SHELBY, Ohio – A walk down Memory Lane means a walk down Main Street at the Shelby Bicycle Days festival.
Proudly displayed in many of Shelby’s downtown storefronts is a piece of history unique to the city: bicycles made locally at the Shelby Cycle Company. Accompanying the bikes along the historical walk are window clings with custom-made graphics telling the story of the Shelby Cycle Company over the years.
The facts and figures about the Shelby Cycle Company were compiled by Shelby Bicycle Days’ official historian, Christina Yetzer Drain. Drain said she has spent hours looking through microfilm at Shelby’s Marvin Memorial Library for bits of bicycle history.
“It’s been like a treasure hunt, every time I find something it’s amazing,” she said. “It’s so cool to find even just the smallest thing, even an ad in the newspaper with a Whippet bike in the ad gives me a date, and it gives me information. Anything like that is really valuable to me.”
According to Shelby Bicycle Days chair Cody Albert, the historical elements were introduced at the festival in the last few years at the request of members of the Shelby community. Both Albert and Drain noted finding the history of the Shelby Cycle Company has proven difficult due to lack of availability.
“One thing we found while doing that was a number of the people that were actually employees of the Shelby Cycle Company unfortunately have already passed,” said Albert. “We’ve made a great effort over the last couple of years in collecting history before it’s not able to be collected anymore. As part of our mission we think the more information we can collect over the next couple years, the better, because we want to capture that before it starts to disappear.”
Those familiar with the Historic Bike Walk from last year’s festival will be pleased to find the walk has grown in terms of the number of bikes on display as well as the number of window clings and stories told throughout the downtown windows. One of the new clings tells the story Drain uncovered about Joe Seltzer, a well-known industrialist in the early 1900s.
“He had his hands in just about every part of the bicycle industry from the very beginning,” said Drain. “He was one of the board members of the Shelby Steel Tube company, that’s the first thing they built was seamless tubing for bicycles.”
Seltzer was also instrumental in bringing the Chicago Handlebar Company to the Shelby area, and he himself infused a significant amount of money into the Shelby Cycle Company when it was about to go under in the early 1920s.
“He was very interested in building Shelby and finding opportunities to bring more businesses and more people to Shelby,” said Drain. “Unfortunately, he didn’t really get to see how big the Shelby Cycle Company grew and how well known Shelby bicycles were because he died in an accident in Cleveland in 1929. That was really when they were gearing up with the Whippet bicycle, he kind of missed seeing what the company really became.”
Other new window clings include information about the Shelby Steel Tube company, the story of Clarence Whippet Wagner and his cross-country ride on a Shelby bicycle, and the history of the Lindy bicycle.
The Historic Bike Walk will be a constant throughout the three-day Shelby Bicycle Days festival, but two new events have been added to highlight the walk. At 7 p.m. on Friday, July 10 folks will gather at the Black Fork Commons Pavilion for a guided history walk up and down Main Street, led by Drain herself.
“We’ll go from cling to cling and I’ll give a little more background than what we could write on those clings,” she said. “It’ll be the story behind the story.”
For those unable to attend Friday’s history walk, Drain will also hold a similar discussion starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 11 in the Sutter Roush Room with “The Shelby Cycle, A Historical Look.”
“She’ll be collecting everyone to have a discussion about the history and give everyone a chance to share their story and how they’re connected to the Shelby Cycle Company,” said Albert.
Saturday’s discussion will benefit Drain as well – she said she eventually hopes to write a book detailing the history of the Shelby Cycle Company and the beginning of the bicycle industry in Shelby. She noted the company still has a significant impact even today, with people around the country riding and refurbishing Shelby bicycles.
“I think one of the most interesting aspects to the entire company is they had some really progressive people that came in and saw a lot of opportunity in Shelby,” she said. “They saw an eager workforce. It was just really neat the way it happened.”
Thursday | July 09, 2015
Midway Open 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Mechanics Bank Ride Zone Open 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Bike Safety Show | 6:30 PM
Kids’ Safety Spot and Activity Zone | 7:00 PM
Presented by ArcelorMittal
Friday | July 10, 2015
Midway Open Noon to 11:00 PM
Mechanics Bank Ride Zone Open 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Rotary Community Lunch | Noon
Spokes4Kids Community Challenge | 6:00 PM
Presented by Richland Young Professionals and
Richland Bank
Downtown History Walk | 7:00 PM
Gathering at Black Fork Commons Pavilion
MooPoo Bingo | 8:00 PM
Saturday | July 11, 2015
Midway Open Noon to 11:00 PM
Mechanics Bank Ride Zone Open Noon to 11:00 PM
Whippet 1 Mile Run and Whippet 5K Run | 8:00 and 8:15 AM
Lindy Flyer Community Bike Tour | 9:00 AM
Presented by Richland Source
Downtown Farmer’s Market | 9:00 AM to Noon
Kids’ Bike Clinic – Tune Up, Helmets & Skills Course | 10:00 AM to Noon
Bike Decorating Contest | Noon
24th Annual Shelby Bicycle Days’ Parade | 2:00 PM
Presented by Turner Funeral Home
Shelby Help-Line Ministries Pie Auction | Following Parade
The Shelby Cycle, A Historical Look with Chris Drain | 5:00 PM
Sutter Roush Room
MooPoo Bingo | 8:00 PM
Donley Ford Pre-Fireworks Show
Featuring Trigger | 7:00 to 8:00 PM
and The Jimmy Warner Band | 8:00 to 9:30 PM
Fireworks Display | 9:30 PM
Presented by Adams, Albert & Curry
