This year I've found and cleaned up a pair of 1898 Crescents, a No 11 mens and a No12 ladies. Both were in decent condition but not ridden for 90+ years.
They are in Sweden, the importers Eli Petterson and August Lindblad were also importers of Dunlop tires, so the bikes were ordered from Western Wheel Works with rims for the dunlop system that is about identical to tires today. Great, makes it easier to find tires for our TOC bikes over here. Ok, the No 11 rims were a bit large for the standard 622 size, so the only ones I found that fit were a bit in a too modern style.
Both bikes had their fixed rear hubs swapped for Husqvarna made Rapid coaster hubs during the teens and both must have been in use by the late 20's when the cats eye reflector became mandatory on bikes, but not much longer, since they weren't worn out and still had hardened teens/1920's tires on.
The ladies bike was used the least, it has its original Crescent block chain and the tool bag was still there - but with only one tool inside, a Crescent marked multi wrench that can take the pedal cranks apart, but I wonder if there were any more tools supplied by Crescent - and what they looked like?
I found good pictures with some measures on the net on what the men's tool bag should look like and was lucky to get it reproduced by a guy in Serbia, Aleksandar Ronto, that I got in contact with through this Facebook group; https://www.facebook.com/groups/leathertoolbagsvintagebicycle/?ref=share
Now he has an embossing tool for early Crescents too.
They are in Sweden, the importers Eli Petterson and August Lindblad were also importers of Dunlop tires, so the bikes were ordered from Western Wheel Works with rims for the dunlop system that is about identical to tires today. Great, makes it easier to find tires for our TOC bikes over here. Ok, the No 11 rims were a bit large for the standard 622 size, so the only ones I found that fit were a bit in a too modern style.
Both bikes had their fixed rear hubs swapped for Husqvarna made Rapid coaster hubs during the teens and both must have been in use by the late 20's when the cats eye reflector became mandatory on bikes, but not much longer, since they weren't worn out and still had hardened teens/1920's tires on.
The ladies bike was used the least, it has its original Crescent block chain and the tool bag was still there - but with only one tool inside, a Crescent marked multi wrench that can take the pedal cranks apart, but I wonder if there were any more tools supplied by Crescent - and what they looked like?
I found good pictures with some measures on the net on what the men's tool bag should look like and was lucky to get it reproduced by a guy in Serbia, Aleksandar Ronto, that I got in contact with through this Facebook group; https://www.facebook.com/groups/leathertoolbagsvintagebicycle/?ref=share
Now he has an embossing tool for early Crescents too.