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It might be hard to string together but I have a sneaky suspicion that Blick was bought out by Herber L Flake who was a bicycle P&A distributor in Houston in more recent years. I visited them many times back in the early 90s to pick up parts. They also dealt in locks and we're bought out by the...

This is heartbreaking to hear. Dave was one of my favorite reps both as both a shop manager and a rep myself. He will leave a big dent in that community but every one of us is better off for have known him.

Ha! I am not an engineer nor do the factories I've worked with do small batches. I'm sure someone with the right experience & tools (also time and money) might could retrofit tread to a proper casing though.

If only a 635 would fit, my life would be a bit easier. So funny story, but while at Maxxis/Cheng Shin, I was responsible for everything including all catalog & web content. Outside of the branded tires, we sold a ton of tires to other brands to relabel... Including those with the 635 ETRTO...

The bead is what keeps the rubber/nylon tire from stretching past the rim wall. Removing it allowed me to get over that whopping 20mm larger diameter wheel. It is absolutely not safe to ride like this but as stated, this bike is not currently ridable regardless of the tires.

No, it would be impossible to do. The bead is placed in the mold during the construction of the casing and needs that casing structure (not just rubber) to hold it in place

This is what I've seen... But even the black ones were priced high enough to sway me from buying them vs waiting for some white ones to o e day magically appear. This was a good compromise on the meantime... but very much a compromise.

Since the tires on my 1909 Cycles Gladiator weren't original, in pretty bad shape and I wanted to install white tires in tradition of resemblance to originality, I went on a hunt. Seeing some tires I liked on an Argentinian Facebook page, I unbelievably found one dealer in the US selling them...

I have read bits and pieces about Choppy and some not so shining stories about their methods. I would love to find a Simpson chain system but have only ever seen one on a bike being displayed (online, not in person) in recent years. Here is a pic from my 1910 CG catalog (I actually purchased a...

That's great! I have not been able to find many of the Cycles Gladiator bikes out there and no other racers. I luckily snagged an original catalog and am glad to have some actual documentation to go with it.

I have an odd bird of Murray past. I was told this Mercury is from the 30s but from my research, it seems to not have been a consumer model. My theory is that it was purpose built to be used at the Sears regional headquarters in Atlanta (1926 to 1979) as a warehouse bike as I bought it from a...

Couldn't agree more. I still have the mud on my 1991 serotta mountain bike the last time I rode it before it's retirement. That is a good rule of thumb to follow with a find like this. At 110 years old, what's another 6 months?

Great observation! How did I miss the non-fluted crank!?! (probably staring at the brass repair too much) This would make a lot of sense. The crank/spindle are also not very well centered so I may have to get the calipers out and do some investigating. I do know for sure the drive-side crank...

I was thinking it might have kept coming loose but you could be right. Back then repairing things with brass seemed the easy/ugly fix. I'm not going to try too hard so not to damage anything (former long time bike wrench) but I'd like to get at least one side out to see what I'm dealing with...

I posted in the pre 1933 section but thought I'd have a little better luck here. Outside from scouring the internet on every continent and purchasing an original 1909 catalog (that was sadly lost in the mail) that confirmed everything outside of one tire was original... I am coming up with...

Thanks for the feedback with Thanks, solid advice. I'm usually one to not touch something like this and wanted to get some more experienced perspectives with bikes of this age and condition.

I agree with this philosophy but in person, the parts out shine the rest of the bike (it's missing roughly 60% of it's paint). I think this bike got banged around a lot while stored in a barn and I'm worried what the bike will look like 50 years from now if not protected.

Hi everyone, 1st time caller, long time listener. Despite a long history of all things bicycles, new and old, this is my first TOC bike and I'm afraid I'm hooked! I have scoured the internet for information but have come up pretty short. I found and purchased a catalog of the same year but it...