Cycling tradition returns for 31st annual bicycle auction at Copake Oct. 21

1902 Steffy Motor-Bike, estimated at $20,000-$25,000 at Copake Auction.

COPAKE, N.Y. — Good things always come back around, like the annual Copake Bicycle Auction, returning on Saturday, October 21 with bidding now available at LiveAuctioneers.

Now in its 31st year, Copake Auction Co. attracts the best consignors for its annual bicycle event. This year features items from Margaret Ann Baker, Ed Berry, the Lane Motor Museum and the Ed & Marion Gerling Collection. The auction lineup boasts 935 lots in total.

Bicycling has a long tradition in American life and industry, with the 19th-century explosion of interest resulting in hundreds of new manufacturing companies, primarily in the eastern U.S. People from all walks of life capitalized on the biking craze; before they took to the skies, aviation pioneers the Wright brothers operated a shop and manufactured their own bicycle brand in Dayton, Ohio.

The top lot of the day is an expertly restored 1902 Steffy Motor-Bike, complete with a new Mail frame and a Steffy clip-on motor. It’s outfitted with a carbide head lamp and a New York Standard Watch Company Cyclometer and is estimated at $20,000-$25,000.

High-wheeled bicycles were a late-19th century phenomenon, as represented by this 1886 Pony Star. Patened by George Pressey of Hammonton, New Jersey, and manufactured by the H. B. Smith Machine Co. of Smithville, New Jersey, the bike is serial numbered “1” and is “believed to be the rarest Star known,” according to the lot notes. It carries an estimate of $7,000-$10,000.

Another high-wheel example has an interesting provenance. Famed bike collector Ed Berry, who is also the consignor, used this 1884 Columbia to replicate Thomas Stevens’ 1886 ride across the United States. It’s estimated at $3,000-$5,000.