From the beginning of competition cycling back in the nineteenth century, much track racing has taken place behind pacing machines. The pacer rider’s upright position shielded the rider and thus increased his speed. At first, electric tandems were used but, with the development of powerful motorcycle engines, the spectacle of speeding cyclists behind the roaring ‘Big Motor’ pacers, exhausts flaming in the twilight, made this kind of crowd-pulling racing both spectacular and fairly dangerous. Cycling officialdom prompted the development of the lightweight, two-stroke, Derny machines still in use and the older V-twins were mostly phased out, many scrapped in the process, few still in use. This lovely pacer was built in 1928 by Heimann, a Swiss company still in existence, and is powered by a Swiss M.A.G. 750cc engine with overhead inlet valves, driving through a typical pacer transmission. Having spent all of its sixty-year working life at Vienna’s main Velodrome, it has, importantly, been conserved by its only other owner, the museum, in its original state rather than being restored. The engine is in excellent order with good compression and, given a modicum of re-commissioning, the sight and sound of the Heimann would grace any classic bicycle meeting such as those at London’s Herne Hill Stadium.
From the beginning of competition cycling back in the nineteenth century, much track racing has taken place behind pacing machines. The pacer rider’s upright position shielded the rider and thus increased his speed. At first, electric tandems were used but, with the development of powerful motorcycle engines, the spectacle of speeding cyclists behind the roaring ‘Big Motor’ pacers, exhausts flaming in the twilight, made this kind of crowd-pulling racing both spectacular and fairly dangerous. Cycling officialdom prompted the development of the lightweight, two-stroke, Derny machines still in use and the older V-twins were mostly phased out, many scrapped in the process, few still in use. This lovely pacer was built in 1928 by Heimann, a Swiss company still in existence, and is powered by a Swiss M.A.G. 750cc engine with overhead inlet valves, driving through a typical pacer transmission. Having spent all of its sixty-year working life at Vienna’s main Velodrome, it has, importantly, been conserved by its only other owner, the museum, in its original state rather than being restored. The engine is in excellent order with good compression and, given a modicum of re-commissioning, the sight and sound of the Heimann would grace any classic bicycle meeting such as those at London’s Herne Hill Stadium.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
