# ID of TOC bike, Crescent?



## andybee75 (Jul 19, 2018)

Hi!
Bought this bike yesterday. Missing head badge, of course. Some of the parts and also the hole alignment indicates Crescent. Can someone confirm this? And also the year and model? The chain wheel is not Crescent, i believe? And also the Morrow hub is a later uppgrade? The frame no is 759008. Thanks!


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## Jesse McCauley (Jul 19, 2018)

I believe the crankset is Crescent actually, that pressed style is one I’ve seen before on WWW bikes.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

It’s a 1901 model.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

1901 & 1902 Morrow hub


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## andybee75 (Jul 19, 2018)

Can you see it by the frame no? Is it the original chain wheel? And how about t
he Morrow hub?


GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> It’s a 1901 model.
> 
> View attachment 840406


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

Crescent was famous for their metal stamping. It’s definitely a Crescent chainring. The Morrow started making this hub in 1900-1901. It’s close enough for a 1900 Crescent.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

Here is the chainring on my 1896 Crescent No.1.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)




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## carrotsnax (Jul 19, 2018)

Here is a recent bike that sold that was thought to be a 1905 Model. Crescent was well known for stamping their chain rings out, but by this time they were thicker, and not folded over like the 1895-1896 bikes. That is a crescent chain ring you have on your bike, granted it is a late American made crescent chain ring before manufacturing went overseas.

Also if I am not mistaking, I believe your chain is a Crescent chain. Your chain should have "WWW" stamped onto the links indicating "Western Wheel Works". (At least I have seen a few made that way.)  So take very good care of that chain you have!


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

I think my chain is stamped WWW. I will need to take a look. Here is some Crescent history.

Crescent Bicycles in Sweden
Cykelhistoriska Freningen - ARTICLES


- From USA to Sweden -
The American company Western Wheel Works in Chicago was a big manufacturer with a production yearly of 50.000 bicycles in 1894. Adolph Schoeninger, the founder came from Germany. He had the idea of making "Crescent" bicycles affordable for working people and of widening the market by massive exports. He used sheet-metal stamping and other production methods aimed at lowering costs. In many ways he was preceding Henry Ford and mass production. Due to that the export from the United States generally lowered prices in Europe. And the bicycle boom was a fact. In Sweden few manufacturers was at hand in the middle of 1890ies. As the demand was great – the interest for the new method of transportation was rising enormously - a stockholder company was formed called Aktiebolaget Amerikansk Cycle Import, Eli Pettersson & August Lindblad in 1896. August & Eli decided to import and sell, among other brands, the Crescent and Miami bicycles, and also had agencies of several bicycle accessories. They were no beginners in the business, although both were young men. August (born 1864) was importing among other bicycles the American brand Eclipse and some English brands. His hardware store in Stockholm was selling bicycles as a side-line. Eli (born 1868) was a renowned racing man and managed a small bicycle store selling the Humber from England and also repaired bikes.
In 1896 August and Eli imported 6.000 Crescent bicycles. Stockholm was a rather small city at the time with 200000 inhabitants. In only a half year all bikes were sold, either to the countryside or in their own shop. With the purchase of a bike followed a free lesson in a bicycle school (Östbergs Velocipedskola). The following year they had 38 employees, and got the agency for Dunlop in Scandinavia.
Crescent Amerikansk Cycleimport also sold the American Snell in black or green, and the German bicycle Allright with Dunlop tires and yellow mudguards made of wood

