Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage Arms bicycles?

Yes?

No?

Not "Savage Mfg".. actual Savage Arms bicycles? Were they a thing??

This came up not long ago https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...35028/interesting-watch-fob#Post16435028 and this is the only Savage Bicycle reference I have seen over the years.

The tack hammer was in a catalog I would think that iif a bicycles were made that would be cataloged somewhere.

I vote NO

NO.

We've seen a bicycle marked Savage Mfg. Co., whoever that was.

Have not seen anything connected to Savage Arms, Utica, Chicopee, etc.

Refrigerators, washing machines, etc. were all marked Savage Arms Co.

And savage lawnmowers!

And trucks! Well... truck frames.

The Savage named bicycles I've seen have nothing to do with Savage Arms. Savage Arms did own a patent for a three speed shaft drive bicycle and an 'ornamental bicycle frame' for it from 1945 but I could never find an example of a shaft drive bicycle with the Savage name.

uspto/002378634
uspto.gov/D0142522

Well, from the depths of Fug's vaults comes this from the Thirtieth Annual Report from December 31, 1946.

Now.. did Savage Arms ever put together a production line? Ever make some prototypes? I can't answer that. But a picture of one is something I don't recall being seen here. Looks like it matches the patents Gene references.

Chainless bicycle.. boy, that would have been nice to get those hours back as a kid trying to get the chain back on the bike.

Protos are a requirement for patent?

Automotive type transmission? I bet that was quite a contraption inside that pedal shaft housing.

I read reports on a Colombia brand single speed chainless bike from the turn of the century that appears similar and it sounds like having to change a rear tire on those would make you wish it were a chain drive. There also create more friction.

I'm not sure of that, I believe at least a working model is needed for most patents. Those listed as design patents apparently are different and I'm not sure exactly what they are, the one linked to above, D0142522 for the frame, states that the description goes with the "accompanying drawing" so it appears it only required a drawing.

It's quite simple, look at the forth patent drawing, it's a large gear with three rows of teeth and a single sliding gear on the shaft to engage them.

That might be an artist's concept drawing.. but based off of other Savage artwork for catalogs/etc at the time I would guess it's a drawing of a real item. No way to know, unless somebody runs across one, or finds more information on one. Maybe in a bicycle hobbyist magazine of the time.

Looks like there were plenty of attempts to create a chain free bicycle around the turn of the century, and obviously all failed. The chain drive was an established and mature technology for bicycles by WW2, wonder why Savage thought their chain free design would compete? Wonder why they dropped it before it hit the market?

Maybe cost prohibitive to produce, or the market just wasn't there for it yet? It took the US economy a couple of years after the war to really get a full head of steam and completely reverted from a war production economy to domestic use goods. There were some big winners, and big losers in the aftermath.

A friend of mine had a early POPE bicycle that was shaft driven,around the turn of the century. but i also had a friend who had a STEAM powered bicycle(ROPER) . I guess i must be old. It would be pretty cool if savage actually built one. Don

Doing a quick history check...

*) A design patent is a patent for any article that can be manufactured - as opposed to a utility patent which covers processes, etc. There's now also patents for plants, probably animals, etc..
*) All patents up to 1880 had to have a small model submitted with the patent. it didn't have to work, but it had to show the patented invention.
--) Discontinued in 1880 due to lack of space and fire hazard (many old models were lost in a couple of fires that had broken out in the model storage areas).
*) From 1871 onwards, drawings had to be submitted.

I can't find any mention of working prototypes ever being required, though there were 2 year time limits on patents submitted by foreign nationals in regards to the patents being used or becoming voided. Another possible reason that Arthur might have assigned his early patents over to others even before he was employed by a company. They may have bankrolled him in exchange for ownership of his patents, or it was a workaround to avoid the 2 year limitation.

So drawings had to be submitted, but prototypes didn't have to exist. It doesn't mean that prototypes couldn't exist.. obviously Savage did build prototypes of many (most?) of their patents.