# Correct wheels for the Marine bike found



## MrColumbia (Jul 4, 2017)

Some of you will remember this Marine Issue WWII Columbia that I restored last year. It was missing the original wheels so I had done it up temporarily with a set made with Army surplus rims and a homemade front hub.

Well, thanks to Tom Warabak the bike now has a set of correct wheels. Not only that but they came with NOS War Tires. This bike is complete.


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## catfish (Jul 4, 2017)

WOW! Very Cool!


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## Bozman (Jul 4, 2017)

Fantastic! I love it when a plan comes together.  

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## MrColumbia (Jul 4, 2017)

Bozman said:


> Fantastic! I love it when a plan comes together.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk




Thanks for your contribution as well.


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## johan willaert (Jul 5, 2017)

looks great... did you find the complete wheels with hubs and spokes or just the rims??


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## MrColumbia (Jul 5, 2017)

johan willaert said:


> looks great... did you find the complete wheels with hubs and spokes or just the rims??





They were complete with tires mounted.


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## Joseph FINN (Jul 5, 2017)

Semper Fidelis!!

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## Two Wheeler (Sep 3, 2017)

MrColumbia said:


> Some of you will remember this Marine Issue WWII Columbia that I restored last year. It was missing the original wheels so I had done it up temporarily with a set made with Army surplus rims and a homemade front hub.
> 
> Well, thanks to Tom Warabak the bike now has a set of correct wheels. Not only that but they came with NOS War Tires. This bike is complete.
> 
> ...



What identifies it as a Marine bike? How is it different from say an Army bike? A very cool bike and I would bet not many survived. Please post a picture of the head badge.


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## Mercian (Sep 5, 2017)

Dan Shabel said:


> What identifies it as a Marine bike? How is it different from say an Army bike? A very cool bike and I would bet not many survived. Please post a picture of the head badge.




Hi Don,

the headbadge is the same as for the Army bicycles.

The main differences are the wheels (as above), the colour (standard WW2 USMC equipment colour) and the serial number format on the BB. For Army bicycles, this is MG, for Marine Corps, MC. 

And yes, fewer than ten known survivors, and it's not known how many were made.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

adrian


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## Mercian (Sep 7, 2017)

Of course, that should have read Dan, not Don. Sorry for that.

Adrian


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## MrColumbia (Sep 8, 2017)

Dan Shabel said:


> What identifies it as a Marine bike? How is it different from say an Army bike? A very cool bike and I would bet not many survived. Please post a picture of the head badge.




The head badge is the same stamping as the prewar ones but it is steel and not brass like the prewar badges or aluminum like postwar ones. I thought it was odd when I removed it and there was rust on the back side but paint on the head tube. I put a magnet on it and low and behold, steel. I've never seen another made of steel. My Army bike is missing it's headbadge but I assume it should be as well.


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## Mercian (Sep 8, 2017)

MrColumbia said:


> The head badge is the same stamping as the prewar ones but it is steel and not brass like the prewar badges or aluminum like postwar ones. I thought it was odd when I removed it and there was rust on the back side but paint on the head tube. I put a magnet on it and low and behold, steel. I've never seen another made of steel. My Army bike is missing it's headbadge but I assume it should be as well.





Hi Mr.Columbia,

From observation, a lot of the early 'Curved tube' frames have the brass badge. The later 'Straight tube' ones all seem to have the steel badge (I've not yet seen a brass one). The USMC bikes so far found are all of the later 'Straight tube' version, so a steel badge is appropriate.

Interest(ingly (to me!) this parallels (for the same reasons of strategic metal supplies) the data plates on Ford GPW jeeps where generally they were brass in 42-43, steel with tin plating in 43-44 and (really poor quality) Aluminium in 44-45. This is why earlier plates are easier to find than later ones, the Aluminium especially suffer from Galvonic corrosion.

Best Regards,

Adrian


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