# Finished the Pierce Motorbike



## GenuineRides (Jul 26, 2012)

Finished my latest project for now.  All I need to do is resurect the original seat, needs new period looking leather, and it has a crazy steep deep dish to the pan on the backside. Have a rider seat on it now. Too bad I don't know what year this is.  Rear Morrow/Eclipse hub is the early non date coded type with perpendicular id stamping.  Love the nickel plated parts though, faint decals and fine double pinstriping still present in some areas. And that head badge, awesome!  The parts machining is highly sophisticated, work of true engineers of the day at Pierce Cycle Co. The serial number starts with 29, so let's guess 1929.  Still trying to figure out the best tire to mount to these 28" metal clad wood wheels.  I put 28x32mm Vittoria singletube cyclecross tires on to protect the rim but can't find anything modern that is wide enough, maybe 40mm+, anyone with suggestions for less than $100?

GenuineRides


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## vw00794 (Jul 26, 2012)

Thats a beautiful bike, congrats!


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## Nickinator (Jul 26, 2012)

wow, very nice.


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## Dave K (Jul 26, 2012)

Super bike.  Thanks for posting


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## Nick-theCut (Jul 27, 2012)

Great bike. 
Besides the saddle change and the singletube challenge, what else did you do to get it back on the road?


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## dfa242 (Jul 27, 2012)

Very nice.  looks like it could be earlier than '29 - is the badge Buffalo or Angola?


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## Flat Tire (Jul 27, 2012)

Very nice bike! I was wondering about the year also, I picked one up a few weeks ago, no badge, and certainly not like yours as its mostly surface rust I'll check the serial number and see what I can find.


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## GenuineRides (Jul 27, 2012)

Badge is Angola, NY so that narrows it down a bit to between 1918 (1st year in Angola) and 1930 (last year of that style Morrow hub).  Crank markings were no help.

Fork headtube was bent bad and it appeared that they still rode it for a long time still, therefore wearing grooves in the headtube and destroying the hardware.  Front fender brace was broken, and headtube threads were stripped.  So there was a bit of re-bending, welding, machining and massaging, plus some new headset bearings and races cut and ground (weird size), along with staightening and machining of the stem, bars, etc. in addition to to trying to remove the 80 year old blackened grease without damaging the paint.  Someone must have rode it into a wall!

I'm a Schwinn guy but really appreciate the quality and obscurity of this bike.

Check out the original seat, the pronounced cup to the pan and double wound springs, I have never seen anything like it before.

GenuineRides


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## bricycle (Jul 27, 2012)

I'm think'n about 1921 with that chain wheel and those fenders and fork.


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## GenuineRides (Jul 27, 2012)

Badge is Angola, NY so that narrows it down a bit to between 1918 (1st year in Angola) and 1930 (last year of that style Morrow hub).  Crank markings were no help.

Fork headtube was bent bad and it appeared that they still rode it for a long time still, therefore wearing grooves in the headtube and destroying the hardware.  Front fender brace was broken, and headtube threads were stripped.  So there was a bit of re-bending, welding, machining and massaging, plus some new headset bearings and races cut and ground (weird size), along with staightening and machining of the stem, bars, etc. in addition to to trying to remove the 80 year old blackened grease without damaging the paint.  Someone must have rode it into a wall!


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## Flat Tire (Jul 27, 2012)

Serial # on mine is 294851.


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## bud poe (Jul 27, 2012)

How bad was making the bearing races?  Did you have to heat treat them?  What grinding did you have done?
Great job on everything, looks great!
Bud


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## GenuineRides (Jul 28, 2012)

I took a slightly larger-taller existing race with the step down tube that fits into the headtube (so we could chuck it) and a friend of mine took some out of the inside down to fit the slightly larger head tube, then just cleaned up the race surface with a little grinding.  We then cut the tube off and he did do a final heat treat/quenching.  It ended up a little short so we just made a spacer to go below it.  I figure I will never go faster than 15MPH on this bike so the pressure on it should be OK.  

Now we do the race surfaces all the time on our ND, Morrow, etc. axle cones.

serial # is 293079

GenuineRides


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## bud poe (Jul 29, 2012)

Very cool!  Thanks for the info!
Bud


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## lobsterboyx (Aug 1, 2012)

It looks beautiful! you should be very proud of it!

... I knew I should have bought this bike...:eek:


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