one more 40's Colson to add to the fleet.

[bairdco]

just started a new one, it's a 40's Colson Olympic, and it's the exact frame as the Imperial i just finished.

got the frame and fork on ebay for 46.66, and it was painted black, with green underneath, then some more green underneath that, and then some primer, and then the original burgandy.

my landlord's son blasted it clean, then i did some frame "darts" in Duplicolor Orange Metalcast that i had left over from the copper Flyer bike. polished the raw steel up and sealed it with Duplicolor Wheel Clear Coat. that's some good stuff. if you let it cure for a few days, it's like a hard coating that's gas and chemical resistant.

got the old Brooks B72 seat off ebay for 10 bucks. it was dried out and crusty, felt like sandpaper, and was flared out of shape. the guy had it listed as basically worthless, so no one bid. i soaked it in water for 2 days, tied it up to get it back into shape (the sides were bent out like wings) and let it dry for another two days. then i went over the leather with a 3M scotchbrite finishing wheel and took all the roughness out. now, it's good as, well, good as vintage.

i've got some unchromed, raw steel worksman rims and two shimano coaster brakes. one of them, an older "D" model, i converted to a front brake. i think. i have to wait till my spokes get here (ordered them from Husky, and John actually called to tell me they were out of stock. called me back 1/2 hour later and said he found some. Thanks John!)

if the front coaster works (which it should) i'll post some detail on how i did it. i know there's a thread about it, but it's kinda vague.

got some old half-moon bars which are getting blasted as we speak and to cap those off i scored 5 vintage Tomaselli Superpratic B, 1/4 turn throttles for super cheap. put one on my old bike and it's crispy clean action, and you don't have to dislocate your wrist to get to full throttle, like the crappy kit ones.

i'm thinking of a brass tank for this one. dunno yet, got to price it out. might do a brass and copper mix.

i've got some other tricks planned for this, but essentially it's gonna be a stripped down bike, minimal chrome or color, no fenders, no accessories. just simple, unadulterated style...

still reading? ok, you can look at the pictures now...

 

[bairdco]

also, i'm gonna post a "how to" on painting perfect frame darts. the hardest part is shaking up the spraycan. dunno if i invented it, but i figured it out. takes a few seconds.

i'm just waiting for my bars, they're gonna get darts, too, so i'll take pics then.

 

[2door]

What I can't understand is where you guys keep finding these great old bikes. Every time I locate one in the Denver area the seller thinks its made of platinum or gold. I have less in one bike than some of these clowns want for a rusted 60s vintage frame.
Good luck, Baird. That sounds like another winner for you.
Tom

 

[CoastalCruiser]

ebay ebay ebay. There's all kinds of nice bikes on there. Some go cheaper than others. Some nobody bids on cuz the shipping is ridiculous.

 

[bangbang880]

Very cool. Love the dats on the stripped frame. Nice touch. Also good job on getting that seat back. They have really started getting $$ even on ebay. Can't wait to see ur bars!

 

[bairdco]

you just gotta keep at it. all the bikes i've found, and a lot of the parts were put in the wrong catagories, or misspelled, or something. i just sneak up on them and snatch 'em away...

i think the prices are going up for older bikes again, which is good when i'm selling, but not so good when i'm buying...

 

[GoFastBicycles]

About time you built a Jalopy...... Love the looks already.

Adam

 

[bairdco]

just don't call it a "ratrod."

here's some before and after pics. (oh, i'm using my trademark "cut-off handlebars lay-back seatpost" method, too.)

(edited first post with before pics of the frame.)

 

[chainmaker]

What I can't understand is where you guys keep finding these great old bikes. Every time I locate one in the Denver area the seller thinks its made of platinum or gold. I have less in one bike than some of these clowns want for a rusted 60s vintage frame.
Good luck, Baird. That sounds like another winner for you.
Tom

I agree although I just started a fascination with these vintage bikes, the few I have bid on have gone for far more than I would have expected. Again Im just venturing into the vintage framesand still need alot of "learning" on the values.
Cheers

 

[bairdco]

it helps to know what you're looking at, and that takes some experience. this frame, from the pics in the ad, just looked horrible. (btw, the before pics are from the ad.)

but i could tell underneath all the paint it looked solid and straight.

also doesn't hurt the price when the guy titles it "...24" Men's Ballooner Bicyle Frame~Rat Bike~L@@K..."

if he woulda said "...Prewar Colson Olympic 26" Vintage Bicycle..." and spelled everything correctly, he woulda got a lot more for it.

