Shelby makes an “Ideal” bike
09.17.2020
Shelby’s first foray in the bicycle industry began in 1895 with the Shelby Cycle Manufacturing Co. The sprawling plant was home to the “Ideal” bicycle.
Two Chicago businessmen moved their cycle business to Shelby to be located closer to the Shelby Steel Tube Works (currently ArcelorMittal Shelby). It was the largest in the world and the provided the best tubing in the market, according to the cycle company’s marketing brochure.
The first order received was for 1,000 bicycles from Thomas Varney of San Francisco, who owned one of the finest retail bicycle shops in the world, according to a newspaper account. With another order destined for British Columbia, the company quickly put 300 men on the payroll. Men worked all night, in the glow of the plant’s own electric power, to fill the orders.
The company became part of the American Bicycle Company trust by 1900 but closed in 1901.
The tubes works continued producing steel tubes and again began selling them to a bicycle company, this time in 1921. The Shelby Cycle Frame Builders were lured to the Ohio town by a local supply of seamless tubing and the promise of free factory space. The company began producing frames and forks in Shelby. In 1925, the company name was changed to Shelby Cycle Company and began assembling complete bikes.
A Whippet bike along with the Shelby assembly line employees
Shelby bicycles became nationally known in 1927 when Clarence Wagner broke the transcontinental record from Newport Beach to Atlantic City in 20 days, 17 hours, riding a Shelby Whippet.
Clarence Wagner with a Shelby bike
By 1937, Ohio companies made 50 percent of American bicycles; the Shelby Cycle Company was responsible for a third of the output. Working day and night, 400 employees produced more than 200,000. During World War II, the factory was retooled to produce tank rangefinder telescope tubes, gun shells, and airplane rockets, all made with Shelby tubing.
Nearly 100 years later, Shelby bicycles are highly collectible and still ridden for pleasure every day, a testament to the strength and quality of ArcelorMittal Shelby and its workforce, which continues to produce high quality steel tubes today.
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