Headbadge Hunter: Rescuing the Beautiful Branding of Long Lost Bicycles

Some firms keeping up the tradition:

Bike Friday https://store.bikefriday.com/images//parts/10760.jpg

Cielo http://twentynineinches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/cielo...

Rivendell http://roadbikeaction.com/wp-content/contentimages/2009/IMG_...

There are some very nice badges among that collection. Whether it was bike badges, hood ornaments on cars, the labels used by fruit and citrus packers, or other similar items, the old timers certainly knew all about aesthetics and tried to make things that were purely functional, beautiful, as well.

My kid's bike (4yr) has a badge. It fell off, he was sad. It was a real dad-son bonding moment for me to show him how to carefully prep & re-bond the head badge.

It was also really fun to realize when it fell off that a) some bikes still have them and b) he thought it was cool and wanted it fixed. I hadn't given either any thought right up until the moment it fell off.

There's something deeply aesthetic about these.

I love old headbadges. When I was looking for a new bike, I was disappointed that a lot of them are just logos painted on these days. I ended up with one that looks nice (a Masi), but I plan to get a custom one made at some point for myself.