SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — You know how it goes at times when one thing leads to another. Well, that’s what happened to James Allen when he bought his daughter a bike at a swap meet in 1984 and now he has hundreds of bikes, many of them on display at Pedalers Bicycle Museum on Commercial Street in Springfield.

Below is a transcript with details of the museum by James Allen.

Bicycles from 1818 to the present. This one here, this is a Star. It was a special bike. It was equal to a house and a half if you bought it. Rich man’s ride.

I just want to share the bicycle and how it performed and the history of it and the way it progressed through the years and into what we have now with the bicycles.

This is an 1894 lamplighter bike and this was called a giraffe. It was made in Chicago and this particular bike was used in New York City and Manhattan and it was a lamplighter bicycle, and the lamplighter bicycle, they would lean it up against the gas street light, climb up it like a ladder, get on the seat and then light the street light and that was the lamplighter’s job to go from street light to street light and light the lights every day.

This is a twelve seat bicycle, 450 pounds, 23.5 feet long, and our longest ride on it has been 6.5 miles.

This is an 1895 Buffalo Soldier’s bike. They rode from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis to try and replace and supplement the infantry horses with bicycles.

When I get the second floor of the bicycle museum done I’ll try to have 200 on display.

The museum is free but donations are accepted, however, tours are by appointment only so call Pedalers Bicycle Museum at 417-576-1464 for a unique peek back in history.