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A Cyclopaedia of 100 years Bicycle Design
Bicycles from the Embacher Collection PHOTOGRAPHS BY BERNHARD ANGERER
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EMBACHER COLLECTION
PRESS MATERIAL:
The photo material provided is free to use with citation of the book title SMART MOVE,
the source, www.smart-move.at, and the photographer Bernhard Angerer.
ILLUSTRATED BOOK ON THE COLLECTION: 3
DETAILS 4 PHOTOGRAPHER 5 PUBLISHER 5 TEXT CONTRIBUTIONS AND AUTHORS 6 PRESS EXCERPTS 11
COLLECTOR
MY CAREER AS ARCHITECT, DESIGNER, AND INVENTOR 12 COLLECTION 15
HOW THE COLLECTION BEGAN 18 A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BIKES 20 THE COLLECTION SITE 28
EXHIBITIONS 28 CONTACT 30
MICHAEL EMBACHER
KAISERSTRASSE 41
A-1070 VIENNA
STATUS: JANUARY 2009
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ILLUSTRATED BOOK ON THE COLLECTION
“Smart Move” presents us with the photographer Bernhard Angerer’s iconic mise-en-
scène of 50 bicycles from the Embacher Collection: racing bikes with particularly
subtle details; folding bikes with strikingly clever mechanisms, and others that were
quite spectacular failures; lovingly designed touring bikes (although some provide
more aesthetic delight when at rest than pleasure when ridden); track bikes reduced
to pure speed without brakes; bikes that defy even at the best attempts at
categorization, hardly any matches the popular image of a normal bicycle.
Articles by Konrad Paul Liessmann, Dagmar Moser, Peter Noever, Kurt Palm, Martin
Strubreiter, and Michael Zappe describe the archetypal experience of riding a bike,
showing that bicycles not only imply design and mechanics but are also loaded with
emotions and memories. We read about “the first time,” about learning and ability,
about pushing oneself to the limits and succeeding, about relish for cooperation, and
about the stretches of landscapes that we experience.
In order to design and produce the book without compromises, it was entirely
privately financed and self published.
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DETAILS:
Bicycles from the Embacher Collection
Published 13 November 2007 by Kulturtransfer 248 pages, 228 color photos, German/English, hardcover ISBN 978-3-9502428-0-5
Photos Bernhard Angerer Layout Perndl + Co Texts Konrad Paul Liessmann
Dagmar Moser Peter Noever Kurt Palm Martin Strubreiter Michael Zappe
Homepage: www.smart-move.at Source: www.smart-move.at www.amazon.de www.amazon.com www.fahrradbuch.de
selected book shops Contact: [email protected] Price € 49.50 + shipping
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THE PHOTOGRAPHER:
The photographer Bernhard Angerer was predestined to work on this book through
his many years of experience in product photography. He lends the bicycle as object
vivid, nearly erotic dynamics through practically fetishist studio staging and super-
elevated perspectives.
The photos reveal to beholders the creative enthusiasm, love of details, and know
how in terms of design and construction of the bicycles’ designers and builders,
some renowned, some anonymous.
THE PUBLISHER
Kulturtransfer, Gesellschaft zur Entwicklung und Vertrieb kulturrelevanter Projekte
und Produkte GmbH, was founded in November 2006 for the purpose of developing,
organizing, and carrying out an extremely wide range of exciting cultural projects.
Kulturtransfer has produced, among other things, a new poster archive system for
the Wien Bibliothek and has designed and organized the bicycle exhibition “Schöner
Verkehr/Smart Move” in Feldkirch and at the Museumsquartier in Vienna. Currently, it
is developing textile-based winter protection for historical park figures, including
those in the Schlosspark Schönbrunn. At this point, the high point of their activities
has undoubtedly been the publication of the cult book SMART-MOVE Bicycles from
the Embacher Collection.
