Fwd: Questions about bike stickers from the 70s

[Jim Baross]

Can anyone help with this?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Stefany Alfaro <ste...@calbike.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 11:41 AM
Subject: Questions about bike stickers from the 70s
To: Jim Baross <jimb...@gmail.com>

Hello Jim,

I hope this email finds you well.

We recently received an email from a vintage bicycle enthusiast. He discovered that prior to 1977 the city’s were registering the bicycles and they stamped the bikes with the plate number and a city logo. He is searching for a guide to those city logos. I reached out to Dave Snyder to ask if he had any knowledge about this or if he could point me in the right direction and he suggested I reach out to you.

Thank you in advance for your help, and I hope you have a great day. 

Stefany Alfaro (She/Her)

Administrative Associate

California Bicycle Coalition

ste...@calbike.org |  916.258.5189 | Schedule a meeting

Join CalBike as a member today!

calbike.org  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  | Instagram

 

Advocating for equitable, inclusive, and prosperous communities where bicycling helps to enable all Californians to lead healthy and joyful lives.

[Pete Penseyres]

Oceanside had a registration requirement in that time frame, but there was no stamping or City Logo on the bike frame. The "registration" was a piece of paper you could submit to the police if you were given a "fix-it" ticket for not having one...as an extra bonus for the fix-it ticket you got for using one of Ed Kearney's modified Construction Tail Lights without the required red reflector while riding your bike to work on a dark winter morning at 6 AM.

Pete Penseyres

League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor #2020

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CABOforum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caboforum+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/CAG28zXf5zO%3D9X2GgH25uMycE4axT0PBo9nJ-o6LKxC1tgwXZdA%40mail.gmail.com.

[David Takemoto-Weerts]

Prior to the statewide bike registration program launched in the mid-70s by the DMV, individual cities and counties who offered local registration were somehow issued what I believe were called "bugs", that is a metal stamp which when pounded into the bottom bracket applied that jurisdiction's "symbol". The symbols varied from various common shapes to a letter or two that would be an abbreviation of the city or county. I would see one now and then on a student's vintage bike when looking for the serial number.

When I was in charge of the bicycle registration program at UC Davis I had an old (probably 1960s) publication that was probably titled something like "California bicycle registration guide". It was a thin 8.5" x 11" paperback that I recall was written by a police officer. It included a list of all those marks and the locations to which they were assigned. I sent an email to my successor in the job and have asked him to see if it's still in the bike office. If so, I'll get it and report back to you --probably no earlier than next week. 

Incidentally, prior to the statewide California licensing system, many cities issued an actual small metal license plate with an embossed license number, city name and a date. I framed a collection of them from across the state that were given to me by a retired UC Davis LEO who had been in charge of the registration before me. I believe he had removed them from abandoned bikes collected from around the campus. 

David Takemoto-Weerts

Davis, CA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/1633332219.6387300.1719624172345%40mail.yahoo.com.