Lozier Bicycle races
Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company was the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City in 1891 and the first to manufacture seamless tubing in the United States. Just three years later in October of 1894, the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company was sold to H.A. Lozier the “Bicycle King of America” and the name of the company was changed to Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. Ellwood Tubeless produced the seamless tubes for the H.A. Lozier & Company who was the original producer of “Cleveland” bicycles. The seamless tubes were produced in Ellwood City and shipped to Toledo, Ohio where they were assembled by H.A. Lozier & Company (later Lozier Mfg).
Lozier continued production until selling the bicycle portion of the business to Col. Pope of the American Bicycle Company towards the end of 1899 (just before the bicycle industry crash) for quite a lot of money. Lozier Manufacturing and the Cleveland brand also separated at that point. H.A. Lozier went into the boat engine business, and then his heirs went into the automobile business.
The Ellwood Weldless Tube Company continued to produce the tubing primarily for the bicycle industry and boilers until 1898 when the United States declared war on Spain in the Spanish-American War. During the war, there was a subtle shift from the previous gun barrels types to the seamless tube gun barrels. Then when World War I broke out in 1914, the mill was primarily converted to the production of tubes to be used in the assembling of military guns.
The bicycle pictured here is an 1898 Cleveland “37″. The original selling price was $65.00 and came in two colors, black enamel or optional green enamel. The handlebars on the bicycle are not flipped upside-down, but this was permissible since these were called “reversible handlebars.” We have been told that these were the type of bicycles that were raced “professionally” around Pittsburgh Circle when it was used in that capacity from 1895 to 1905. What we have not yet been able to uncover was that since the road was not paved at this time and Ellwood City was infamous for the muddy roads were there wood planks laid on the road or did they race in the mud?
If you would like to share any memories you may have about the mill, or bike races around Pittsburgh Circle, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com
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