R&F Bicycle Shop was a downtown fixture when I was growing up in Austin, Minnesota in the 1980s.

It is long gone, but its iconic sign remains, salvaged by the Mower County Historical Society and on display in one of their buildings at the Mower County Fairgrounds.

A trip to the county fair wouldn’t be complete without a wander through the historical buildings, especially the one that houses this sign, along with an assortment of old horseless carriages and creepy mannequins.

A couple of years ago while visiting the fair, I took a close-up photo of the sign, and used that as a basis for creating this digital illustration. (I have to admit that, while I did take the time to vectorize the “R&F” and the gentleman on the penny farthing, I ran out of steam and left the remaining text as a slightly distressed bitmap. That does give it a bit more of a “hand-painted” feel though.)