1911 Reading Standard

GoldenMotor.com
paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
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Churchton, MD
Well, sort of anyways. It's the goal to get a passing resemblance to the original. For now the plan is cut, chop and weld until I have something close to what I want. Which is this 1911 R-S Single. It's not mine (I can wish right?) but it is a good start for inspiration. And that's why I'm building this. 'cause an original would cost more than my college education.
So...details. I've got a Clinton A301 engine from the early 50's for power. It runs (good start), has about 77cc's displacement and about 1.5HP. It'll run a belt to the rear wheel. For the last five or six weekends I've been hacking on a lady's mountain bike frame I got from the junkyard. Throw in some 1" conduit and parts of two 90 deg elbows and you come up with this. The pictures might be out of order. Today's work got me the dog-legs for the sheave and the secondary bottom bracket and seat post. I needed the second bottom bracket to get clearance for the front sprocket. And the second seat post will actually hold some sort of spring arrangement to cushion the ride a bit. BTW, that seat is only a place holder until I can find a suitable, period-looking seat.
 

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paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
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Churchton, MD
Awesome Mr. B! I've been collecting reference pics for a while. Thought I'd exhausted the internet's supply if that's possible. Always good to have more. Thanks.
 
Allen_Wrench

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
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It's looking like you're off to a good start. The Reading Standards were sharp looking bikes. I'll have to look in on this thread now and then. Best of luck there.
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
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I like your project. The Reading is a great bike to build as a tribute and I'm looking forward to hearing how the Clinton motor works out. I used a couple of the old Clinton lawn mowers through the years and they seemed like good engines. Keep the pictures coming. I'm in Maryland for the winter north of Frederick... Tinsmith lives near by and Tim Bolener is over at Towson. We've never met, but Crazy Horse is over at Rockville. Where is Churchton?
SB
 
Mr.B.

Mr.B.

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2008
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Upper Mississippi River valley
paucmarc said:
Awesome Mr. B! I've been collecting reference pics for a while. Thought I'd exhausted the internet's supply if that's possible. Always good to have more. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I have the good fortune of living just a hours drive from the annual Davenport AMCA Show/ swap meet.

The last 3 years I’ve taken 100’s of photos of brass era cycles, and many of the other interesting items that somehow always end up there.

I have thought of posting them all here but the task of converting them to useable sized Jpegs would take many many hours. Perhaps I could dump them into a photo sharing site sometime, but even that is a big job I haven’t gotten around to yet.

In the mean time I’ve been occasionally sharing them here when some specific topic pops up...

-Kirk
 
motorhedfred

motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
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Looks good. I've been thinking that a ladies or tandem bike would make a good starting point. The ladies bike tend to be less expensive in used condition and the tandem bikes tend to be built heavier.....as in spokes, rims,forks and frame tubing.

Speaking of frame tubing, I'm surprised nobody's all up in your bidness over using conduit like they were me a few years back.

http://motorbicycling.com/f38/frame-materials-10882.html

MHF
 
paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
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Churchton, MD
As for the tubing, I've been cleaning off the ends where the weld is. Mostly that involves a belt sander and just taking it down to bare shiny metal. Mostly this is just a for-fun project. I'm working with minimal tools and materials. If I was intending to do any sort of serious riding I'd have gone with a better tubing. Probably the next one will have some better metal.

Minimal materials basically means working with what I can get for free or cheap. So far I haven't spent more than $20 for the whole thing. Free frame, free engine from my dad. But now I'm pretty much to the point where I need to start buying things for it.

[edit] Hmm, now after reading that post I feel like I shouldn't have said anything about materials. nuts....well I'll keep ya posted on how it turns out.
And BTW, This will be a slow project as I only have a few weekends a month to work on it.
 
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C

curtisfox

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2008
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minesota
Nothing rong with conduit: Atomic Zombies use it all the time. Love your start and useing what you have ..............Curt
 
Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Dealer
Feb 20, 2009
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I'm enjoying your build looks like alot of fun!

