Smart Move: Bicycles from the Embacher Collection

A Cyclopaedia of 100 years Bicycle Design

Bicycles from the Embacher Collection PHOTOGRAPHS BY BERNHARD ANGERER

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:

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DETAILS

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PHOTOGRAPHER

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PUBLISHER

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TEXT CONTRIBUTIONS AND AUTHORS

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PRESS EXCERPTS

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COLLECTOR MY CAREER AS ARCHITECT, DESIGNER, AND INVENTOR COLLECTION

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HOW THE COLLECTION BEGAN

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A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BIKES

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THE COLLECTION SITE

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EXHIBITIONS

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CONTACT

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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-enscène 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:

box@smart-move.at

Price

â‚Ź 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 superelevated 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 12

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 4wheel 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.

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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).

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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 …

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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.

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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.

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It has to be light, as the cyclist must always also propel the weight of the construction.

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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.

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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.

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Due to the many mechanical parts, it must be quite precisely produced to keep frictional loss to a minimum.

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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 18

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 28

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 box@smart-move.at

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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

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