In November last year I was fully intent on making improvements to the look of this site and the Search Engine appeal of the content. Well, it did not happen. Why? Because I found some new sources of data to be used to help provide future content. The new sources are found using internet searches.

Once I get started doing internet searches it is like falling into a black hole. I have a little success on one set of searches and this leads to new ideas for searches and this cascades. And before you know it, two months has elapsed. During those two months no progress on this website.

So you might ask what is it that I search for on the internet. Several things.

First and most basic are bicycle serial numbers. I find serial numbers and catalogue them. Why? I am interested in vintage bicycles mostly from the post World War Two era and into the 1990s. Serial numbers can be useful in identifying the brand name, the manufacturer, and the year the bicycle was made. Having a catalogue of serial numbers to compare a new serial number is very useful. So I am always trying to add new serial numbers to my catalogues of data.

Second I try to information on bicycle manufacturers and their brands. The manufacturers that I am interested in are domestic and foreign. Many of the manufacturers from the post World War Two era are no longer in business. While many old brand names still exist today in some form, CCM, Schwinn, Raleigh, Peugeot, Bianchi, Miyata, etc., the original companies no longer exist and their factories have closed. There are still documents and other information about these old companies. Old catalogues and brochures are nice to find.

Third is pictures of bicycle. Since I do not have many catalogues of vintage brand names I try to make/simulate my own. I try to categorize the pictures by brand, year, and model.

Fourth is information about the global and national bicycle industries. This information is usually from bicycle industry magazines and journals.

Fifth is information about nations importing and exporting of bicycles. This information is usually from various country government records and report, and also bicycle industry association reports. There are also private research organization that create reports with this type of information.

Sixth is academic research papers particularly from Japan. The papers are from several angles. Successful industry development, company bankruptcies, industry organization, marketing, international trade.

Seventh is government documents. Tariffs and tariff hearings, domestic bicycle industry statistics, trademarks, patents, etc.

Eighth are bicycling magazines aimed at the bicycle consumer and bicycling community.

Over the years I have found few strange places to gather information about vintage bicycles.

Once I find information it needs to be translated, read, categorized, saved in the appropriate place, and eventually assimilated with other data to produce a meaningful picture of what happened in the bicycle industry.

All of the above is time consuming and takes away from progress on this website.

Now you have some idea about how the content for this site comes into being.