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ouuh neat.
I can spend days removing rust from components....
I donno about those spokes though...

are you going to restore?

Did yo find anything in the "top tube bag"?

Wow, tall frame... excellent swoopy handlebars.

Love the headbadge.

Put a little oil on that chain, and ride it man!

The bike is in pretty good shape. I will have to replace the spokes and do something with the saddle before it ridden. The saddle height is exactly the same as my regular road bike.

this bike is equipped with butted spokes and is remarkable light in weight. The hubs, cranks and pedals are quite impressive also.

I also got a "LaFrance" made in Chicago, perhaps 1910. The LaFrance is a ladies with wood rims and fenders and is missing only tires and grips.

Frank! What a find! Was it made in nearby Nashua, NH? How did you determine the date? Maybe you can bring it to the Oct 2nd ride for a little show and tell.

Bob, the brand was only produced for three years. '96-'98. I picked the last year of production for a safe guess. The head badge says something like "EH CORSON framebuilders, Nashua NH. I would love to find some family if still in the area. I also have a late 20's Raleigh Golden Arrow and a '47 Rudge. I will bring as much fun stuff as I can.


I have had great luck with electrolysis on everything but chains and wheels. Good call.

A little more luck here https://www.corsondna.com/lineages.htm

https://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.c...corson1892.jpg

Oh those 1890's hipsters and their fixed gears...

Can you get some better photos of that top tube bag? I would love to try replicating that.



-sv

I started working on this bike a bit. I am sure it's going to take a while so I will do posts along the way. I figured the biggest issue would be the wheels, so I started on them first.


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I loaded the rear with a bit of weight and I could see the spokes were REALLY loose and flexy. I sanded one spoke down a bit and could see considerable rust damage. I used brass brush and removed enough crust to see the spoke nipples were brass and they had two wrench flats, close to the wooden rim. It was a standard size (blue)

I rotated the spoke nipple about 1/4 turn and the spoke broke. I already had doubts that the spokes would work. I had read the wood wheel bikes had unusual spokes and nipples.

The fragile spoke looked quite familiar.

Going back about a year ago I happened upon a small Raleigh dealer in my travels. The gentleman that ran the store told me they had been a dealer for seventy five years. I mentioned my old Raleighs and the topic eventually came to what parts might be found in the back rooms of that old building. I wasn't allowed to look around but the owner, whithin a few moments produced a mild crate of NOS goodness.

The contents of the box included the grips found on my 1965 Rudge deluxe, the ruby Benotto plastic bar tape on my Carlton Corsair, some SA shift cables and a couple boxes of spokes.


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The spokes are very old. Torrington Excelsior and in very thin gauges. Also included are several jars of nipples. I actually listed the spokes for sale here. Fortunately they drew little interest.


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I went back the box and produced a sample to compare to the broken 112 year old spoke. Bingo.

It was a perfect match. Even the threads matched.


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It took me a while to get the cog off. I made a chain whip from a piece of industrial chain I had ( I seems that size is still quite popular, now 1/2" pitch) I noticed a set of spanner holes and using both tools, I pushed it around a bit but got scared when the wheel started flexing. I got some good advice from a fellow enthusiast and tried the lock ring as a left-hand thread. It worked after machining a set of blocks to properly grab the hub shell to remove the load from the rim.



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The bearing seal said "Nelson manufacturing pat. 1900". Some research revealed then produced a hub called the "special" starting about that time. I has a threaded bearing cover on the non-drive side as well as a neat oil-hole cover for hug lubing.

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Notice second set of slightly smaller threads


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Ill keep you posted!

Very cool stuff, Frank!

Neal

neat stuff! Way cooler than my Rollfast frankenbike.

I got a bit more done on the old bike this week. Here is a pic of some more pieces cleaned up.


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The seat works are pretty cool also.


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The fork had filled with water and frozen at some point bursting the fork. It seemed that the fork legs may have cracked originally when they were flattened.


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The top tube had some type of issue, not sure of the cause but there were large holes burned through the seat lug and those holes were partially filled with Brass.


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Thnaks for looking, more later this week.

Arg, this is good.

Great old bike. Keep up the good work!

This thread is awesome.

So I have everything "cleaned". The paint couldn't be saved and 90% of the plating was gone. I have been thinking about the direction of the project. I have it partially assembled at this point. I should have the wood for the saddle this week and I was thinking about the finish of this machine.

The next step could be building the wheels. I went over the rims with fine steel wool and some of the original finish is "hanging tough" so they have splotches of red and some type of varnish. I am thinking about just oiling/waxing it like crazy and leaving it. All the metal parts are different alloys and hence, different colors or shades.

The spokes and grips will be new or NOS and the rest is original/cleaned. I even have original tires. What do you think? paint and plate or what I have now? I am leaning toward the natural mature beauty myself



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Frank, that is a hard call. I'd say go with your initial gut reaction to leave it be. But I have to admit there is a part of me that would love to see such an antique restored to near new quality. If it were me, I'd have a hard time making such a call.

Maybe go with the "patina" for a few years, then make a final decision?

Looks good!

Oh man that's a pretty bike. I'd just leave it as is

I, too, would polish and wax and let it be. That is such a cool bike. Skip-tooth is so cool looking. And those pedals are mean!

I would paint and re plate it, I think it would look stunning.

Frank, I think that leaving 'as is' would be best, at least for awhile. It's a real curio for me and I'll enjoy watching this thread!

A couple of questions, what size are the tires and are you going to just soak the rims with something like linseed oil (I use this on old Lee-Enfield furniture)?

Thanks,
Brad

I would love to have a project like that, but the wife wont let me take on something of this scale until we own a house and I have a basement or garage to tinker in. I say whats wrong with doing this in our tiny apartment on the rug in front of the TV?

Frank-

What happened with the fork and the seattube lug area? Are those strong enough for the bike to be ridden as is, or will do you plan to braze up/clean up the bad spots, or is the goal just preservation?

Eric

I'd paint and replate, restored would be amazing.

What ever you do I have to be kept posted, I am suffering from wood wheel envy. I think that seat is "state of art", lots of cool metal work.