# 1955 Colson/Evans Commander



## fordmike65 (Sep 27, 2012)

I've seen this bike in my local CL for a while now. Not really into the postwar bikes, but it was nice. Recently, the seller decided to drop the asking price considerably, to the point that me and my girl figured with was worth a look. Right away, she loves it. Why? Cuz it's shiny! She doesn't really yet appreciate the old,rusty,banged up look quite yet. So after a once over and a little haggling, we took it home. I don't know much about it,except that its basically an Evans built bike and it has the wrong grips & shifter. I did a little research on the Net and with fellow members lobsterboyx(Danny) and fuzzyktu(Kevin), who both agreed it was a good deal. As far as we know(I hope), it is an original SA 3spd rear hub. It seems to work, but not well with the Nexus shifter that was installed. I'm hoping to find an original shifter,along with grips to get it as OG as I can. Thanks in advance for any help with her. Mike


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## OldRider (Sep 27, 2012)

I've always been a sucker for that shade of green..........its beautiful


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## slick (Sep 27, 2012)

Wow!!! That's gorgeous! Has to be a repaint right? Looks too shiny to be original paint and not even any scratches? Who ever did it did a great job with the decals for the lettering!


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## Nickinator (Sep 27, 2012)

That's a really pretty bike- I like shiny too!! 

Darcie


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## vincev (Sep 27, 2012)

Nice bike but dump the pedals with the reflectors.


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## fordmike65 (Sep 27, 2012)

I agree. Pedal relectors are for wusses! Any idea what pedal would be correct? Or even aftermarket from the same era? I'm pretty sure it's gotta be a repaint, but everything looks so nice. Anyway it could be original, but touched up maybe? Anywho, she loves it. It's shiny!


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## jpromo (Sep 27, 2012)

Nice bike! I'd say it's a repaint, though somebody did a really nice job to make it near the original scheme. The extra pinstriping they did is slick. There was a color option just like that which was offered but the giveaway is the rims being painted as Evans-Colson zinc-coated, like Monark in the early 50s. Nevertheless, somebody took a lot of care in doing it. Enjoy!

Here's a picture of the next model up, the Olympic, from their first model year--'54. The whole catalog is posted on Dave's site. http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle161.htm


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## ilikebikes1 (Sep 27, 2012)

*SA shifter*

Nice! I'll look around my stash, if I find the ST shifter it's yours for shipping cost. No promises that I'll find one, but I'll look....hard!


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## fordmike65 (Sep 27, 2012)

Thank you very much for the trouble! I'd love to get her as correct as I can.





ilikebikes1 said:


> Nice! I'll look around my stash, if I find the ST shifter it's yours for shipping cost. No promises that I'll find one, but I'll look....hard!


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## fordmike65 (Feb 25, 2013)

Just looking through my threads & remembered I still need to find the correct 50's SA shifter. Anybody happen to have one? Or at least a pic so I know what style to look for? Still need to figure what pedals are correct for this. I found a set of 6's at this weekend's swapmeet for $10, but don't know if they're correct. Thanks for the help guys!


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## Hermanator3 (Feb 25, 2013)

*Original saddle?*

Beautiful bike!  Do you think the saddle is original?  Sort of looks like the 1990's Schwinn repo that I have.


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## fordmike65 (Feb 25, 2013)

Don't know, but it is comfy! Has a stamping on it. I'll get a pic of it this week. Need to take it out & freshen 'er up for this weekend's Coaster's ride.


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## babyjesus (Feb 26, 2013)

*Beautiful Bike*

Nothing wrong with a post war bike - especially one like that!  A bike can beautiful in it's own right regardless of age - we'd be fools to ignore eras entirely based on generalities. The 50s and 60s saw some of the most fantastic bikes you can find. Perhaps not as consistently as before the war when things were all style and almost no practicality (says something about us now really).  Middleweight or not, postwar or prewar - whatever,  it's a beautiful bike and it looks kind of very well restored too. I wonder if the seller said anything about that. It looks like a fine job was done 

I don't know why but large quantities of brightly coloured and incredible bikes make me feel like a kid in a candy store - it's a bit overwhelming - especially when you can't have all the candy you want. But that bike would make a pretty darn juicy looking bit of candy in the candy store in my humble opinion.


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