A beautiful ladies model from the first shipment 1897
. Around the years 1907-1908 AB Amerikansk Cycleimport started to produce bicycles with the name Crescent in their own factory. How they could use the earlier so well-known American name is unclear. As a comparison the name from Gormully Jeffery, Rambler was registered by Albert Öhman around this time and used on Swedish made bicycles for a long time.The factory was actually more like a large forge, 10 men working with tools and machines of old-fashioned types. The frames were made during the autumn & winter and were assembled in the spring & summer. An ordinary working day was between 8 am and 8 pm, except during high season (April-October) when they worked until midnight. Between 1500 to 2 000 bicycles were made each year. As fashion influences from abroad.dictated the bikes had a long basic frame with a height of 24(60cm) inch but also 22(55cm) or 26(65cm) inch were possible. For the exceptionally long gentlemen they could make a 28(70cm) inch frame on special order. In the primitive storage were supplies for American Crescent and Rambler, English B.S.A., German Dürkopp, and Austrian Styria.The request for more and more bikes and frames made it necessary to move the manufacturing to larger space. In the autumn of 1910 the company moved to Tunnelgatan 10 and the business changed the name to Velocipedaktiebolaget Lindblad. For unknown reasons the partners Eli Pettersson and August Lindblad went separate ways. Eli Pettersson moved and started business at Birger Jarlsgatan 9 in 1914. He was selling the New-Hudson motorcycle.

The company Lindblads Velocipedfabrik had a number of users among the competitive men in Sweden. The long and demanding road races were most popular as velodromes were scarce. One rider using Crescent during the Olympics on the July 7 1912 in Stockholm was Henrik Morén. He was expected to be the best Swedish rider since he had won the distance 10 times. Against the toughest competition the Swedish team won the gold medal. The individual gold went to the completely unknown Rudolph Lewis from South Africa who won his biggest victory. The race had individual start and Lewis was second out from the start. Henrik Morén and many others suffered in the morning heat and he was only the fifth Swede far away from the medals. Still Sweden and Morén had hopes for the next Olympic Game.The first world war changed many things and the Olympic games were no exception. Even though Sweden didn't participate in the war it had its effect - tires and other bicycle parts were extremely hard to get.

Henrik Morén with a Rambler using a sleeveless raincoat.
After the war Lindblads had a good time where new machines were bought and branch departments was opened in Malmoe and Gothenburg. Lindblads sold, together withtheir own makes Crescent and Drott, the Torpedo hubs from the German company Fichtel & Sachs and motorcycles from Harley-Davidson. The Danish racer Henry Hansen went to Sweden 1924 and for a long time during the 1920's he was competing more in Sweden than in Denmark.He managed to take the Olympic gold in Amsterdam 1928 on a Crescent and became the world champion in Copenhagen 1931. With those victories the bicycle brand Crescent showed its capacity. Even though the brand Crescent was successful in competition and the times were good, a deal of cooperation between Lindblads in Stockholm and Nymans in Uppsala was discussed. In the autumn 1931 the manufacturing went to AB Nymans Verkstäder in Uppsala, with Lindblads as a sales organization. This deal came about mainly because the factory in Stockholm had old machinery and no possibility of expanding. Already the same year the production of Crescent and Drott moved to Nymans Verkstäder and also the agency for the Torpedo hub. Gustaf Grahn who had been an employee of Lindblads since 1910 and had shown his skill, got a head position in Nymans Velocipedfabrik. Later he become the president and worked for the company until Monark purchased Nymans in 1960.
Written by Åke Stenqvist


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 19, 2018)

American Bicycle Co. was in control of Crescent Bicycle for 1900, then shuttered the following year. The last year of production was 1900 and was a low production. The 1890’s depression killed lots of bicycle companies and other high-end bicycle makers went into motorcycles and automobiles.


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## andybee75 (Jul 20, 2018)

Thanks for your input. When i google both on the cabe and on the web i found strings of info, but not a conclusive picture of how the bike should look. Since the bike is restored, it's very hard to know what part are correct.

So heres my questions:
1. Is there any frame number charts?
2. Is the bike from 1900 or 1901?
3. What model and exact head badge should it have?
4. Should it be striped with part nickeled fork or just plain black with black fork? (Found a quote on the cabe that states that 1900 model were black.)
5. Was the Morrow hub really available on a Crescent?


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 20, 2018)

I do not know of any serial number archives.
It is most likely 1900.
Fork was all black.
Morrow was offer at that time.
The badge should be like the one I posted.


