Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, Sept 14 (CTK) – The Municipal Museum in Usti has found in its depository a unique bicycle from 1880 that was made in the workshop of Austrian locksmith Josef Erlach from which only ten pieces still exist in the world, museum curator Martin Krsek told CTK on Thursday.
The museum had no idea about having such a valuable exhibit in its collections for long. It revealed this only recently after it loaned its vintage bicycles to an exhibition in Duchcov, north Bohemia.
Historian Jan Kralik, a collector of vintage bicycles, saw the collection there and was taken by surprise when he recognised the valuable item, Krsek said.
The unique bicycle has a strange drive, using draw bars like pedal cars instead of pedals and a chain.
According to historians, this was a deadlock in the development of bicycles that Erlach was promoting from 1878.
“Nevertheless, this solution was a progressive step at that time. It offered a safer ride than the then usual penny-farthing (high-wheel) bicycles,” Krsek said.
A high-wheel user sat some 1.4 metre above the ground and a fall from it was therefore very painful and sometime lethal. On the contrary, riders on Erlach’s bicycles were only a bit above the road, actually half-lying like on current recumbent bicycles,” said Krsek.
Until his death in 1885, Erlach made some 200 bicycles. The bike founded in Usti has the production number of 56 and it was probably made in 1880.
“The Usti museum received it in 1930 as a finding. It was rusty, but interesting. It has been restored twice throughout the years. It is fully roadworthy,” Krsek said.
Another valuable item in the museum is a racing bicycle from 1929, donated to it by the association of cyclists.
Both bicycles will be displayed at the Bicycle 1817-2017 exhibition held in the Museum of North Bohemia in Liberec by the end of September.
