Bicycle Radios

[Dbubbleguy]

I think a discussion about bicycle radios can be divided into 3 parts: Vintage Tube Radios, Vintage Transistor Radios, and Modern Radio/ MP3/ I-Phone adaptable systems.

TUBE RADIOS-
Most Rat Rodders are familiar with the 1955 Huffy Radio Bike, which had a radio built into the tank and a large battery box on the rear rack. See- http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle131

The Tom Thumb Bike Radio was from the late 1940s, early 1950s. These pop up on Ebay frequently in poor to nice condition, priced accordingly. I have never seen one that was complete with the handlebar mounts. I do own one of these but modified it in a manner some might consider sacrilege... I removed the chassis (gave it to a radio collector) and replaced it with a small amplifier connected to a Sony Mini-Disc. This made the radio much more useable as there is no music (decent music) to be found on the AM radio band, it is much more reliable, and the batteries don't cost over $30 for a few hours use. I made mounts from handle bar water bottle mounts and strap aluminum. I have hours of music from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The only drawback is that the set up has to be turned on and the rear cover buttoned up... it can't be controlled on the fly.

Tom Thumb Radio Mounted on Bike

The Dash Board by fanegatrac, on Flickr

Close up of the radio

Tom Thumb Bike Radio by fanegatrac, on Flickr

Radio with the case open

Tom Thumb Bike Radio by fanegatrac, on Flickr

There is another route to go for a period radio. Motorola made quite a few tube portables in the 1950s. These had the same leatherette covered metal case with different facades. I removed the chassis, replacing it with the amp and Mini-Disc, then made a handlebar bracket to hold it.

Motorola tube radio conversion

1_Motorola Model 56L2A by fanegatrac, on Flickr

Motorola with the case open

2_Motorola Model 56L2A by fanegatrac, on Flickr

There is one other tube radio to be found occasionally on Ebay- The Barb Holiday Bike Radio. This is more rare than the Tom Thumb. It has 3 separate tuners, so it only gets 3 pre-set stations. Neat but not as pretty as the Tom Thumb. See link- http://www.gifarmer.com/bike/bike_monar ... onet.shtml


Transistor Radios-
Starting in the late 1950s, transistor bike radios from Japan started to appear, usually in the same housing with a headlight. Although I've had a bunch of these, they proved to be both mediocre radios and lights. In the late 1960s, bike radios without the headlight began to show up. The most common and well done was the Archer (Radio Shack) ROAD PATROL. There were also a number of brackets that attached to your handlebars that would hold a small transistor radio. Popular too was the AM/CB combo radios. One really nice radio/headlight is the Bike Jammer, made in the 1990's. These are frequently found on Ebay in NIB condition. It is an AM/FM radio in a fairing that also has a halogen light. The unit is powered by a 7.2 Volt rechargeable battery like those found in RC cars and boats. Photo below has one mounted on the handlebars. The battery was placed in the rack box.



3-Speed Shaft Drive Bike by fanegatrac, on Flickr

Check out the search link on Ebay-
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=tr ... &_from=R40


Modern Radios/Stereo Systems
There are a wide variety of these on Ebay. Some have headlights, some have stereo speakers, and some are just amps with speakers. These are fine for music but don't have the panache and character that one finds on Ratrods. See Ebay link- http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=os ... &_from=R40

Hopefully I haven't been too long winded, but like many here, these are things for which I have a passion. Hope this engenders some discussion............... Felix C.

 

[Dbubbleguy]

BTW- There is an auction on Ebay for a Tom Thumb Radio which ends in 5 days. See-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-1949-Tom-T ... 257a90f3af

PS- Sold for $149.99 at last second of the auction.

 

[yoothgeye]

Thanks for all this great information, I can tell that you are passionate about these. Very cool.

 

[RollingBob]

I've been wanting to build something using a T-class amp and some small audiophile grade drivers in some sort of self-enclosure that reproduces the bass register efficiently. Then I'll ride it far out into the countryside with Sly & Robbie on eleven.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Thanks for the post and information Dbubbleguy!

Luke.

 

[Sphinx]

Doesn't anyone on here have a Huffy RadioBike? It's one of the coolest ever later model Tank Bikes.


http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle357

 

[blackdiamond]

Doesn't anyone on here have a Huffy RadioBike? It's one of the coolest ever later model Tank Bikes.


http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle357

i know i want one :shock:

 

[B607]

Bikes and radios. Simple is better. :wink: Gary

 

[Dbubbleguy]

There is a 1955 Darb Holiday bicycle tube radio listed on Ebay... even has the mounting hardware.........

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-DARB-HO ... 4170bec517

 

[kickback]

There is a bike radio in my local trader paper that is a am/23 Chanel cb radio that looks complete that I want to buy but I have spent my limit for this month. :|

 

[mastronaut]

I like having mobile tunes that don't require any headphones....this puppy comes in loud and clear! 8)

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

good website on huffy radio bike's yes bike's (according to the article there was a version released in 1992) and a few aftermarket radios made for bicycles

http://dialyourride.wordpress.com/page- ... radiobike/

 

[Dbubbleguy]

good website on huffy radio bike's yes bike's (according to the article there was a version released in 1992) and a few aftermarket radios made for bicycles

http://dialyourride.wordpress.com/page- ... radiobike/

Good info. There is a 1992 Huffy Radio on Ebay... see- http://www.ebay.com/itm/HUFFY-WAVES-AM- ... 20cfa8c56f

 

[Dbubbleguy]

