another project, 1930's Hawthorne Twinbar.

[bairdco]

my buddy's dad found this bike a few years ago, then left it in his backyard for 5 or 6 years, till my buddy rescued it again and brought it to me.

we got some crappy red tires ("Grand Tycoons") and i threw a seat on it so he could ride it around.

the frame is really neat-o. it's got twin tubes that basically wrap around the whole bike. it was originally called a "Twinbar," but a lot of people call them "5 bars," because elgin and Monark both used the same frame badged under their own names.

it needs a lot of work, and we might just leave it rusty and keep the "beach rod" look going.

dunno yet what exactly i'm gonna do or how long it's gonna take. i've got a lot of irons in the fire already.

the license plate is freakin' awesome, though.

 

[joe joe dogface]

I dig the all over rust and red color to it, looks like you been doing some clay racing, run with it!

 

[silverbear]

Nice lines with the frame, lots of room for the engine and a nice space there for an in frame gas tank. Cool bike. Who made that frame, do you know?
SB

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Oh man, the things I would do with that bike. I cannot even hide my jealousy at this point.

 

[char56]

Excellent! I love the colour! What engine do you think you might go with?

 

[diceman2004]

haaa , i like the ad ( designed for , strength , saftey , and speed )
SPEED , HA HA
ya , like i can pedal my old single speed cruiser about 12 mph on a flat road .
( if the wind is goin the right way )
And I walk it up hills any steeper than the end of my driveway about 2 1/2 mph .
( you know the part , between the sidewalk and the road )
but goin down hill , she flies man

 

[Allen_Wrench]

haaa , i like the ad ( designed for , strength , saftey , and speed )
SPEED , HA HA
ya , like i can pedal my old single speed cruiser about 12 mph on a flat road .
( if the wind is goin the right way )
And I walk it up hills any steeper than the end of my driveway about 2 1/2 mph .
( you know the part , between the sidewalk and the road )
but goin down hill , she flies man

Well, ya know, they say it was designed for speed. That must mean they knew somebody would try to put a motor on it someday.

 

[bairdco]

Excellent! I love the colour! What engine do you think you might go with?

its gonna get a regular 2 stroker. i'm building it up for my buddy's dad, so it's gonna be mostly stock, geared for cruising around, not screamin'.

for the tank i'm thinking just a simple pipe, nothing fancy.

 

[meowy84]

Wow..cool bike. And look at the gearwheel. Instead of having a tooth for each chain link it looks like they skipped a few teeth inbetween. Never seen one like it. Neat-o!

 

[silverbear]

meowy84,
That is what is known as a skip tooth and was common on bikes in the US anyway before WWII and on some for awhile after. I don't know why they were made that way nor do I know why it changed to what we know now, but Bairdco probably does know. They are cool. I think these old ones make perfect motorbicycles. Add in the horizontal dropouts which eliminate the need for a chain tesioner and the rear drop stand... plus solid materials and construction of frames pleasing to the eye... well, I'm in love.
SB

 

[bairdco]

i have no idea why they made the skiptooth design. i do know that regular pitch chains like those common today were in widespread use back then, as there are a few bikes that used them.

here's a short, not too informative article on chains: Dave's Vintage Bicycles article-chain.htm

i love the skiptooth look, but most old bikes i get the chain's either wasted or gone.

i was running the skiptooth on my 24" Colson, but it broke 3-4 times, and i was running out of links (and patience) so i changed it over to the new style.

the 26" Colson i'm building now has a skiptooth, and the chain's in great condition, so i'll keep that on there, and hopefully it doesn't break.

this Hawthorne, though, the chain's pretty rusted out. i'm soaking it right now, hoping it comes back to life, but i might have to upgrade it. depends on if my buddy wants to spend the money for a NOS one.

got the frame and fork stripped, and the frame's in pretty bad shape. it's cracked at the downtube, and i'm gonna see if it can be welded.

this bike's not gonna see much use. it's going back to my friend's dad when it's finished, and he'll probably ride it around car and bike shows, pedaling most of the time, so hopefully it'll be a rolling advertisement so i can make some money.

 

[meowy84]

meowy84,
That is what is known as a skip tooth and was common on bikes in the US anyway before WWII and on some for awhile after. I don't know why they were made that way nor do I know why it changed to what we know now, but Bairdco probably does know. They are cool. I think these old ones make perfect motorbicycles. Add in the horizontal dropouts which eliminate the need for a chain tesioner and the rear drop stand... plus solid materials and construction of frames pleasing to the eye... well, I'm in love.
SB

Cool, I didn't know that. I'm very green when it comes to vintage bikes. I always liked their look but never really paid them close attention until the MB bug bit.

 

[meowy84]

Bairdco, so I take it that your skiptooth Colson it was the chain that kept breaking and not the teeth and it had a different chain pitch than modern chains or otherwise you'd have just replaced the chain right?

 

[bairdco]

yeah. a skiptooth chain is a 1" pitch. modern chains are 1/2". basically, the old chains have one long link and then one short, so they're not compatible with a new sprocket. they're also thicker.

the problem was the bike was made in 1939 and it had the original chain on it. it was rusted out and i soaked it in oil for awhile, and although it looked good, it would just snap when pedaling hard, usually during start-up.

i held out for awhile 'cause i loved the look of it, but i finally got sick of it and changed out the chain and sprockets.

 

[meowy84]

yeah. a skiptooth chain is a 1" pitch. modern chains are 1/2". basically, the old chains have one long link and then one short, so they're not compatible with a new sprocket. they're also thicker.

the problem was the bike was made in 1939 and it had the original chain on it. it was rusted out and i soaked it in oil for awhile, and although it looked good, it would just snap when pedaling hard, usually during start-up.

i held out for awhile 'cause i loved the look of it, but i finally got sick of it and changed out the chain and sprockets.

Ah, now I understand. Thanks for the lesson. I wonder though, isn't there a company out there making reproductions of these types of chains or indeed other common pieces for vintage bicycles like there is say for 60s/70s muscle cars? Looking on the net there are countless sites for old bicycle collectors and enthusiasts so there is quite a bit of interest in these things and so conceivably there would be a market. Plus I can't see there being a huge expense in the tooling/machinery to make things like chains, etc.

 

[bairdco]

i've searched everywhere for a chain, and so has everyone else. they're just not made by anyone at all. i even called Diamond Chain, because it was listed in their catalog, but they said it was discontinued decades ago and they didn't realize it was still in the catalog.

other parts for certain bikes have been reproduced, like the tanks and racks, but most of the stuff i've seen is either really crappy, way expensive, or both.

you can still buy parts like pedals and grips that kinda look like the originals, but most of it's chinese garbage.

but there's a lot of parts out there, ya just gotta stalk ebay...

 

[meowy84]

That also used to be the case with car resto parts years ago. We bought a reproduction fender for a friend's Chevelle from a reputable dealer about 15 years ago and not only was the gauge of the metal way too flimsy compared to the original but it also had the bolt holes drilled in the wrong places and it was about 1/4" too long at the door seam line. Had to do a lot of work to make it fit properly. There was really no other option though other than waiting months to hunt down and paying a bazillion $$$ for a NOS one. But the quality for those parts has come a long way since then.