Month: May 2020

Free Bike Find: Santa Fe Cruiser

Red cruiser bike
Cleaned up and debadged Santa Fe cruiser by Huffy. Source: TCM

This bike was put out with the trash and I picked it up before the scrappers grabbed it. After a thorough cleaning, removing a lot of surface rust (with some assistance), and replacing one tube, it looked pretty good. It will need new tires soon if I can find an inexpensive pair of whitewalls, and new handlebar grips are also on the way.

Red cruiser bike
Huffy Santa Fe. Source: TCM

All the decals were removed during the cleaning, but the bike is a Huffy Santa Fe single speed with coaster brake. Huffy used the Santa Fe model name at least as far back as the 1970s, but I’m guessing this one is maybe from the 1990s or 2000. Now it joins the fleet of old bikes and e-bikes. Will I ever rat rod it? Unlikely.

Huffy bicycle
Huffy nailed both the 70s and the Santa Fe vibes with the ten-speed model. Source: Laura B/oldtenspeedgallery.com
What a Huffy Santa Fe could become, but probably won’t. Source: Tom Wilson/ratrodbikes.com

The Orvis X Barbour X Land Rover Sweepstakes

Source: Orvis

Orvis and Barbour have been teaming up to give away restored classic Land Rovers (like this green one, which was won by a Massachusetts woman and her dog ). 2019’s sweepstakes vehicle was a 1994 Defender. Looks like the winner flipped it for cash (maybe to pay the taxes on the prize). A ’95 Range Rover, restored by Congleton Service was the most recent prize. No word yet on where it ended up.

Sweet tartan upholstery on the Land Rover Defender. Source: Bring A Trailer.
The most recent Orvis giveaway: 1995 Range Rover (sweepstakes just ended). Source: Orvis.

Vintage Barware Auction

If you don’t already have a penguin-shaped cocktail shaker, check out this Sotheby’s auction underway now. The shakers, ice buckets, and glasses were selected by Alan Bedwell to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Prohibition. While Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933, the items in the auction range from the 1700s to the 1980s.

Penguin Cocktail Shaker, c. 1936. Source: Sotheby’s.
Continue reading Vintage Barware Auction

New Jersey’s State Bird

In association with the Fine Feathered Friends exhibit, here’s history behind how the Eastern Goldfinch became New Jersey’s official state bird.

Anthony Kuser, who is introduced late in the video, was also a sponsor of the search for a surviving passenger pigeon. In 1909, he offered a $300 reward for proof of an undisturbed passenger pigeon nest. The ensuing search was unsuccessful (many sightings of presumed passenger pigeons turned out to be mourning doves) but the reward, and the publicity surrounding it, helped establish with certainty the extinction of passenger pigeons in the wild.

The Early 1970s Bike Boom

1971 Schwinn Varsity Sport – For Gals on the Go.

The early 1970s experienced a boom in bike use by adults. Transportation journalist Carlton Reid links the first Earth Day, Watergate, and Baby Boomers in Bicycling Booms During Lockdown—But There’s A Warning From History

Some more context on biking in the 1970s

1974 Raleigh Bicycles catalog