Despite a nationwide bicycle craze in the late 1800s, the company was undercut by lower-priced competition, nearly went bankrupt in 1897, and never recovered from an 1899 fire.

[4] Three-wheelers were at the time considered a safer alternative to the high wheeler bicycle and started to gain in popularity.

[5] The Overman factory made the complete bicycle, including tires, saddles, rims, etc.

[6] The Overman Wheel Company was a pioneer in using testing equipment to measure things like bicycle power output and tire elasticity.

[6] The Overman factory complex was made up of three buildings, and was located in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.

"[1] The company had offices in Boston, New York, Detroit, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.

[1][3] Overman had contracted with the Spalding sports equipment company as their sole bicycle distributor.

[7] The Spalding company started making their own line of bicycles in their own factory in Chicopee Falls, and the Overman company entered the sporting goods market with baseballs, bats, Indian clubs, footballs, and boxing gloves, "everything in the sporting goods line that the Spaldings made.

[7] By December 1897, the company, facing bankruptcy, was in debt for over a half-million dollars, their shops closed, and hundreds of employees were thrown out of work.

[8] By May 1899, the company was desperately trying to regain market share by slashing bicycle prices down to $40.

[10] Overman sold his bicycle business to the Stevens Arms & Tool Co. of Chicopee Falls, MA in 1900.