Labor Truss Road Bike 1910s

Labor is a French bicycle brand which grew famous in the first third of the 20th century.

In 1900, in the United States, Iver Johnson patented the truss frame, a frame form with a supportive and stylish bow under the top tube.

This design became widely famous when the biggest cycling sports star at the turn of the century, Marshall 'Major' Taylor, rode these frames to victories and world championships. Taylor was an absolutely exceptional, dominating athlete and the first black world champion of the then extremely popular cycling scene.

Unfortunately the American cycling federations doubled down on their racist rulebooks and excluded black athletes from competitions in all but one US State. So when Major Taylor was given the opportunity to race in Europe and Australia, he accepted and, given the freedom he felt during his travels, considered to stay overseas for most of the following decade. Here he made the public used to the concept of the truss frame.

It was already during the last years of his carreer that Labor started to build truss bridge frames after the Iver Johnson example. And, if for marketing money reasons or the quality of the frames we do not know, but Major Taylor ended up to race and be pictured sitting on Labor truss bicycles, in what would be the first massive sponsoring feat of the Labor brand.

Shortly after, Labor was partly acquired by the famous Alcyon brand. And started to become a very successful sports bike producer. So successful in fact, that other brands tried to copy the typical truss bridge frames which resulted in Labor printing a poster depicting a bunch of monkeys at a drawing school trying to draw a Labor bicycle underlined by the statement: "Copy! Copy away all day! You will never be able to make a Labor!"

The truss frame bikes were produced well into the 1920s and many successful cyclists were riding them. One of the last champions maybe being Maurice De Waele, who rode his Labor to second place in the 1927 Tour de France and then finally won the Tour two years later.

We are more than happy to be able to present to you one of these legendary bikes!

Our Labor truss bridge bike from the 1910s is exceptional in that it still has its original black and red paintjob. Something you will rarely find. Other highlights are the original chainset or the fabulous stem which consits of a series of parts which make the whole component both overly complicated and a piece to geek out on. And then there is the frameset of course, a fillet brazed masterpiece of its time.

This bike is not only incredibly decorative, it would also be good enough to end up in a cycling museum. And we guess that a design which was good enough for Major Taylor or Maurice De Waele, is certainly good enough for us and almost any other rider.