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TEXT CONTRIBUTIONS AND AUTHORS
Konrad Paul Liessmann: “The Final Turn,” Meditations on riding a racing bike
There are many ways of moving forward on a bicycle: slow or fast, on land, in the
woods, in the city. There are also many different types of bicycles: city bikes, trekking
bikes, old lady and “Waffenrad” style bicycles, mountain bikes. But there is only one
form of movement that so closely approaches the platonic concept of the bicycle that
it transforms known reality into an exemplary illustration of an immortal archetype:
riding a racing bike.
Mind you, this is not to be a discussion about sport, competitions, nor about
amateurs who go round circuits, nor about professionals riding across the screen. It
is solely about fathoming the possibilities and limitations of self-propelled locomotion
with a combination of efficiency and elegance, which allows a break in the monotony
of everyday life and transcendence through the monotony of movement. The racing
bike encompasses both the means and the objective in one.
One can, of course, cycle in order to get from A to B; one can also ride a bike in
order to be trendy; one can ride a bike to transport something on the back or in a
pannier. For whichever reason a bike is used, it will, as with everything in the world,
look as it does and be deformed by its use. Yet, all art and all things beautiful begin
only where all intentions end. Only when the bicycle stops acting as a transport aid or
vehicle, only when it has completely recovered its own sense of identity, it appears in
a purity that cannot be shadowed, not even by the sweat of another who abandons
himself to his own purposeless imperatives. And these are: gliding, clambering and
diving into the depths of being at the highest speed…
Konrad Paul Liessmann, Professor for Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Numerous awards
including the Austrian State Prize for Cultural Journalism 1996, and the Austrian scientist of the year
2006. Selected publications: Philosophie der modernen Kunst (1999), Vom Nutzen und Nachteil des
Denkens für das Leben (1997), Zukunft kommt! Über säkularisierte Heilserwartungen und ihre
Enttäuschung (2007).
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Dagmar Moser: “Would love to have been Butch Cassidy’s girl!”
The bike: muscular strength from behind, without which there would be no
movement. The world turns only when legs rise and cede. The stance clearly divides
the buttocks into left and right as never before. The lower extremities pedal at the
sides and battle against hills and mountains, straight routes, downhill, uphill.
A man courts me, sends gifts with roses, calls me, smiles, talks of love, musters his
entire talent for words in order to move one step closer to me. At one point –the first
meeting. Aloof to the many stares, I turn round the corner, see the hero standing in
front of his vehicle. My heart falls to my knees as I see the man I adore standing,
vain, in front of his black Porsche, black leather seats, black top, smiling. All I can
think is, shit, he has the wrong mode of transport. Memories of trips around the world
return, when he, another, pedalled carrying me on the handlebars and taking me into
the distance.
I, the ultimate female, tightly clenching the handlebars, laid my head on his body.
That was like heaven. Soon I couldn’t feel my thighs, my backside, the plank-like bar
was so uncomfortable. It was, however, cosier than the smooth leather seats of the
four-wheeler. I experienced the view enhanced by the slowly unfolding perspective,
noticed smells, felt the sun, complained about the rain. But he was always behind
me, him with his burly power. I liked that…
On the outside, her life takes place somewhere between twentieth-century furniture and designer
pieces in a shop called “Lichterloh” in Vienna’s Gumpendorfer Straße. The essential thing, however,
takes place in her head, and sometimes she even write some of that down, only to give it to a good
friend to read who continues to tell her it should definitely be published.
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Peter Noever: No More Detours!
They may ride single lane, but cyclists think cyclically, multi-dimensionally, in
categories of sustainability. Those who push the pedals promote their own (see:
lifestyle diseases)—as well as the public—welfare. This is, in many aspects, one of
those rare win-win situations. As such, the bicycle is the most ecological mode of
personal transportation there is. In local urban traffic it is the most efficient, flexible,
and economical; a merger of comfort and social benefits.
Peter Noever, Designer, C.E.O. and artistic director of the MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts /
Contemporary Art (since 1986) and founder of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
(1994), creator of exhibitions and author of numerous books on design, architecture, and art.
Kurt Palm: “Praise be the Bicycle: Between Weibern and the beach” Also in my teen years, a regular daily life without a bicycle was unimaginable. I didn’t
simply ride my bike from my hometown of Timelkam to Vöcklabruck (and back) for
school, but also at night out to the beach in Seewalchen, where we climbed over the
wall and met the girls who were also cool enough to run away from home (well, at
least temporarily).