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## andybee75 (Jul 20, 2018)

GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> I do not know of any serial number archives.
> It is most likely 1900.
> Fork was all black.
> Morrow was offer at that time.
> The badge should be like the one I posted.



Thank you again! Now i will try to locate a head badge for resonable money...


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## ejlwheels (Jul 20, 2018)




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## ejlwheels (Jul 20, 2018)

this first blank badge might be better because your bike is more like a Model 33 than 53

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=312188714084




http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=372368409928


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## andybee75 (Jul 20, 2018)

O


ejlwheels said:


> this first blank badge might be better because your bike is more like a Model 33 than 53
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crescent-A...ctable-RARE-/312188714084?hash=item48afe5bc64
> 
> ...



OMG! Those head badge prices, i only payed about $225 for the whole bike! Thanks for the catalogue pages, interesting that 1901 is the first year for this chain wheel. No mention of wooden rims, but since it's restored, who known what it originally had. Is there more models in the catalogue that is close to mine or is this the most likely one?


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## bricycle (Jul 20, 2018)

andybee75 said:


> O
> 
> OMG! Those head badge prices, i only payed about $225 for the whole bike! Thanks for the catalogue pages, interesting that 1901 is the first year for this chain wheel. No mention of wooden rims, but since it's restored, who known what it originally had. Is there more models in the catalogue that is close to mine or is this the most likely one?




I have an aluminum badge(as above) for you European? version $40 US plus shipping


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## ejlwheels (Jul 20, 2018)

I can't say whether 1901 is the first year for that chainring.
It does not seem to show in 1899 and I don't have a 1900 catalog.
I can't say whether that chainring was used on other models.
But that is the only model shown with it in the 1901 scans I have,
and I believe I have all the pages of a 16 page catalog.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 20, 2018)

andybee75 said:


> Thank you again! Now i will try to locate a head badge for resonable money...



Always some on eBay. Just keep looking


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## andybee75 (Jul 20, 2018)

bricycle said:


> I have an aluminum badge(as above) for you European? version $40 US plus shipping



Hi, is it model 33? Or 11 as the picture you refer to?


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## bricycle (Jul 21, 2018)

andybee75 said:


> Hi, is it model 33? Or 11 as the picture you refer to?



Here are pics...


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## andybee75 (Jul 21, 2018)

bricycle said:


> Here are pics...
> View attachment 841300
> 
> View attachment 841301
> ...





bricycle said:


> Here are pics...
> View attachment 841300
> 
> View attachment 841301
> ...



Thanks, but i have plenty of these head badges. And unfortunately they don't fit.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 21, 2018)

ejlwheels said:


> I can't say whether 1901 is the first year for that chainring.
> It does not seem to show in 1899 and I don't have a 1900 catalog.
> I can't say whether that chainring was used on other models.
> But that is the only model shown with it in the 1901 scans I have,
> and I believe I have all the pages of a 16 page catalog.



Crescent  and ABC were finished building Crescent bicycles by the end of 1900. They may have printed catalogs for 1901, but I doubt any were built in 1901. The Swedes were building them for the European market.


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## andybee75 (Jul 21, 2018)

GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> Crescent  and ABC were finished building Crescent bicycles by the end of 1900. They may have printed catalogs for 1901, but I doubt any were built in 1901. The Swedes were building them for the European market.




The swedish bicycles where first built by 1908. They had Fauber crank and similar, but not exactly, the same chain wheel as some1899-1900 models. My bikes high serial number and the text about patent under the crank screams US Crescent. Never had this text on a swedish made frame. And you don't have to doubt that there was US Crescent bikes built in 1901, there are several bikes on internet with head badges saying Crescent 1901.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 22, 2018)

ABC used leftover Crescent parts to build the 1900 Crescent bicycles.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 22, 2018)

https://chicagology.com/cycling/westernwheelworks/


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jul 22, 2018)




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## andybee75 (Jul 23, 2018)

Thanks, but of course i googled like crazy long before i even started the thread, no offence. I'm looking for that pro info that can't be googled. I'm sure that there are folks here that have a lot of detailed info that's not written down. I know i have...


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