I was able to pick up a DARB BICYCLE RADIO on Ebay a while back. The 67-1/2 volt battery it takes is no longer made but a conversion battery can be found on Ebay that is made up of multiple 9 volt batteries. I put one of these and the 2 D-Cells in and hoped for the best since this is a tube radio that is 63 years old. After about 30 seconds it started to crackle! Now this radio was not made by a large electronics company but was bashed together from off the shelf parts (the speaker cover is a shower drain cover). It does not have variable tuning but 3 screws to permanently tune in 3 different stations, with 3 matching screws to fine tune the antenna. The good news is I was able to lock in 3 different stations; the bad news is that 2 were "talk stations" and the other was the DelDot Traffic station. But it does work and comes in fairly loud. Now if I could only find the mounting brackets for the radio...

https://www.stevenjohnson.com/bicycleradios/darb.htm

 

[RustySprockets]

Your post reminded me that I DO have a bike radio..one of these.

Okay, so, nuthin' special. But, it may be...someday.

 

[us56456712]

Interesting about these bike radios. I was not aware of the early ones until recently. I thought I invented bike radios. When I was a wise a## kid in the 1950s I built a crystal set using the new hobby parts that were coming out. I used a diode or a transistor (can't remember but if you use two connectors on a transistor you have a diode) and a miniature coil with a magnet or iron slug inside with a twist knob placed on the end to tune it. The whole works went into an aluminum radio case shield the size of two packs of gum. I got this at the dump. No battery required for a crystal set. I had a flesh tone plug in your ear head phone. I use a miniature alligator clip to attach the antenna to the basket. I used no ground and it still worked to pick up the local AM station. I spent every summer day riding to the local swimming hole listing to the radio. I wish I still had it for nostalgia. My first crystal set was made from a toilet paper roll with scavenged wire wrapped around it. A dump speaker provided the fine copper wire and some of my dads varnish held the wire to the toilet roll. The diode was a piece of galena from a local abandoned mine which was imbedded in a piece of lead melted on a spoon over my grandmothers glass stove. A connecting wire was imbedded in the lead. Only a kid was small enough to wiggle into the galena pocket. The lead came from bullets I dug out of the sand bank at the local shooting range. I used a safety pin to find a sensitive spot on the galena crystal and that was held in place with bees wax from my mothers sewing box. I took apart our telephone and used the ear piece module, which fell out when unscrewed for easy replacement by the telephone company. A few years later there were hobby shops and I built all kinds of simple electronic transistor stuff. I built a transmitter so I could hook up my 45 RPM turntable and transmit the record to my radio as I had no amp. Of course all this scavenging and purchasing was done by riding my bicycle, a 1952 or 3 Hawthorn. Oh, the genius of youth. What the hell do kids do now for entertainment?

 

[Duchess]

I briefly used the free radio the Plymouth dealer included with my parents' minivan. I also had some kind of small plastic black box that made machine gun and missile noises that I secured to the handlebars. The radio didn't last, but the sound effect thing was pretty durable.

What the heck do kids do now for entertainment?

Seems they just stare at screens. Who will invent the next things or even think up the new stories, I don't know? A smaller minority than now? I guess it's fortunate that creating is so much easier for the fewer of them out there. The problem with the ease of it is for any interested consumer to sort through all the junk to find the gems. I don't even get fan fiction and fans getting so attached to the stories other people created—don't like how they wrote it, create your own world!

I'm glad I grew up when I did in the 80s, straddling both the mechanical and computational worlds. I made my own bikes from discarded parts and would ride up to 20 miles away from home. No phone, of course (but I had a patch kit, one that you'd light the glue on fire briefly to get the patch ready in a hurry), all my mother knew was I was "outside" and I had to be back before dark. Today, they'd call DSS on her, but that wasn't at all unusual (other than maybe the distance I rode) and I didn't grow helpless and afraid.

I made my own line of toys with pipe cleaner alpha and numeral figures with arms and legs that fought each other. Old L'Eggs pantyhose eggs with the clear fat ends made flying pods that ran on matter/antimatter destruction pulse engines (Saw antimatter on an old sci-fi movie about a giant space bird, I think was called The Giant Claw. It was not scientifically accurate, but was inspiring.) and old Scotch tape dispensers were land speeders with the characters sitting behind the cutting edge with that as a dashboard. There were other vehicles, but those were the main ones. The numbers were generally the bad guys because I preferred writing to math, but as I was always a weird kid, there was no black and white good/evil binary about it and characters that could pass for either side, like "o"s and "0"s, were spies.

I was never that into electronics (other than building a kit RC car), so I find it funny that I ended up in telecommunications.

 

[Wildcat]

I had one of these in 1979 I think.

Earlier though, 1971, I had enough points from delivering the Grit newspaper to get an even better one. Made by Westinghouse. I actually found a pic of one of them.

 

[Dbubbleguy]

It has been a while since this thread was opened for posting but I came across an item that needs to be posted here. Currently on Ebay there is a listing for a "Pre-war bicycle radio, SAXONY model OPR-180" that is absolutely stunning (and expensive!). Only 6" by 4" in the shape of a bullet headlight, it crams in 4 tubes and other components. While the radio seems complete, it is missing the external battery pack and antenna (Like the Huffy Radio Bike). I intend to do more research on this and will post any findings.

I can't get the URL to post correctly, so go to Ebay and search - PREWAR Bicycle Rare Complete Postwar Balloon Tank BIKE ANTIQUE VINTAGE ACCESSORY

 

[kingfish254]

Here you go Felix. LINK: SPECIAL DELUXE ACCESSORY "SAXONY" BICYCLE RADIO PEDESTAL