Bicycle

You have to feel some sympathy for the innovative designers Charles Linley and John Biggs. Having just perfected a classic bicycle using an ingenious method of shock absorbing for a solid-tyre bike, then the pneumatic tyre came along.

Boneshakers and Penny Farthings were the forerunners of the bicycle we know now but were hardly practical as everyday transport for the masses. Step (or pedal) forward the ‘safety bike’.

It is not often that auctioneer Graham Budd finds his name splashed over the front pages of Estonian newspapers but when a particular group of cycling memorabilia came up at his November 4-5 sale it is exactly what happened.

SINCE setting up on his own as Transporter Collectors Auctions eight years ago, Peter Card has enjoyed going by bike rather than car but the high point came on October 21 when a very rare 1869 model sold for a new high at his sale.

BICYCLES AND CYCLING MEMORABILIA: The veteran bicycle and cycling ephemera market continues to be driven by a small group of serious UK and international collectors and museums. It was one of the strongest sections in Bonhams (15/10% buyer’s premium) 634-lot auction of Veteran Bicycles & Cycling Memorabilia, Collectors’ Motor Cars, Toys, Models and Automobilia, held at the RAF Museum, Hendon on April 21 and 22.

UK: WELCOME as the activity of interior decorators is on today’s auction scene, it was still a little surprising to note the interest that some took in this 1950s butcher boy’s bicycle, right, offered at the Scarborough sale held by David Duggleby (10per cent buyer’s premium) on December 4.

AS THE Tour de France came to an end, this 1870 Eugène Meyer de Paris Vélocipède sold on its top estimate for £26,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer’s premium) at Brooks’ Summer Vintage sale at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu on July 27.