# Columbia with Pipes



## TheFizzer (Dec 18, 2016)

I'm guessing this is a Columbia from the 60's?  Anyone ever seen pipes like this?


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## TR6SC (Dec 18, 2016)

TheFizzer said:


> I'm guessing this is a Columbia from the 60's?  Anyone ever seen pipes like this?
> 
> View attachment 397927
> 
> View attachment 397933



Those pipes are cool. I mean really cool!


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## Evans200 (Dec 18, 2016)

TR6SC said:


> Those pipes are cool. I mean really cool!



Ditto what TR6SC said!


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## MrColumbia (Dec 19, 2016)

Looks like a 1960 Torpedo but I've never seen those pipes before. I like them.


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## PCHiggin (Dec 19, 2016)

Whats on the license plate? I think its a 50's. bike.


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## MrColumbia (Dec 20, 2016)

The reason I put 1960 out there as a suggested year is this style tank first shows up in the 1960 catalog. This is despite this style chain guard last seen in the catalogs of 1957. While it is possible old chain guards could still be around  a couple of years after they are officially obsoleted, it's less likely that a tank is used that is not designed yet. 

It is also possible for the tank to have been added later but I find that very unlikely. The common practice for most boys of the era was to strip down a bike, not add tanks to it. 

I would not be surprised if the serial number showed a 1959 manufacture date but it is just a guess at this point. 

This mis-mash of parts is very common with Columbia's.


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## bricycle (Dec 20, 2016)

I have a set... wanna see my pair?


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## the tinker (Dec 20, 2016)

Those pipes on that Columbia are obviously factory installed at the Westfield plant. Here is a photo of an extremely rare bike I have with exhaust pipes that were factory installed by Schwinn way back when. It also has the much coveted "cross brace clockometer". This bike was owned by Olympic runner, the great Jesse Owens and was used by him for warm-ups during the 1936 Olympic games in Germany. It was rumored that Jesse gave Ava Braum a ride on the the rear carrier around the track , Ava waving to a smiling Adolph Hitler. After the war Jesse sold the bike to Howard Hughes. Sometime later it was rumored to be purchased by Frank Schwinn for his private collection but that can not be confirmed.
I would be somewhat remiss not to mention that the designer of this bike was the world re-known inventor B. S. Aplenty.
Aplenty it should be noted was part of the international team of inventors and scientists that built the German airship zeppelin Hindenburg. Mr. Aplenty was credited for convincing the German government the advantages of using hydrogen to inflate the airship. B.S. , as his close friends fondly called him disappeared after the crash of the Hindenburg in 1936.
and was never seen again..........
I write this just in case anyone wants to know this info and because Bricycle made me write it. It was all his idea, not mine.


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## Evans200 (Dec 20, 2016)

MrColumbia said:


> The reason I put 1960 out there as a suggested year is this style tank first shows up in the 1960 catalog. This is despite this style chain guard last seen in the catalogs of 1957. While it is possible old chain guards could still be around  a couple of years after they are officially obsoleted, it's less likely that a tank is used that is not designed yet.
> 
> It is also possible for the tank to have been added later but I find that very unlikely. The common practice for most boys of the era was to strip down a bike, not add tanks to it.
> 
> ...



Here's a pic of my 1960 Torpedo


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## Andrew Gorman (Dec 20, 2016)

I think those were a (McCauley?) accessory piece.   I did not see them in quick flip through a 1962 Service Cycle Supply catalog.  If memory serves me correctly they also had a clacker noisemaker involved.  They look sharp, but could also be home-made out of vacuum cleaner wands.


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## rhenning (Dec 21, 2016)

I also remember the pipes being an accessory you could buy and put on your bike when I was a kid.  Never had the money to get them though.  Roger


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## bricycle (Dec 21, 2016)

hey big-boy....


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## the tinker (Dec 21, 2016)

Well.....as long as we are discussing factory accessories on Columbia .......Check out my Columbia factory built "Cowboy" bike. It is not a middleweight and has no lake-pipes but it sure is kool [I think]  I purchased it from fellow Caber Bricycle and he assured me[ I had some doubts, that he put to rest] it is authentic and that it was factory built by Columbia to compete in answer to the cowboy bike craze started by Rollfast bicycle's, Hopalong Casidy model.
Pictured is my neighbor , riding it.

 


  Supposedly Columbia had a carpenter working at the plant name Bob Shorts [ or affectionately known at the plant as just plain old "B.S."] that came up with the idea. Never was much of a hit as much work was required to produce. Maybe only a few exist today. 
None the less it was another true classic and survivor from the past.  I would love to install those lake pipes on this bike!
Maybe Bricycle would care to shed some more light on the facts of this fine bike he sold me.[ none too cheaply I might add.] He assured me it is a true classic and can only appreciate in value....can always count on a fellow Caber!               Thank You Bricycle !


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## bricycle (Dec 21, 2016)

Tinker (alias baloney sausage), I think you purchased this bike from Pricycle, whom I sometimes get confused with. ('course I often am confused). I have a pair of lake pipes I paid $50.00 off e-bay, but I will give you a real deal for your wheel.


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## MrColumbia (Dec 21, 2016)

The Columbia factory always installed the six shooters pointed to the west. This bike is obviously one of the contraband re-pops made in Moldova during the Cold War. Only a few were smuggled through the Iron Curtain before the hole was plugged. One of the other dead giveaways is the unibrow on the horse's face which was patterned after Leonid Brezhnev himself.

You have a national treasure there...a national treasure!


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## HIGGINSFOREVER (Jan 2, 2017)

Think i have a pep-boys catalog showing that pipe set up.I will try to find it


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## StoneWoods (Jan 5, 2017)

That's it. I'm making some


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## Bike Mike (Oct 13, 2017)

Im just plum loco about this Columbia with pipes. 


TheFizzer said:


> I'm guessing this is a Columbia from the 60's?  Anyone ever seen pipes like this?
> 
> View attachment 397927
> 
> View attachment 397933


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## Bike Mike (Oct 13, 2017)

TheFizzer said:


> I'm guessing this is a Columbia from the 60's?  Anyone ever seen pipes like this?
> 
> View attachment 397927
> 
> View attachment 397933



Im just gaga over this blue Columbia. That's all i would need. Id never buy another bike.


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