 

[silverbear]

Hey Baird,
When I was stripping down the 39 Elgin last winter I loved the look of the bare metal and brazing and was wondering at the time what it would look like with just a clear coat to seal it off... kind of an unadulterated industrial machine look. After all is said and done it is a machine after all. Very good and another fresh look at things through your inventive eyes. I look forward to this one...
SB

 

[bairdco]

yup. after i got the imperial i just finished up stripped, i thought how cool it looked, but since i had the burgundy rims, i ended up painting it. so when this one fell into my lap, i went for the "raw" look.

when i was building the black and copper Colson Flyer, i got a brand new set of Worksman rims in raw steel and was gonna have them copper plated, but the wheels were too wide for the bike. so now they're getting clear coated and laced up as soon as my spokes get here.

i really want to keep the look of this bike as simple as possible, but with some really cool custom touches. i've got a few ideas i've been wanting to try out, and without having to spend time watching paint dry, i can concentrate on other things. and again, without a flashy paint scheme, you'll notice the details.

now, i'm just waiting on parts. i hate that. hopefully, it'll be a bicycle next week.

 

[Blackhog01]

Bairdco dude are you freakn bionic? Have some secret underground facility churning out antique motorbikes?Ive been lookin at the builds on here for a couple of months now and youve cranked out at least 3 or 4 builds that i kno of and theyre all awesum!!! none of them look rushed all top quality. Between you and silverbear theyre wont be any bikes left to build lmao!But hey more power to ya i would if i could.

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Bairdco dude are you freakn bionic? Have some secret underground facility churning out antique motorbikes?Ive been lookin at the builds on here for a couple of months now and youve cranked out at least 3 or 4 builds that i kno of and theyre all awesum!!! none of them look rushed all top quality. Between you and silverbear theyre wont be any bikes left to build lmao!But hey more power to ya i would if i could.

The man is a machine, I've been drooling over his work for nearly a year now. He's really into this, and he's good. Blackhog, my man, this guy is like old E.F. Hutton, when he speaks, we listen.

 

[Blackhog01]

Wonder if he'd take me under his wing if i swept floors,picked up after him heck i can run a sheet of sandpaper.

 

[bairdco]

thanks guys...

i just have a knack for finding things i want. waaay before ebay and craigslist i'd come home from swapmeets and yardsales with the craziest, coolest stuff. bikes just seem to show up. i found a Worksman in the back of a van in a pick-a-part junkyard 20 years ago and bought it for 14 bucks, i think. sold that way before i knew about motored bikes.

i don't even have a real shop, so there's no floors to sweep, sorry.

but if you wanna know (some of) my secrets, just follow my posts. i try to be as thorough as possible and explain how i did stuff.

progress today:

got my spokes today, so laced up one wheel with a modified shimano cb-D110 coaster brake hub that i'm hoping to use as a front brake. have to modify an actuator lever and a cable stop-lever and see if it works. then i'll post a how-to.

bought some copper and some brass sheet for my super cool tank i'm gonna make.

also got 12 NOS Wald and Ashtabula one-piece cranks in the mail today. all different sizes, some tiny, and some regular, and some in-between. won 'em on ebay for 14 bucks. the coolest thing about them, is they clear the motors without having to bend them.

also built a custom motor mount for my buddy's Hawthorne twinbar. i'll post pics soon on the thread i started for it awhile ago.

now i'm waiting on tires and another coaster brake hub to finish the bike off. don't have a motor yet, so i'll be beach cruising this one for awhile...

 

[bairdco]

laced up a wheel yesterday, raw steel Worksman rim, 11g. spokes from Husky, and a Shimano CB-D110 coaster brake hub. this is for my front wheel.

spent today rigging up the "coaster to front drum conversion."

i took an old sprocket and a modified coaster brake arm to make the actuator arm. it's got a cable holder from an old set of Vbrakes from a junk bike i have laying in the backyard.

took another brake arm and bent it over and enlarged the hole for a cable stop. it's an old bendix arm, and they have a square hole where it sits on the cone nut. i took a large outer cone nut and grinded it square so the arm would fit on it, then sandwiched it between the cones on the hub.

the original brake arm is still on the other side. if i clamp the cable stop arm to the fork, i think i can remove that one. i need to see if the braking action will cause it to slip.

i need to make a return spring between the two arms so it snaps back after braking.

i think there's some faults in this old thread:http://motorbicycling.com/f30/coaster-drum-conversion-your-motorized-bicycle-3073.html, and i'm pretty sure i solved the problem of the hub "resetting" itself without having to weld anything together or make nubs or whatever else, but i dunno yet, i haven't tested it yet on a bike, but it works rolling it around by hand.

my tires should be here tomorrow. if it works, i'll go into more detail how i did it.

also, if it works, i plan on making better looking arms for it. i didn't want to go all out for the test.

oh, i'm also making my own pedals. more on that when they're done...