I also rode to Weibern—yes, there really is such a town—to a disco legendary at the
time, although I only made this trip once. There were so many mountains, it was
much too tiring, and as everyone knows, it isn’t a good idea to drink and ride.
Consequently, I spent the night in a barn and then rode home in the morning,
somewhat worse for the wear.
Kurt Palm: Earlier occupations include server, footballer, and cyclist, later active as night watchman
and hitchhiker. Studied German language and literature and journalism in Salzburg. Doctor of
philosophy. Books on Brecht, Stifter, Joyce, und Mozart; films after Flann O’Brien, on Stifter, Mozart,
and Phettberg.
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Martin Strubreiter und Michael Zappe: “History in Stories: A very sketchy history of the bicycle as told through select episodes”
First of all, we’d like to diplomatically circumnavigate the issue of which nation
discovered the bicycle by climbing up a molehill and announcing that the bicycle was
concocted, refined, and completed in several countries virtually parallel. The
discussion of what a bicycle should look like, what it should include and preferably
not include, was long and fierce, and bicycle history actually came to a close 100
years ago. Since then, the idea has merely been refined (and seasoned with new
fashions), which also works astonishingly well.
In any case, Leonardo da Vinci did not discover the bicycle. The drawings that were
supposedly his have already been exposed as fakes and are therefore not from the
fifteenth century. Nonetheless, this bicycle that never really was one can still be seen
in thousands of copies, on the T-shirts sold to tourists in Venice (which are, as we
have meanwhile ascertained, good quality).
Comte de Sivrac didn’t invent the bicycle, which is why he couldn’t present it in Paris
in 1791.
If we want to fasten down an inventor, then most likely it was famine. After the
climate changing 1816/17 volcano eruption, hunger was intense. Faced with the
choice of using the last horse for hauling things or eating, the people chose eating.
Nonetheless, this did not solve the transport problem, which is why Karl Drais created
his Laufmaschine (German for running machine), which allowed people to move
while sitting. It could also steer and brake, but still, the Laufmaschines were ridiculed
in Germany. In other countries where Baron Karl von Drais presented his invention,
the success was slightly better. Nonetheless, he wasn’t able to escape the classical
fate of inventors: Drais died penniless in 1851. The first Drais monument was
unveiled in 1893.
Martin Strubreiter: After successfully passing his driver's test, he didn't head straight towards luxury or
sports cars but instead rode a bike and drove a 2CV. Since then he has a considerably larger bicycle
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collection (everything except folding bikes—popular racing bikes throughout history) and has both
bought and sold French old-timers and begun more studies in psychology than he has finished. As a
happy medium he writes for the Autorevue since 1994 and also regularly for the Mountainbike Revue.
Michael Zappe: Began his collecting activities by pulling bicycles from bulky waste containers. He was
soon fascinated by the nimbleness of racing bikes and the varieties of gear systems. In the early
1980s, he joined the Veteran Cycle Club in England, which led to international contacts and
friendships, awakening his spirit of research. He prefers studying bicycle gearshift systems, aluminum
on bicycles, and small Viennese frame makers.
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SELECTED PRESS MATERIAL (http://www.smart-move.at/pressefeedback.html)
GERMANY: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Spiegel
Radio Berlin
………………
AUSTRIA Profil
Salzburger Nachrichten
Österreichischer Rundfunk
Österreichisches Fernsehen
…………………
USA Cog Magazine
Vintage bicycle Press
SWITZERLAND Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Velo Journal
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THE COLLECTOR: MICHAEL EMBACHER(http://www.embacherwien.com/)
Throughout my career as architect, designer, and inventor, it has always been one of
my concerns to find extremely functional, technically well conceived, and
aesthetically suitable solutions for all of our incredibly detailed and meticulously
carried out projects.
