Back to the Front Rack

(I'm reposting this because of errors in the original description of the "La Paon" rack.)

Time to turn our attention back to the Luxor front rack & twin headlights assembly. First, a recap...


This is the image we're probably most familiar with, from page 81 of The Data Book, showing Daniel Rebour illustration of a fully hammered combo at a bike show in 1947. Fully "honeycombed", smooth lenses.


















Though rare, the rack does show up from time to time on eBay. Here's one from last year. The details are slightly different from Rebour's illustration above, but as I discovered with Luxor headlights, their product designs were not at all static, and were instead updated on a regular basis. This particular rack is in the "La Paon" (peacock) pattern. Note how the pattern is deeper toward the front of the headlight shells, narrowing and fading to the rear. Looks like this pattern is repeated on the deck of the rack, too. Note the revised two-part center opening on the platform, and closed edges on the side and rear openings.

Here's another example, cleaner and in better condition than the first, and in the hexagonal "honeycomb" pattern.

I requested that, if anyone found another one of these, to please let me know. It didn't take long for Richard Jenkins to contact me from Liege saying he not only found one, but was planning to part-out the bike it was on and I could have first dibs on the rack lights and fenders. Here's the donor bike, a Prima city bike.

Note that this combo, with its mixed pattern of hexagons and ribs, differs slightly from the otone above which is fully "honeycombed".

Next time: Details and Disassembly