The collector: Edward Albert, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York, USA.

The collection: Vintage lightweight racing bicycles.

The story behind the collection...

I am a collector of vintage lightweight racing bicycles and racing memorabilia. I specialize, although not by any means exclusively, in bikes and items of interest from the New York metropolitan area and am especially interested in the time period between the early 1920s and the late 1950s.

Since childhood, bicycles have always been a fascination for me. Somehow along the way I got side-tracked by the 1960s. In the mid 1970s, while in graduate school, I started riding again, and then racing. I ended up racing bikes for 25+ years. After too many crashes and too many miles I retired from racing. Still involved in the bike-life, however, I began collecting. At first, as with most collectors, I really did not know what I wanted to collect, and thus collected everything. Over time my interests became narrower and turned to track bikes built by mid-20th century New York builders, and bikes that were distinctive in some way or for some reason.

Why these? The answer to that takes a story. In 2005 I had bought and restored a pair of bikes by a local builder named Dick Power. I took those bikes to a national event called the Cirque du Ciclisme held in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is the premier US gathering of collectors of vintage lightweight bikes. It also includes a show with concours d'elegance. I was gobsmacked when I learned that my pair of matching bikes (one track, one road) won the top award of "Best in Show". A sociologist by training, I now felt I had to know something more about the man, already long deceased, who had built these bikes. So began what has been a six year odyssey to find and tell the story of Dick Power. As I pursued the story, interviewing everyone I could locate who knew the man, I began to realise that many of these ex-riders still had their old racing bikes that had been hung up years ago. Many of my interviewees were, after all, in their late 70s and 80s. I would ask if they wanted to sell their old bikes. Many were pleased to as they felt that after they passed their beloved irons would be consigned to the dumpster by disinterested family who did not see their intrinsic value. And so began a collection of bikes, many by New York craftsmen builders and a continuing fascination with the New York racing scene of that era.

Dick Power's story has reached manuscript size and I am now in search of a publisher for "A Dark Day in Sunnyside: A Bike-Obsessed Life of Damage and Redemption, The Dick Power Story."

What I like most about this particular part of my collection is that they are not "works of art" but working bikes that were raced hard and often put away wet. They are bikes whose raison d'etre was function, i.e., to win bike races not to look pretty. That type of craft is long gone and mostly forgotten. I also liked being where the crowds weren't. At least they weren't when I started.

I have been collecting for about eight or nine years. I have had as many as 45 bikes but have now cut the herd to around 35.

The collection certainly reveals my love for the sport of bike racing. I also want to help preserve its past. That means not only preserving the "hardware" but also the stories that are only retained by those who lived it and are rapidly dying off.

My wife Brenda is very tolerant. Bikes are on stands in my office, in the living room (the prettier ones are really art). Some are in her office and a huge number are in my basement where they hang from the ceiling. They are often rotated upstairs as the mood strikes. Some I still ride. Some come up for photo-shoots.

My favourites include a 1950s Dick Power track, a 1937 Caminard Caminargent track, a 1985 Cinelli Laser, and two 1976 bikes by the cult builder Mario Confente - which, by the way - I ride. I am also very fond of my three Stayer bikes. These were built to be raced behind motorcycles on banked tracks at 45+ miles per hour.

You can find out more about Edward's collection on his website, www.thevintagebikelife.com.

Images © Edward Albert and used with his kind permission.