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: box@smart-move.at 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.

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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

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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 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