# miami????



## luckyfind (Jun 8, 2014)

I bought this frame and forks off of ebay a couple of years ago and its been hanging in my shop until last week. When i bought it is was said to be and Iver Johnson. When i unpacked it, the only thing that resembled Iver Johnson was that it had three screw holes for a head badge that wasn't there. It had a none original paint job that i swear the paint was brushed on by hand, the paint was crazy thick. It took two cans of aircraft paint stripper and a few hours of elbow grease rubbing. But now its down to the metal and looking pretty sweet. in my opinion. I added a bigger chain ring. I am running on new departure hubs modle C rear laced into velocity rims. The tires are little big bens.


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## hoofhearted (Jun 8, 2014)

luckyfind said:


> It had a none original paint job that i swear the paint was brushed on by hand, the paint was crazy thick. It took two cans of aircraft paint stripper and a few hours of elbow grease rubbing. But now its down to the metal and looking pretty sweet. in my opinion. I added a bigger chain ring.





*luckyfind ... your machine is indeed a Miami-Built .......  very late in production .. maybe 1921 - 1922.

The unbrazed-manner seen in the attaching of the forkblades is a major-hallmark of late production .....as is the 
color-scheme .... Miami "drab with blue" .. as seen in the 1921 Flying Merkel bicycle catalog ..... you can google 
the reference that way.

Am not  suggesting that your machine was ever a FM ... Miami-Builts often shared color-schemes among the various 
makes of that very company.  In addition .. am not suggesting the paint you removed from the rest of the bicycle was 
ever factory-applied, originally ... you would be the only-one to know that.

A few-more thoughts ... your original chainring is way-more appropriate on the machine ... it is Miami -Built ...
and the design appears on earlier Miami-Builts .. circa 1910 [+ / -] thru 1916 ... not necessarily in documentation .. but 
rather in rolling form on the Miami-Builts that are in collections local to me. Your original chainring is spectacular.

Continuing ... FM chainrings circa 1918 thru 1922 (Miami did print a '23 FM catalog--posted by Scott Mc C.) had ''6-F'' 
chainrings with the ''center-drive'' feature seen in the 1921 FM catalog. 

Further-more ... a FM machine, mid-1917 thru 1922 would have no screwholes .. but .. would have a half-inch hole placed 
in the headtube to accommodate the 'bottle-cap'-feature used with the FM badge.  

Is it possible that someone added the thick, off-white paint to the head and upper tubes ?? 

A "3-Color" -- color scheme on a machine from Miami is unusual (not counting pins).

You have a beautiful, clean canvas.*




..............  patric cafaro


Peep these fotos of Dave Stromberger's 1918 and later FM (his machine is orange with black accents) .. especially the 6-F chainring ....




















*This fotos is from my locale.*










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## luckyfind (Jun 9, 2014)

*Thanks for all the great info*

Thanks for the info and for steering me back in the right direction. I will put the original chain ring back in as soon as i can. Also the bike had fenders when i got it. The fenders have 1" sidewalls. Since i bought the bike under the impression that it was a Iver Johnson, and found out it wasn't. I figured it had been merely put together incorrectly and sold the same way.  I googled 1921 FM and i did see that they had a arc bar bike with 1" fenders. Sweet so off the HD project they come and back on the Miami. Will post pic when its back together. Thanks for the much needed info.


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## willswares1220 (Jun 9, 2014)

That Miami of yours looks sweet stripped down to that bare metal only!
It actually looks good just the way it is without those fenders on. 
Just pack those originals away as well as any other original parts, just in case you want to restore the bike someday.


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## bricycle (Jun 9, 2014)

Sweet!!!!!!


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## hoofhearted (Jun 9, 2014)

*luckyfind's arch-bar Miami ...*



willswares1220 said:


> That Miami of yours looks sweet stripped down to that bare metal only!
> It actually looks good just the way it is without those fenders on.
> Just pack those originals away as well as any other original parts, just in case you want to restore the bike someday.




*luckyfind ... am with willswares1220 about those fenders ... now .. let's get that metal sealed-up ... and ... it may look grand 
in naked-steel with a patina.

Am sending you to a CABE entry in CUSTOM BICYCLES .... Good Color Combo Suggestions  ENTRIES #20 and #23.

If you follow the info that has been presented ... NOT concerning yourself with getting a perfectly-even patina with the 
metal oxidizers ... your artwork could come out slammin' !!   That Krylon Clear Matte Finish does offer a good degree of sealant 
protection ... without that dipped-in-nail-polish look.*

Another thought .. years ago, that Krylon Matte Finish was _strictly_ for paintings, drawings and art objects that never 
went outside.  Then, applying more than 5 coats would _always_ begin to have a milky character.  And .. there was very-
little protective-strength in that product.

Not Any More !!!


May You Have Good Fortune, luckyfind !!!

........  patric
















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## willswares1220 (Jun 9, 2014)

Patrick,

Informative as usual!!!! Thank You!!!!


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## hoofhearted (Jun 10, 2014)

willswares1220 said:


> Thank You!!!!







*willswares1220  ... you're very welcome.*

..........  patric




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## luckyfind (Jun 10, 2014)

*back together*

So here it is back the way i got it.










Im happy its back together. my shop is almost at max capacity so storing anything for me right now is a little hard. I think the bike looks great. Now i need to try and track down a head badge.  Does any body have any guess as to what kind of head badge I'm dealing with. The head tube has three hole much like the Iver Johnson's. But the top two holes don't seem to be as wide.
This is what it looked like before i removed the paint


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## chitown (Jun 11, 2014)

How about a VIM badge?

VIM is listed as a manufacturer by some trade magazines but may have been a private labeled Miami. Vim's go back to the teens and this example from nostalgic.net is listed as a '35 model. There may be other versions of this badge going back to the teens but there are few examples out there to compare to.


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## bricycle (Jun 11, 2014)

...looks like the silloette(sp) of Satan with his high collar......


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