1909 Iver Johnson Special Racer

[Duchess]

My truss frame Iver Johnson. Redid the bearings and swapped the wheels and it's a real joy to ride—very comfortable!

New wheels from CB Italia. Unfortunately, I could only find tires like this with the stupid reflective stripe. A nightmare to get them on the wheels!

had to swap out the original Troxel for a Brooks B17 as the old saddle seemed disagreeable to being brought back into service. The Brooks is more comfortable, anyway. Turned some grips from bocote and covered the ugly chrome on the handlebar in cloth tape.

I was inspired to redo the ugly paint on my 1999 Specialized Allez and rebrand it as a fantasy "Major Taylor Championship Centennial Edition" Iver Johnson. The bike is awaiting nicer weather for paint, but this is the repro badge I made for it with gold in the center for being a centennial edition:

 

[Lee Miller]

Nice! What tires and wheels are you using?

 

[tailhole]

Nice Iver! I like that old Troxel

 

[Iverider]

Nice bike! Can you post some detail shots of the decals please? How did you reproduce the badge by the way? Looks decent!

 

[Duchess]

The tires are Linus 700c, the wheels are CB Italia, the front hub is a New Departure I picked up on ebay (just needed something that was 90mm OLD), and the rear I have a Velosteel coaster. I know, it should be a fixed gear, but I'm not track racing this thing.

For the badge, I made a mold of the original and cast it in resin, copper leafed it, then black paint for the lettering. The inside is gold leaf on a piece of aluminum can, and I'm going to attach it to the headtube with double sided tape. I'm also going to repro the decal for the downtube. Since I'm going with a maroon for the Specialized, I'll be using different colors for than the gold and red. I'm just going to trace it onto masking tape, cut out the lettering, and use the negative space for gold leaf, then I'll go over the edges with black paint before I clearcoat the frame.

Pic's not great, but it's the "Trust the Truss" decal.

 

[bricycle]

Way cool!!!!!

 

[Velo-dream]

1909 iver johnson

what you think of these tires ...

no reflecting stripes

-->> 28"=700x 35C

contact: [email protected]

 

[Handyman]

1909 Iver Racer

Hi Duchess,

This is one great looking bike.................it's nice to see these old Ivers. Very clever what you did with the headbadge. Also, want to find out more about those tires. Talk Soon, Pete in Fitchburg

 

[Duchess]

Velootje, those tires are perfect! They're pretty much the same thing, but without the stripe. I thought 700c and 28" were close, but not quite equivalent and didn't want to chance it not working. I'm stuck with the ones I have, though—if I have to change them out, I'm going to be cutting them off and I'm in no hurry to repeat the battle that took the lives of 2 tire levers (the hook ends, anyway) to get tires on these wheels. A mechanic at a bike shop told me to use tubulars with these since the wood doesn't have the lip to hold the tire bead like on metal clinchers, but there's no way these tires would ever come off on their own without catastrophic failure of the entire wheel. It's possible they make these wheels just a little larger for that purpose. Worth it, though.

Here are the tires I got. I find them to be slightly squirrely to ride. Could be the bike, but I suspect it's the longitudinal ribs with minimal lateral support. They're not bad, but I don't love them. Stupidly, I was stuck on cream in about the max recommended width and a tread pattern that at least looks passably old and this was all I could find in the color. There also happens to be a dealer in the next town over, and I like to support local businesses when it's reasonable. Really, it's the reflective stripe that bothers me.

http://www.linusbike.com/products/elysian-tire-cream

And if anyone is wondering how I got the bottom bracket apart, I made a tool from a heavy duty scraper with a 1" blade and ground out the center.

The guy I bought it off of also gave me an even older, rusty bike frame that's only identifying mark is a stamp on the chainring that says "Patent Pending Mar. 93" and there are 2 holes for the missing headtube badge that are offset from each other horizontally. I have no idea what to do with it (I don't think he did either). It's kind of interesting, but I don't think it's worth much, one of the fork legs is messed up, and it looks like it would be barely rideable for 5'11" me due to its tall size. Maybe I'll start a new thread about it when I get a chance.

 

[tailhole]

View attachment 137364[/QUOTE]

Super job on the badge!