 

[silverbear]

Bairdco,
The coaster brake front wheel is intriguing and I have my fingers crossed that it is going to work for you. Not having to weld up the guts is good to here if it proves out. Boy, I hope so. You've paved the way for me in redoing vintage cruiser wheels... original rims, heavy duty spokes and now a coaster brake up front and in back. I want to do this, probably not until winter when there is more down time. I think I'm coming into a situation where I will have access to a number of old wheels, not sure yet what the hubs will be, but even ones with shot spokes may produce a great second generation set of vintage wheels, looking right on a vintage build. Thanks for sharing your efforts and innovation. Awesome.
SB

 

[bairdco]

thanks SB.

got the bike rideable today, and the bad news is the front coaster sucks. it has a few problems. the main one is there's not enough pull from a standard brake lever to activate it and i don't want a big goofy motorcycle lever.

another problem; on the rear, if you're at a stop and you pedal back slightly so the brake starts to engage, then roll yourself backwards slowly, your cranks will go back, too. i do this at lights all the time to adjust my pedals for take off. rock back, roll forward, rock back, etc, and set up my cranks.

so with the front coaster, if there's any drag on it and you roll backwards, it'll rotate the "arm" (which used to be the sprocket) out of position. i don't think this is because of the clutch resetting, it's just that the gears inside are expanding, contacting the brake shoes, and making the sprocket roll with the hub.

my point is, i tried to shorten the pull on the lever by rotating the actuator arm (sprocket,) which is basically like pedaling slightly backwards but not actually braking yet, and it wanted to bind up, turn, or do nothing at all.

then my homemade cable end broke off so i quit for the day.

if the brake was in "coast" mode, it'd work, which brings us back to giant brake lever.

the only other option is to somehow "step-up" the activation, like with the cable routed through a pully or something.

i'm not gonna give up on it yet, especially since i found a cool bike shop that will give me all the "take-off" shimano hubs i want for 20 bucks a piece, and the cost of a Worksman drum is eighty-something bucks now.

if anyone is still reading all this, New Departure made a front coaster-drum brake in the old days, and according to someone who has one, the worm gear inside had a finer thread, so it activated quicker.

so, maybe i'll just bolt a big 2x4 to my handlebars and make a "drag brake" like the little rascals did on their gokarts...

edit) almost forgot. as a bicycle, the thing rides beautifully. i'll take some pics when i get my handlebars on. had to put some crap ones on to put the rest of it together.

 

[bairdco]

darts

today i got some new handlebars. i have some old Torrington Half-Moon bars that my landlord's son was stripping, but they're too far gone, so i found some at a bike shop today.

earlier, i said i'd show you how to paint "darts," so here goes.

i've painted them in the past, and i'd mask up the whole frame, spend forever measuring and drawing them out, then cut the tape out with a knife, and it was always a hassle, scratched the frame, and never came out the way i wanted. then i figured it out.

i'm showing you how on my bars. it's the same method i used on my frame.

you take one piece of masking tape about a foot and a half (depending on how long of a dart you want,) and put the center of it on the underside of the tubing where you want the dart to start from.

put pressure on the inside edge of the tape, leaving the back edge un-stuck.

using your index finger and your thumb, stretch the tape around one side, sliding your finger along the inner edge to stick it down. leaving the back edge unstuck.

wrap the tape around the tube till it gets to the center on the top and make sure it's stuck. run your finger over the edge again to make sure it stays there.

do the same to the other side till both ends of the tape meet in the center.

you can pull it up, stretch it, whatever, until you get both sides even.

then stick the back edge down, and mask off the rest of the areas you don't want to paint.

then paint. i did this on my Colson Imperial, and on this frame, and the handlebars.

takes me about 5 minutes to mask off a frame, no x-acto knives required, and a lot less tape.

here's the pics: