# Torrington handlebars



## michaels (Jul 22, 2012)

My Elgin, 1941 Lightweight mens bike. has black (blued like a gun barrel) handelbars with the name torrington on the end under the grip. Is this the correct bar for this bike. It is a Westfield built Elgin. thanks


----------



## rhenning (Jul 23, 2012)

If the bars are black are you sure it isn't a black out WW2 bike when chrome for use in the War effort was deleted and black was used instead.  Roger


----------



## bricycle (Jul 23, 2012)

It may be correct....yea, a war effort bike....


----------



## michaels (Jul 23, 2012)

Nope not sure about anything, but its not all blacked out. Headset, seatpost, crank and sprocket are all chrome, I think the wheels are also. Maybe the handlebars are on a pre blackout bike because they ran out of chrome and knew they were changing? The bike serial number puts it at 1941, when did they start the blackouts?


----------



## rhenning (Jul 24, 2012)

I think blackouts started in 1942 but that doesn't mean the bike wasn't crashed and the handle bars replaced during the war.  Roger


----------



## michaels (Jul 24, 2012)

rhenning said:


> I think blackouts started in 1942 but that doesn't mean the bike wasn't crashed and the handle bars replaced during the war.  Roger




Good call, the bike was crashed, not sure when but never repaired. The front fork was bent back. A new fork was bought, but its the wrong size so the bike was never fixed. Could be that the bars were replaced at the same time and the old ones junked. Good thing for me dad kept the bent fork because I straightened it. Now its just a matter of finding some tires and cleaning all the parts.


----------



## sailorbenjamin (Jul 31, 2012)

That might be a "Parkerized" finish.  Check out the headset on this bike;
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?16951-Another-42-Columbia-Sports-Tourist
They didn't do the black out thing all at once.  You see things go black one by one, from 42 on.  The cranks seem to be the last to go.  Then at the end of the war chrome came back again one piece at a time.  My '46 Roadmaster was all chrome but for the black out hubs that someone spraypainted silver.
I found this notice in the handlebars of my '42 Roadmaster.  They had been chromed but they're pretty rusty now.  This bike has black out hubs and chainring;


----------