The assignments, which come to our office exclusively by mouth-to-mouth
propaganda, are extremely diverse:
Among other things, we designed the Herbert von Karajan Center in Vienna, and we
have been building steadily for ten years now in the world cultural heritage site
Schloss Schönbrunn. We design managerial offices for international concerns, and in
our fifteen years of existence have designed approximately sixty exhibitions
(including: “The City Inside Us” by Vito Acconci, “Beyond the Limits” by Chris
Burden, “The Turning Point” by Phillip Johnson, “Ukiyo-e reloaded” at the MAK –
Museum of Applied Arts, “Schöner Verkehr” at Vienna’s Museumsquartier, and trade
fair stands for “Wien Products”). We have built a refrigerated hall for the Austrian Film
Archives in Laxenburg, designed the presentation of the Republic of Austria in the
context of the EU Council Presidency in 2006, etc. …
Furthermore, my office works with the preservation and maintenance of cultural
production: Personally, I have a patent for the archiving of cultural goods on/of paper
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and textiles and produce winter protection for historical park figures, which has been
patented in Germany.
The relationship among design, tradition, consideration of the cultural heritage, and
also the statement in terms of design is important in my work.
My office, which meanwhile has a staff of twelve, is a very experimental office. We
attempt to work as precisely as possible on all of the commissions we receive, and to
always develop new design ideas and associative design forms in doing so. For this
reason, no single project is the same as any another. Our clients appreciate the very
individual, experimental, and playful confrontation we have with the task posed.
Here a statement about my office by Dr. Wolfgang Kos, Director of the Wienmuseum:
For the office of Michael Embacher, design is meticulous concept work, regardless of
whether it involves exhibitions, cultural or commercial spaces, trade fair stands,
intelligent storage systems, or installations in public space. In the beginning, there is
usually a problem for which there seems to be no schematic solution, and for which
merely formal approaches prove insufficient. Emerging in the end are stunningly
stringent solutions, the complexity of which is not visible at first glance. Decisive here
is that Michael Embacher never assumes use functions as a given, but instead, is
always ready to rethink processes and connections, with a detective’s flair. Michael
Embacher is a “special agent" for advanced assignments and problems. The
planning office is located in an interdisciplinary niche of competence between
architecture, inventiveness, technical construction, handcrafted precision work, and
artistic dimension. The basic attitude is experimental, every project turns into a model
case in terms of construction and design. Michael Embacher delivers system-capable
solutions, but always in the form of precise, individualized planning.
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About ten years ago, I would go to my appointments, consultations, and construction
sites by car. For that, I spent up to eight hours a day driving. The frustration over the
lost working hours as well as the accumulated parking tickets inspired me to switch
over to riding a bicycle. A promotion from the newspaper Falter convinced me: within
five months I’d lost twenty kilos and in doing so saved up to 90 minutes a day of
traveling time, and had done so (almost) without getting a ticket.
In order to be even faster and enjoy the anarchistic feeling of riding a bike in the city
even better, I replaced this bicycle with a Cannondale and in doing so discovered
that the quality of a bicycle contributes greatly to the speed with which one moves
forward. Seduced by my intoxication with speed, I fell into an upgrade-mania and by
trading, brought my bike to an ever higher level until one day, during a fifty-second
visit to an office, my top model at the time was stolen: an unlocked, full-suspension 4-
wheel bike.
That did, indeed, end the up-grading of my everyday bicycle, but in the end, also
relocated my passion to assembling my bicycle collection.
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THE COLLECTION (http://www.embacher-collection.at/)
My daily confrontation with design and my interest in experiencing and using the
bicycle as a pleasurable artifact of everyday culture, efficient means of transportation,
and design object has led over the past six years to the development of an
internationally renowned bicycle collection with several one-of-a-kind pieces (e.g.: the
Moulton One Off made of titanium tubes).
There were and still are many motivations for beginning a collection:
• The bicycle does quite a good job satisfying my previously mentioned interests
in exclusive constructions, design, individualized solutions for design and
technical matters, but also in the ingenuity of people. The possibility to also
use these (in part absurd) bicycles is, naturally, a great luxury.
