Peter Ducommun has loved bicycles of all kinds for a long time, and he’s sharing a huge collection of what Pulitzer Prize winner William Saroyan once called humankind’s “noblest invention”.
Qualicum Beach’s new Pop Cult Museum is hosting a vintage bicycle exhibit with approximately 100 bicycles accumulated over the years by Ducommun, also known as PD.
It covers eras from the 1930s right up to the 2000s and is housed in PD’s Hot Shop/Skate Vancouver Island.
Ducommun credited the collection to “decades of sort of maniacal obsession.”
Visitors will find everything from 1940s/1950s “paperboy bikes” to muscle bikes of the 1960s and 1970s and a 1981 Powerlite Cruiser.
That last one holds a special significance because Ducommun built it 42 years ago and has held onto it ever since, but he could never pick a true favourite.
“I ride all of them. I don’t ride the little ones as much obviously because being an adult they’re not as comfortable,” Ducommun said. “Although banana seat bikes are surprisingly rideable for a full-size rider because you’re back behind the the cranks instead of directly over them.”
Another standout is a 1936 Monark Silver King, a good example of the solid materials bicycles were made of back in the day, right down to the bells.
“These have got some good sustain on ’em. They just sort of hang in the air,” Ducommun said, as he rang the ancient bell. “My buddies who are musicians are like, ‘wow that’s incredible’.”
Ducommun opened his new skateboard shop location last year after relocating from Vancouver, where he remains the owner of the famed PD’s Hot Shop in Kitsilano. There’s even a PD’s Hot Shop in Gifu, Japan.
He is also the owner of the world-renowned Skull Skates brand — Canada’s oldest skateboard company, established in 1978.
Ducommun has skateboarded since the early ’70s and also has a long-standing appreciation for bicycles — and the reactions of people when they spot a familiar sight from years gone by.
“The stuff I think is neat, but it’s really more the feelings around the stuff that’s holding importance to people,” he said.
READ MORE: Owner of Canada’s oldest skateboard shop sets up new business in Qualicum Beach
For Ducommun, the balloon tire bikes have always evoked an image of a child in the 1940s or 1950s tossing papers onto door steps while they cruise down the street. They also remind him of how much things have changed over the decades and how adult the children’s bikes of those times now appear.
“These were not adult bikes, that’s the other thing. Now they seem like they are compared to what came after, but these were kids bikes,” he said. “Nowadays adults like myself collect them and are nostalgic about them and like to fix em up, but in the day this would have been, yeah, a kid delivering your paper.”
The exhibit also has a way of firing up the imaginations of children, who are blown away by bike fads from the past, such as 1970s full suspension motocross rides — complete with faux gas tanks.
There’s plenty of surprising facts to learn, like how the origin of mountain bikes stems from old balloon tire frames modified with BMX and motorcycle parts during the “klunker” trail riding movement.
Four of the bikes were part of a exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver. Ducommun started an online museum years ago, which precipitated the invitation from the museum.
He’s planned an upcoming art exhibit inspired by the pop cultures of skateboarding, surfing, hip hop and punk rock.
“I don’t really like the term, but ‘low brow art’ seems to be the catch all that basically says somehow it’s not fine art,” he said.
Ducommun has also started bike cruises where the group gathers in front of the shop with their bikes to nerd out a bit before a slow cruise around town that usually winds up at the BMX track.
“Hopefully somebody doesn’t get gurney-ed off because they’re riding the BMX track on a 1930s bicycle,” he said with a laugh. “But anyway so far so good. Knock on wood.”
The cruises feature unique bikes, but everyone with a bike of any kind is welcome to join.
The next bike cruise is set for 4 p.m. on Sept. 10. PD’s Hot Shop/Skate Vancouver Island is located at 164 2nd Ave West in Qualicum Beach.
The bicycle exhibition ends Oct. 21. The art exhibit will begin in November and may include a few pieces for sale.
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