envelope if using snail-mail).

We regret that due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we cannot respond to snail mail as rapidly as e-mail (we have a substantial backlog of the latter). All photo submissions become property of NBHAA and we regret we can no longer return photos due to the volume of mail.

Thus, submitted for your approval is NBHAA GUIDE TO CORRECTING THE CLASSICS (GTCC) This is the first and only guide of its kind... and we remind those of you who are insensitive to acknowledgement of source information, get permission! It is copyrighted. We will be adding to this section over time, so stay tuned for more info and expansions.

NBHAA GTCC*
(*GUIDE TO CORRECTING THE CLASSICS)

–FACTS INTEAD OF FUDGE

copyright ?Leon Dixon/NBHAA 1999, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010?all rights reserved. These Corrections are intellectual property. No part of these corrections may be republished, copied, excerpted, referred to in print or on the internet, used in any way unless written permission from the author has been obtained and acknowledgments are made. WE ARE WATCHING–so watch your credit line and permissions!

All of us should try to use care in stating dates and histories...and regardless of whether you are a collector, editor, writer, auction house, or museum. If you don't know–why not simply say so?? Once misinformation hits print...right or wrong...it's gospel.

In the classic bicycle hobby, it seems nobody likes to be wrong. And NOBODY likes to be corrected. People are actually offended if they are corrected–even when said corrections are for the good of all and are purely constructive. It is easy to be an "expert" or "authority" on classic bicycles since almost no one knows any better. And one can be one of these experts by simply claiming to be. Thus, anyone can display, say or publish erroneous information repeatedly with no questions. Even WORSE, one can simply point to an error-filled book or newsletter or do-it-yourself web site or eBay auction and say, "See? It says so right here!" And that's all you need, or at least that's the way many believe.

Oddly enough, since so few collectors know the deepest details about classic bicycles, some find it easier to ignore sources of accurate information. Instead of using accurate info, many choose to gather a consensus based on guesswork, make postings in chat rooms, blogs and do-it-yourself web sites, pretend accurate sources do not exist or to simply make up whatever sounds good and present it as historical fact. After all, nobody knows any better and at this rate, no one ever will. All of which makes these authors and publishers very happy because they also need no expertise. Just a printing press, some paper and some ink. Sometimes criteria for expertise falls under the heading of "...and I own it!" Clearly however, mere ownership of an item does not qualify one to be an expert on the item and its history. It just means one bought the thing- not that one knows all about it. Rarely is the phrase heard, "I/we just don't know."

On the other hand, there are people out there doing hard work to educate themselves and these people who are serious in their search for accurate information deserve assistance in their quest.

In hopes of assisting this cadre of collectors seeking accurate information we offer this original series of corrections to published works and other media that contain noteworthy errors in bicycle history or fact. These corrections are intended to increase the knowledge of individual bicycle collectors, not as free book re-writes for misinformed authors and lazy publishers (who will undoubtedly rip them without crediting the source).

These installments are an effort to correct errors that are continually being published, repeated and believed by what seems to be a majority of museums, publications, auction houses and collectors in general. Because both novices and seasoned collectors alike believe much of this erroneous information by virtue of seeing it in print, or hearing it repeated, much of this fiction has moved into the "fact" category.

Keep in mind, these corrections are meant to be strictly to set the historical and factual record straight–and are from us and us alone. They are drawn from actual original source material combined with over 40 years of bicycle collecting experience. We are not repeating second-hand information here that was obtained from other sources. All of our information is correct and original, first-hand, either directly from your curator or from research through the NBHAA archive. If others out there KNOW this information, they certainly have had several years to come forth with it prior to our doing so. Yet... none have done so. So we ARE first.

Therefore, no part of these corrections may be republished, excerpted, referred to in print, used in any way unless written permission from the author has first been provided and acknowledgments are made. Of course, once such corrections are on public view, there will always be the comical claim of, "Hey, I knew that all along!" However, if someone else knew it first, they have had several years to say so in print. SO FAR...NO ONE HAS. So if you read it on NBHAA, please say so when you repeat it to others. Thus...we begin.

These corrections are for the serious historian and for those who just want to educate themselves on bicycle history. The first error correction reviews will be cursory, not in depth. We will purposely not point out every single error, typos, etc. Instead we will correct the most glaring incorrect bicycle and historical information. We have chosen two fairly recent publications. The first is one of the newest books on the market, CLASSIC AMERICAN BICYCLES by Jay Pridmore as our first correction segment. This disastrous softbound is a different book from the previous hardbound book which had a similar title, the same publisher and same author who got help from another amateur on that one. Our second corrections were done on the Sotheby's first bicycle auction catalogue entitled, MOTORCYCLES AND BICYCLES. In this very lovely catalogue (which was priced $35 to $49 depending upon how it was purchased) suffers only from serious errors but is certainly worth owning despite the embarrassing flaws. We do not look at the motorcycle section...only the bicycle information. Look for continuing GTCC corrections to more books, including to the SECOND volume of Sotheby's subsequent auction book (and there are many more) to follow soon.

SO... PUT ON SOME GREAT MUSIC (WE SUGGEST MILES DAVIS, BILL EVANS OR STANLEY JORDAN), IF YOU HAVE THE PUBLICATION WE ARE CORRECTING–PULL IT OUT AND OPEN TO THE PAGES, GRAB A BAG OF POPCORN AND BEVERAGE, SIT DOWN AND PREPARE TO BE AMAZED AND AMUSED... AND SOMETIMES SADDENED. YOU MIGHT EVEN LEARN A THING OR TWO. AND... FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO SPREAD MYTHS, RUMORS, BOGUS "FACTS" AND OTHER SUCH WAG DENSE NONSENSE, OR ARGUE ENDLESSLY WITHOUT FACTS- PREPARE TO BE SORELY IRRITATED.
CLICK BELOW FOR NBHAA's GUIDE TO CORRECTING THE CLASSICS
(NBHAA GTCC) !!

CLICK HERE FOR... "CLASSIC AMERICAN BICYCLES" BOOK BY PRIDMORE CORRECTIONS