• I take great pleasure in riding a bike; I believe that the feeling is the same for
other people. And all bike riders know what fun it can be to feel the breeze,
escape city traffic, take a ride with the family, or, as I recently experienced for
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the first time, fly across a frozen lake into the horizon on an ice bicycle (with a
blade in front and spikes in the back, SMART MOVE, page 198).
• As a child, I dreamed of a Puch racing bike with Campagnolo shifts. It was
there at the local bike shop in the showcase. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford it.
My delight was that much greater when I was able to integrate such a bike into
my collection ca. four years ago. Surely, somewhere at the back of my mind,
this dream (unfulfilled at the time) was a reason, something I had to fulfill …
• A bicycle is the most efficient equipment for locomotion on earth, powered
exclusively by human energy. The bicycle is thereby also an extremely clean,
healthy, and pleasurable form of locomotion. As a means of transport, it
requires practically no parking space, does not cause any emissions, no
traffic, and for that reason, taking into consideration the enormous car traffic in
the city, it is much faster than other means of transportation for most routes. At
the same time, it also represents a standard of health that many people can
naturally not acquire in the car, and have to spend a great amount of time
spinning out on the stationary bikes in the not-exactly-fresh air of the fitness
studio.
• The bicycle can, of course, also offer great financial savings in an era
experiencing worldwide economic and energy crises. With daily use, it
presents an utterly enjoyable possibility for saving money.
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From the previously described demands in terms of design, the bicycle also naturally interests me as a design object:
• In terms of both its design and construction, the bicycle is one of the most
uncompromising constructions that I know.
• It has to be light, as the cyclist must always also propel the weight of the
construction.
• In spite of this demand for lightness, it must also be very stable as all
instability of the overall construction means a deficit in efficiency.
• The principle of efficient configuration determines bicycle design. Bicycles are,
in most cases, extremely graceful and elegant constructions despite the
immense forces acting on them. This elegance then becomes most visible
when the bicycle is in motion.
• Due to the many mechanical parts, it must be quite precisely produced to keep
frictional loss to a minimum.
• It must be extremely efficient, but also attractively designed to look good in a
race and also appeal to potential buyers.
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How the Collection Began
By chance, I saw a beautiful racing bike (“Rigi,” see Smart Move, p. 20) on ebay and
bought it in auction. Afterwards, I was congratulated for the inexpensive purchase by
several bicycle collectors, whom I didn’t know. For me, that was proof that this racing
bike was a fantastic and very rare piece. This brought me definitively to collecting.
The playful and experimental confrontation with my work is also reflected in my
collection: On the one hand, I try to find bicycles that bring in an unusual amount of
precision and perfection, ( e.g., the Lotus Sport, with which Chris Bordman rode
countless world records), but also bicycles that individualists put together for
themselves, like the ice bicycle.
I find it fascinating that people who actually have nothing to do with bicycle
construction, are so infected with the bike virus that they become creatively and
experimentally involved in making their own models, which in many cases leads to
rather successful constructions that at first glance have little to do with conventional
bicycles. (See also the folding bike prototype by Diblasi.)
I am just as amazed by people who continually attempt to rediscover the bicycle and
to develop entirely new frame forms and technical solutions, such as the PMP crank,
or the Coulrot crank.
Bicycles that have a different form simply for the sake of design, without a technical
or constructive departure, have no place in my collection.
I am particularly fascinated, of course, by bicycles in which world-renowned
designers have dealt with the theme, for example, the Zoom Bike by Richard Sapper,
Richard Sapper (creator of numerous design icons, born in Munich, lives in Milan),
undertook extensive research before venturing the design of this new bicycle. He
studied travel times for various routes in the city in terms of their efficiency and came
to the conclusion that a combination of bicycle and public transportation provides the
optimal solution: ride the bicycle to the next bus, street car, or underground, fold the
bicycle together and enter the station, get off at the desired stop, unfold the bicycle
and pedal directly to one’s destination. Sapper developed a feather light folding bike
of aluminum sections. The folding mechanism is strikingly reminiscent of an umbrella
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and can be folded up just as quickly—in a second. It was first used at the Frankfurt
Car Show 1989, to help motor journalists cover the distances on the trade fair
grounds. There are sixty prototypes of Zoombike—the ingenious object has not yet
gone into serial production.
