# 1937 Colson Double Bar Junior Rustoration Begins...



## bairdco (Jan 24, 2011)

I found this super-rare, super cool 24" Colson Double Bar Junior a little while back. 

it's got the neat-o looptail with the drop-outs welded underneath.

came with the frame, fork, trussrods, cranks, sprocket, and, uh... i think that's it.

found some Colson Peaked Fenders and an almost matching chainguard.

i've got the correct wheels, stem, seatpost, seatpan, and some other stuff from the 1940 24"er i turned into a motorbike, so i'm almost 100% correct.

pretty sure it's a '37. the serial number is 7563E (i think. i know it starts with a 7) it's in the 1940 catalog.

spent the day re-lacing new spokes into the wheels, and putting most of it together.

the frame's _not_ original paint, but the fenders, wheels, etc are. i just "patina painted" it to match, for now. eventually, i'll strip it down, repaint and re-plate everything so it's fresh off the showroom floor lookin', but for now, it's just gonna be a rider till i have less irons in the fire.

here's a lousy cell phone pic of it in the dark. i'll take some more when it's rolling down the street for the first time in 50-odd years...


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## militarymonark (Jan 24, 2011)

cool!! I like it


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## bairdco (Jan 24, 2011)

some other things...

the 1940 catalog claims curved trussrods, but mine are straight, and the sprocket isn't the three paisley design, it's the 5 tapered/star type one more commonly seen on pre-colson Fairy's.


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## bairdco (Jan 24, 2011)

thanks MM. me too. i've only seen 4 Colson's  with the rear end like that. one is the silver 26" everyone's seen, and the other 2 i saw were 20"ers i saw at a swap meet a month or so back.

it'd be rad if it was the last of it's kind...


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## fatbike (Jan 25, 2011)

That is a really good find. The rear hanging on the JR. frames mimic the adult Commander frames. You see neither of them often.


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## brucejr (Feb 12, 2011)

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Here is a shot of my girls 20".  I think the rear dropouts are great.  Serial number is 7L2682.  I've never been sure of the date.  Mine has a 3-piece crank.


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## bairdco (Feb 12, 2011)

that's cool. mine's missing the headbadge, too. now that i've seen yours, i know which one to pay way too much money for on ebay.

and i always wonder, when buying a badge, what the hell happened to the rest of the bike? were the badges like hubcaps or something that hoodlums who were too young to drive back then stole? what's the freakin' point of removing a headbadge from a perfectly good bike?


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## Adamtinkerer (Feb 13, 2011)

I have one similar to Brucejr's but mine has glue on tires, and a rectangular badge with "Colson" diagonally across it. I have a couple 26" frames, and they have a separate date code stamped perpendicularly to the serial. I think the '37 is stamped 'N7' and the '39, 'K9'.


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## brucejr (Feb 15, 2011)

I just saw a page from a '48 catalog on ebay and mine looks very much like the bikes there.  I would guess mine is a '48 based on that.


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