This Vintage Spalding Shaft Drive with one of the First Coaster Brake Hubs is an Exquisite Turn of the Century Bicycle. Albert Goodwill Spalding began his sporting career as a Baseball pitcher and later founded A. G. Spalding & Brothers a sporting goods company. During the late 1880s and 1890s, A.G. Spalding produced several different bicycle models and sponsored a racing team to help advertise its cycles. In 1899 Spalding purchased the concerns of over 48 bicycle manufacturers, then sold them to the American Bicycle Company, forming a trust in an effort to reduce overhead and improve slumping sales. This 1900 Model 31 Mens Chainless Bicycle was top of the Line “Latest and Greatest” and even boasted the new luxury of a Coaster Brake as all predecessors were Fixed Gear.