In Europe, we are now in the process of rethinking the bicycle as a means of
transportation. We’ve learned a lot since it nearly disappeared from the streets in the
course of the economic upswing of the 1950s (as a poor-person’s vehicle). There are
cities in Europe, for example in Holland, in which the bicycle presents 30 percent of
the traffic, a figure that is constantly rising. In Vienna it is, unfortunately, a mere 7
percent (obviously, the Viennese are afraid of bicycles). In this millennium, Asia,
which traditionally has the greatest share of bicycles, wants them to disappear from
the face of the city and be replaced by cars. At the same time, ambitious European
cities attempt to finally inspire more people to ride a bicycle. That, too, is an example
of humanity’s supposed inability to learn.
I am quite confident that the energy and financial crises and also these attempts will
contribute to not allowing Asia’s sustained bicycle tradition to die out.
It is extremely inexpensive to maintain a bicycle collection. Additionally, the pieces
are also incredibly fun to use.
As an investment, exclusive bicycles have the potential of classic automobiles, which
in recent years achieved the best investment performance with an increase in value
of over 500 percent. In the six years of my collection activities, the value of my
bicycles has multiplied.
Just a few weeks ago, an obviously well-ridden Lotus (see Smart Move, p. 80) was
offered on the US e-bay site, advertised with a small, blurry photo and minimal
information: within just four hours it sold at the “buy it now” sales price of US$
10,000.
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A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BIKES
The Embacher Collections’ 200 ready to ride bicycles (all of the bicycles are used on
a daily basis, some more and some less) and the rareness of the objects render it
unique. Usually collectors find a particular corner of bicycle history where they go
wild. At the forefront here, however, are design and enthusiasm for the rare, off-beat,
and also courageously failed.
After the exhibitions and, of course, especially after publication of SMART MOVE, my
international contacts and, naturally, also my horizons have expanded enormously,
and in this way, I have been able to find some of the most beautiful and rare objects.
Fifty bicycles from the collection are described in the book a few of them are
described in more detail, in what follows.
Actually, all of the nearly 200 objects are my favorite bicycles, although naturally I like
the latest acquisitions best, especially the Schultz (ca. 1935 France), of course, and
the Moulton made from titanium tubes.
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Lotus, 1994
Designer Mike Burrows and the Lotus technicians thought that carbon, as new
material, also demanded new forms. So they designed a monococque structure
that went beyond the beloved retina pattern, shocking and delighting the
professional world and fans in 1992: A bolide the size of a hand towel with which
Chris Boardman from Britain became world champion in the individual pursuit at
the Barcelona Olympic games and set a new world record in doing so. The fact
that a new era in bicycle construction had arrived, was one of the more reserved
statements which were maid.
The bicycle pulverized several longstanding world records and the International
Cycling Union immediately banned it. The reasoning at the time was that in bicycle
races, the person had to be at the forefront and a battle of materials similar to that
in motor sports was not in the interest of cycling as a sport. At the time, these
exclusive bikes cost the equivalent of 7,000 euros; today, easily twice as much.
22
Capo, 1960s
The ice bicycle, which emerged as the private construction of a Viennese bicycle
mechanic, was based on a frame from the traditional frame builder Capo. In winter,
the mechanic embarked on long excursions on frozen lakes in the area with his
wife, who rode a similar bike, although in a ladies version more suitable for
women’s attire.
These excursions have been passed down as idyllic, pleasurable experiences:
holding tightly to the handlebars with numb hands, gloves usually frozen by the
immense speeds. With stiff lips and bright red faces one enjoyed the enormous
speed, the reeds rushing by, and the clashing sound of the runners that left behind
a sharp slice in the ice.
23
Zoombike, 1988
Richard Sapper (creator of numerous design icons, born in Munich, living in Milan)
undertook comprehensive studies before he dared the design of this new bicycle.
