werewolf

...say fifty years old and older. Most of the posts here seem to be about bikes from the 70's and 80's.

bigwoo

I wish that we had a permanent sticky for balloon/ fat tire bicycles/ heavyweights, which would cover a lot from WW II - 1950's time periods..... You and I are not the only ones here who like them though....

sonatageek

https://thecabe.com/ is the place to go. If you are into tricking such bikes out there is https://ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.p...e04642d1bbfa2b

vincev

hey,i agree 100%.most of my bikes are balloon tire style with spring front ends.it would be nice to be able to talk to others about these classics.Does anyone know of some vintage rides on these old bikes in the indiana,illinois or michigan area?

ozneddy

If you ask really really nicely maybe the "Mods" will give you a sticky ?

jgedwa

My experience on C&V is that people are not at all concerned with various boundry issues. We have the fancy expensive roadbike people here, ruthless flippers, tinkerers, out of date MTB, people too cheap to buy new, actual antiques, and others. Go ahead and start some threads, I doubt you will be shouted out of the forum.

I for one, would not want to separated from the experience and wisdom of my fellow C&Vers who happen not to be interested in the same type/age of bike that I am. Even get your own stickies, but don't leave us, please.

jim

RobbieTunes

I know there's a lot of road bikes, etc, but when I posted my yellow Schwinn Heavy Duti, I rec'd as many, if not more, responses from the same folks. There's just fewer of those, I guess.

sailorbenjamin

I'm developing a taste for early american lightweights. Stuff that the fat tire guys over at The Cabe usually pass over. Usually 26x1 3/8 but schwinn size not raleigh size. Diamond frame (I suppose these were fillet brazed but it's hard to say).
It's a funny niche, cause all the Raleigh guys ignore the American stuff and all the American guys are into Fat Fenders. Here's some pics.

A 52 Schwinn World. Fillet brazed.

A 1940ish Elgin Racer.

A 47 Monarch (maybe a rebadged Schwinn).

And an EF Schwinn, just cause it's got style.

Otis

I'm mostly into 70's bikes but I don't mind having an antique around as well. This one is from about 1915;

vincev

heres an old color flo in decent shape.lets see some more balloon tire bikes.

StephenH

I think the thing is that there's just not that many posts about older bikes, so it'd be a dead forum if you did make it. Better to keep them lumped in here for now.

roccobike

+1,

sailorbenjamin

Yeah, www.thecabe.com really covers the oldies pretty good.

Fibber

Guys, I have two new bikes (Trek Navigator 200 & Dahon folder), and a growing collection of '70's - '80's. I hope someday to fall into something much older, and will tap into your wisdom. Old is good! Someday, I'll bore you all to tears with tales about my collection of Edison Cylinder and early Victor and Victrola phonographs (1899 - 1920 currently).

Please don't leave! Instead, tell us more!

sailorbenjamin

I should mention, I just about choked on my wine when I saw that Pierce. It's georgious.
How is it made? Is it fillet brazed? I'm trying to figure this FB thing out.

vincev

hey fibber,i have an old edison that takes wax cylinders and a few old crank victrolas

Otis

For lack of a better term, It's basically internally lugged. The tubes fit through the shell, head-tube, and seat cluster then are sort of splayed out and are welded on the inside. Then the seams are all neatly brazed up on the outside.

The frame parts are all bulge formed out of sheet stock and brazed up as far as I can tell.

It's pretty nice construction and the curves of the stays are super sexy.

I have some pictures of the frame stripped, but can't seem to find them right now. I think they are in a file with another bike and I can't
remember which.

Here's another shot:

gnome

I wish I had a restored veteran bike like that gorgeous Pierce. As an aside, was that made by the same company that made the cars?


This c1910s-1920s racer needs a full restoration.


This c1920s - 1930s racer also needs a restoration, but I have ridden it and survived.


This c1900 - 1920s Chieftain Royal Prince is away at the LBS being made rideable. I have had two knowledgeable local people give me different ages for the bike. One estimated that the bike is from early 1920s and the other estimated that the frame is over a 100 years old.


This is the cool chainring and crank on the Chieftain.

Fibber

Ah, a fellow music machine lover! I get a kick out of boring my kids and visitors by playing a 2 minute wax cylinder (really horrible sounding) sung by someone that has been dead for, oh, probably 85 years or so. Pretty morbid, eh?

Seriously, like the bicycles, half the fun is in restoring the wood cases and the intricate (for the time) mechanicals. I occasionally attend the talking machine shows looking for some oddball restoration part, or an interesting recording.

wahoonc

My favorite bikes are the British bikes with IGH. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate and look at things like the balloon tired Schwinns or that gorgeous Pierce above I live in a waste land when it comes to finding any kind of vintage bike...unless you are on the prowl for a BSO Magna from 1996 for 95% of retail

We also have a couple of Victrolas, antique tractors, wives, trucks, cars and other stuff.

Aaron

Little Darwin

I have no issues posting about my middleweights here... I just haven't done much with them.

I have a 1955 Schwinn Corvette and a 1961 Schwinn Jaguar in my project queue. One for a hot-rod muscle bike build, one for a somewhat stock restore.

While it is true that for the members of this forum, there is a preference for the daily riders to be in a certain time frame, there is a definite inclusiveness for any old bikes.

You won't find people wanting to jump on an old Middleweight or Balloon tired bike and ride 50 miles, but whatever your passion, please share it... it will possibly help bring a lurker out of their lurking mode.

There may occasionally be a few that will turn up their noses if your passion is not the same as theirs, but with the core group here, they are more or less kept in check. They may leave a snide remark or two, and then go off and leave you alone to enjoy your pride and joy with others who are not so narrow minded.

After all, I think I even recall seeing Italian frames with Shimano components in here.

JoelA

Otis that Pierce Racer is simply stunning!

Does it get road/track time?

If so, how does the ride compare to mid-century frames?

Joel

Otis

While building it up I totally envisioned taking it up to Alpenrose and flogging it on the track at speed. I could not wait to see how a nearly 100 year old racing bike felt at speed, and it's the reason I went with modern wood rims and modern rubber.

But the reality is, it really cannot be safely ridden at anything more than a modest pace. This bike was found in horrible condition, really far gone. Parts are very hard to come by for bikes like this so I ended up re-using just about every orginal part on the bike, short of the rims, spokes, and ball-bearings. I even saved the Reynold block chain which was rusted solid, rigid as a 2x4.

To do this a LOT of material had to be removed from all the parts so they could be replated. The hub flanges ended up very thin, and I don't even want to know how thick the tubing is now on the handlebars! There's just no way I would take this onto a steep track like Alpenrose, and a true sprint would be out of the question.

But with that said all the bearing surfaces, HS, BB, and hubs were in good shape on the inside and it is rideable. I putted around town on it for a couple of weeks when I first put it together, and it does ride very nicely. It's a "no hands" straight and solid ride, and actually changes lines very nicely for something as long and slack. Basically rides like a high quality bicycle. But the chain is super noisey, the saddle and bar clamp can just barely do their jobs. And the head down race position that just begs for the giant sprint you know you cannot do, quickly made it clear this was going to be a wall hanger.

So it sits inside my house on a stand, and every morning when I tie my shoes sitting at the top of my stairs I get to look at it for a few moments and it makes me real happy.

Here's some before shots so you can see what I mean:

Rabid Koala

While my collection is mostly limited to the 70's, I enjoy reading and learning about almost all bikes, so post away!

gldrgidr

I wondered the same thing about the real antiques - hi-wheelers. Guess a forum about 100 year old bikes is even less likely.