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This lot contains a Charcoal Black original Bowden Spacelander. this bicycle is one of the first 522 ever produced in 1960. the Bowden Spacelander was designed in 1949 in only five colors charcoal black being the most rare.
condition: this is the finest surviving example of the Charcoal Black. there is one crack in one of the two headlight lenses.
(see lot 88a for documentation)
"Benjamin George Bowden (3 June 1906 – 6 March 1998) was a British industrial designer, who is known mostly for his work on automobiles and bicycles. Bowden designed the coachwork of Healey's Elliott, an influential British sports car. He was also the designer of the Spacelander, a space-age bicycle which was commercially unsuccessful when in production, but has since become a collector's item.
For the 1946 exhibition Britain Can Make It, Bowden submitted a design for a highly streamlined bicycle which he named the Classic. The bicycle was constructed of pressed aluminium and featured a driveshaft and a hub dynamo that stored energy when riding downhill and gave a boost when riding uphill. Although the bicycle's unusual appearance created substantial public interest initially, British bicycle makers were reluctant to invest in the high degree of re-tooling needed to manufacture the bicycle. In 1949 Bowden pursued the possibility of having the Classic manufactured in South Africa, but, according to Bowden, abrupt changes in South African import policy prevented that plan from materializing.
In 1952 Bowden emigrated to Windsor, Ontario before moving to the United States. While in Muskegon, Michigan in 1959, he met with Joe Kaskie, of the George Morrell Corporation, a custom molding company. Kaskie suggested molding the bicycle in fibreglass instead of aluminium. Although he retained the futuristic appearance of the Classic, Bowden abandoned the hub dynamo, and replaced the drive-train with a more common sprocket-chain assembly. The new name, Spacelander, was chosen to capitalize on interest in the Space Race. Financial troubles from the distributor forced Bowden to rush development of the Spacelander, which was released in 1960 in five colours: Charcoal Black, Cliffs of Dover White, Meadow Green, Outer Space Blue, and Stop Sign Red. The bicycle was priced at $89.50, which made it one of the more expensive bicycles on the market. In addition, the fibreglass frame was relatively fragile, and its unusual nature made it difficult to market to established bicycle distributors. Only 522 Spacelander bicycles were shipped before production was halted, although more complete sets of parts were manufactured."
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