He examined traveling times in the city to determine their efficiency and arrived at
the conclusion that a combination of bicycle and public transportation was the
optimal solution: cycle to the nearest bus, street car, or underground, fold the bike
together and enter the station, unfold upon arrival at the desired stop and pedal
directly to one’s destination.
In ten years, Sapper developed a feather light folding bike made of aluminum
sections. The folding mechanisms are astonishingly similar to an umbrella and
close just as quickly—in a second. The bikes were first used at the Frankfurt Car
Show in 1989, allowing motor journalists to travel the great distances on the fair
grounds. There are sixty prototypes of the Zoom bike—the ingenious object has
not yet gone into serial production.
24
Moulton Speed S, early/mid-1990s
Alex Moulton, a great grandson of the pioneer of rubber processing, Stephan
Moulton, developed the idea of rubber suspension. His friendship with Alex
Issigonis, who created the Mini (equipped with rubber suspension elements),
played a great role in this. Both the foldable Moulton bicycle and also the Mini were
born in the era of the Suez crisis and subsequent gas rationing imposed in Britain.
Both were presented in 1959 and had rubber suspension and small tires.
In its day, the Speed S was the fastest Moulton ever built. It weighed less than 10
kg and cost 6,000 euros when introduced. The press spoke of a ride comparable to
a Rolls Royce; because of the small tires, racers could ride extremely close
together; one had the feeling of being on a tandem and could increase the speed
similar to a rocket.
25
C 4, late 1980s
The design of this bicycle would also be good for a comic figure. The racer is
sketched almost entirely in carbon; standard for today’s racing bike riders who
prefer something noble under their bottoms to a lot of money in their wallets; at the
end of the 1980s, still the anticipation of a lighter future
26
Moulton One Off Titanium
The world’s only AM-GT made of titanium, produced with official permission from
Alex Moulton by Mike Augspurger from One-Off Titanium Inc. in Florence,
Massachusetts.
27
Schulz
This bicycle was built in France, ca. 1935. Supposedly there are only three left
throughout the world. The best preserved example is in my collection. My Schultz
was included in The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles, published by Vintage
Bicycle Press, see also: (http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/goldenage.html)
Recently, there was a competition for readers of the American magazine Bicycle
Quarterly, asking about the function of the extremely ingenious and exemplary
working brakes of the Schultz: Schultz owners were not allowed to participate.
28
COLLECTION SITE
The Embacher collection is stored an unfinished loft directly over my office in
Vienna’s seventh district. The owner of the house, from Switzerland and, by chance,
also a former bicycle racer, is so enthusiastic about the collection that he lets me use
the attic for a minimal fee—proof of the emotions surrounding the theme of the
bicycle.
Exhibitions: http://www.smart-move.at/ausstellungen.html
The previous exhibitions from the Embacher collection have gone over extremely
well. More than 12,000 visitors marveled at the merely three-week exhibition
"SCHÖNER VERKEHR" in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier. The exhibition consisted of a
floating room installation configured from thirty-six bicycles.
“SCHÖNER VERKEHR” Extraordinary bicycles
MQ - MuseumsQuartier Vienna - Freiraum Quartier 21, 4–23 April 2006
The success continued in Palais Liechtenstein in Feldkirch, Austria.
“SCHÖNER VERKEHR“ Extraordinary bicycles
Palais Liechtenstein, Feldkirch, 5–20 May 2007
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Both the enormous amount of positive feedback from the exhibition of the Embacher
collection and the fact that many visitors had been asking for some kind of
documentation motivated Kulturtransfer to put together the illustrated book SMART
MOVE.
Feel free to book an exhibition!
Just contact us at [email protected]
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CONTACT:
Michael Embacher
EMBACHER/WIEN
Kaiserstrasse 41
1070 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43 (0)1 522 48 84
Fax: +43 (0)1 522 48 84-69
KULTURTRANSFER
Gesellschaft für Entwicklung u. Vertrieb
kulturrelevanter Projekte und Produkte
Gesellschaft mbH
Währingerstraße 91/24
1180 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43 (0)676 845 22 48-22
Fax: +43 (0)1 522 48 84-69