Bicycle Shop Sign – Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Louis Simon was born in 1884 in the Bessarabian part of the czarist Empire (the region currently known as Moldova). After immigrating to the United States, he became a champion motorcycle racer, and in 1912 opened a motorcycle sales and repair shop on Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn. Inspired by his love of racing, Simon invented many solutions to cycling problems for which he earned several patents.

He carved his first figure of a boy riding a bicycle in 1922 when he began selling and repairing bicycles. As a public announcement of his new inventory, Simon attached the sign high on the exterior wall of his shop. He added a motor to make the wheel revolve and the legs move up and down.