A Velocino

1939 Cigarette Card Book which

includes a Velocino, the only small or folding bike in the set.

Velocinos are mentioned in "Bicycling, a History" by Frederick Alderson,

and more recently, in "Bicycle Design, an Illustrated History", by Hadland And Lessing.

2d concept sketch.

Laser Cut Plates.

Plates and tube in place.

Original bike.

Plates in place.

This is a box of bike goodies which had been thrown out and arrived at my house courtesy of Stu down the road and "The Cat Lady" who both frequent the local recycling drop off point.  Stu goes there so often that he knows some of the people there and brings back stories ("What the lady who lives quite close thinks of the Cat Lady", "What the Cat Lady thinks of the lady who lives quite close") as well as the usual recycled computer parts.  Some of the parts shown in the box are quite good and haven't been used, and might find there way into the Velocino. A generator set and a pair of folding handlebars are examples.

Hi

For quite a while I have had a set of cycling related cigarette cards from 1939.  The cards are routinely available loose, in a little book and (a bit less common) mounted in a display frame through ebay.  The cards include a recumbent (shown a few posts ago), a good number of women cyclists and a funny little bike called a Velocino, which flies the flag in the series for small and folding bikes.

A while ago I bought a pair of Victoria separating bikes.  They come apart where the hinge normally occurs on a folding bike.  It occurred to me that I could make a Velocino bike using the back half of one of the Victorias as a base.  Over a few weeks, I measured up the Victoria, first the front half hinge plate in detail, then a side view of the back half of the bike.  It looked like building some form of small bicycle from the Victoria would be possible, so I ordered some laser cut parts to make the front hinge plates and to braze on to a 38mm tube.  So - parts were picked up during the week, I've made a good start and aim to have the whole thing done within a month.  Wish me Luck!

Regards

Steve Nurse