Where is Churchton? Just south of Annapolis, Maryland where the U.S. Naval Academy is located.

Churchton is an unincorporated community in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. 20733
C.H.

silverbear said:
I like your project. The Reading is a great bike to build as a tribute and I'm looking forward to hearing how the Clinton motor works out. I used a couple of the old Clinton lawn mowers through the years and they seemed like good engines. Keep the pictures coming. I'm in Maryland for the winter north of Frederick... Tinsmith lives near by and Tim Bolener is over at Towson. We've never met, but Crazy Horse is over at Rockville. Where is Churchton?
SB
Click to expand...
 
paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
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Churchton, MD
CurtisFox - Yeah, I subscribe to the "Zombie" method of bike building. The one I built before this, a Tomahawk recumbent lowracer, was from AtomicZombie plans.

CrazyHorse - Churchton is south of Annapolis. If you follow the bay south on a map, it's the next "town" inland from Shady Side. More of a loose connection of houses and businesses. It's mostly my weekday home. I go up to Reading PA on weekends 'cause my dad has a workshop and welder I can use.

Yeah, the great year of 1911. When I was doing research I found this photo 1911 R-S Single. I managed to read some of the text on the sign. This is what I could transcribe. Interesting stuff if you're interested in that kind of thing.

R-S Motorcycle Year: 1911
Reading Standard Company
Reading PA

The 1911 one-cylinder R-S Single is powered by a 6-horsepower 38.48 cubic-inch side-valve engine with (unknown word) belt transmission. The rider pedaled like a bicycle to crank the engine for starting. The small lever on the right hand handlebar released the engine compression to make pedaling easier. Once the engine was running the rider used the left foot-lever controlled belt tensioner to put the bike in or out of gear. The rear hub was made like a bicycle coaster brake so the pedals would not constantly spin. The right foot lever applied a service brake against the inside of the rear drive pulley.

In 1907 the Reading Standard Company introduced the side-valve engine. The company drew inspiration from the variety of British and European motorbikes before designing the new R-S engine. Charles (Gustafason?) joined the Reading Standard engineering department and was the one responsible for the engine design. The R-S was America's first side-valved motorcycle engine having a flathead design ("L" head) instead of the inlet-over-exhaust ('"F" head) as some other American motorbikes of that time had.

I'll add a pic of the engine too if anyone is interested. The pulley won't line up with the sheave as is so I might have to do some sort of jackshaft arrangement.
 

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curtisfox

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2008
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minesota
Yep same as mine has a hole for kik start lever. to bad they are gone mine anyway..........LOVE your bike .........Curt
 
paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
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Churchton, MD
I'm back! [singing] Back in the saddle again [done singing]. After two weeks of naught, I'll try and get a bit more done. This time I'm focusing on the front end. The idea here is to have a trailing link suspension setup. The front fork is fixed to the head tube through a modified goose-neck. The rear fork is the suspension part. The two will be connected by an 'L' shaped piece of metal with the wheel in between. Later on toward the actual finishing portion, I'll probably replace those ugly plastic guards with a leather boot of some kind. This is all for now. I ran out of time today. Tomorrow I don't have as much going on so there'll be a bit more progress then.
 

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paucmarc

paucmarc

New Member
Oct 15, 2011
11
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Churchton, MD
Well, last Sunday was a bit of a bust for progress. Best laid plans of mice and all that. Got to hang out with some friends I haven't seen in a while though. Anyways, here's the real progress. The front end is about 80% done now. But it's past the mockup stage and on to the not-quite-but-mostly-finished stage. Which is good. BTW, those aren't the final handlebars. More of a place-holder until I can fab some up.

Looks like I'll have to start actually buying parts now. I need a front and rear hub, seat, controls and metal for the tank. The hubs should help me finish up the drive train with the belts and jackshaft. I think that'll be my goal for the next phase.
 

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