# What Era Is This?



## arnold (Mar 15, 2016)

Sample headbadge no original and frame parts. Chainring is 52t w/ pope script. Thanks


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## redline1968 (Mar 15, 2016)

I'm thinking around 1900-10


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## MrColumbia (Mar 15, 2016)

Late teens to early 20's is a good possibility. The Racer used the two piece crank into the 20's. The thing with the Racer model is it remained fairly unchanged right up to the early 40's so it is often mistaken for an older bike. Without original parts or headbadge it will be difficult to tell exact age.


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## arnold (Mar 15, 2016)

redline1968 said:


> I'm thinking around 1900-10



Thanks Redline, if the caber are correct about the chainring we might say that this is really 1900-10 era.


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## Intense One (Mar 15, 2016)

arnold said:


> Sample headbadge no original and frame parts. Chainring is 52t w/ pope script. Thanks
> 
> View attachment 295799
> 
> ...



52t crank = speed demon!  Nice bike!


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## arnold (Mar 15, 2016)

MrColumbia said:


> Late teens to early 20's is a good possibility. The Racer used the two piece crank into the 20's. The thing with the Racer model is it remained fairly unchanged right up to the early 40's so it is often mistaken for an older bike. Without original parts or headbadge it will be difficult to tell exact age.



Thank you mrcolumbia. How about the chainring can we use that as the basis to determine the correct era? never mind the exact yr.  By the way the frame size  is 22".


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## MrColumbia (Mar 16, 2016)

arnold said:


> Thank you mrcolumbia. How about the chainring can we use that as the basis to determine the correct era? never mind the exact yr.  By the way the frame size  is 22".




The Columbia Racers came in two models for most of it's production but both came with a 1" pitch until 1932 at least. I don't have a 1933 catalog to reference that shows the Racer model. The 1934 catalog shows that the Racer now comes in 1/2" pitch drive for both the model with the two piece crank and the one with the one piece heat treated crank. Based on that alone I would say the earliest your bike could be if that is the original sprocket is 1933. 

As I already stated, the racer models remained virtually unchanged right up to WWII still having 28" single tube tires and wood rims.

I am attaching the scan from the 1934 catalog. I am not saying this is the exact year but it is a place to start. I do notice that this is a 21 inch frame and you state yours is 22". I will look further and see if I can find any 22" frames.


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## MrColumbia (Mar 16, 2016)

Here is the 1932 racer. Notice that it is almost identical but has skip tooth (1/2" pitch) front sprocket.


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## MrColumbia (Mar 16, 2016)

Here is a 1900 Columbia/Hartford racer for relative era comparison. Please note the handlebars and front fork differences.


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## bon (Mar 16, 2016)

That's a cool reference Mr. Columbia. I got the truss model with the 2/3 piece cranks but with the skip tooth ring. 






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## arnold (Mar 16, 2016)

Thanks mrcolumbia I really appreciated what you did and I hope could find other info of this 22" frame.


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## arnold (Mar 31, 2016)

I Found 1921 catalog at the forum here and I noticed that the headbadge holes are the  same  this could be the answer of what year or era of my bike, I hope so! What do you think guys?


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