1896 Comet

I recently acquired this Comet from Dave Brown who had it for 25 years. He had not previously posted pictures of it so I thought I would add it here. It rides vey nicely with new Stutzman wood rims with metal inserts and an Eclipse Morrow hub brake, but with a 25 1/2 inch frame getting on and off takes some practice. The funny thing is, this is the medium size frame, not the tall frame! The tall frame has a  27 inch seat tube. The smallest size available was 24 inch. The paint, front hub, stem and bars, crank and pedals are original (not sure about seat). The way the seat mounts on the seat post is unusual - I've never seen this type before. It varies from the 1896 catalogue image, which makes me wonder if this bike could be a year older or newer, or the post and seat were added later. It succeeds in getting the seat a bit lower which is helpful on this bike.

I will add pictures of a couple of cabinet cards, and period ads I found on the 'Net. The Dunlop Trophy race referred to in the second ad was the first one, held in 1894. I also put images from a catalogue in the catalogue forum.