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Gramp’s 1941 New World - Trying to get it running as a rat rod bike

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Here's a 1947 that's for sale in the classifieds here. Has a vintage rotation counting Doo-Hickey mounted on the front. :openmouth:

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@bikejunk Thank you!

@GTs58 I didn't think it would be located down at the axle. I guess it reduces the wear by keeping the velocity that the spoke trip doo-hickey hits the counter gizmo as low as possible. Really small circle being traced that close to the axle. The early odometer is kind of a hoot. Looks like it just counted number of rotations, and the rider needed to convert that to distance using their wheel circumference. I guess you quickly got a feel for how the numbers on the odometer corresponded with tiredness of legs. :) People must have loved when they moved the display up to the handlebars and made it read out in mi/km traveled. Thank you for finding and showing me this. I keep filling in details on Gramp's bike by talking about it with you.

That maroon New World in the pics is pretty beautiful with lots of paint and pins stripes. Cool to see a nicely preserved New World, even if it is a few years younger than Gramp's bike. Thanks! I've seen a few of the other New World threads started by many of the people contributing to this thread. Pics when you first found them and what they became. You guys have some really nice old bikes and it's inspiring to see how great the finest examples can look. I know cosmetically I won't be able to take gramps bike there easily, and its a different thing approaching it from a Rat perspective, but it is cool to see mint bikes from this time.
 
I had a similar mileage doo hickey on my 64 Varsity when I was a kid. They are calibrated for wheel size, and if I remember correctly it was fairly accurate and no conversions were needed. When the fractional dial hit 0 after a full revolution one mile was traveled. The one I had was real similar to this one http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=192416812296 but it was slightly smaller and looked cleaner, probably had an alloy case. The spoke pin was identical. Definitely not as easy to read while cruising as something on the bars but I wasn't into junk accessories that that added weight or slowed you down. lol In 7th grade I had split sessions going to school later in the morning and staying later. During the Winter I was riding home in the dark so a generator light set up was installed. When the time came to where I could make it home while there was still daylight, I took that POS off the bike.
 
I looked at another sale on ebay for one of these. The boxes they came in from this company clearly indicated the size of the wheel the counters worked with and the distance units they counted in. Here's a pic of a kids bike counter for 20" wheels and km counted.
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I bet this is old hat for most people here but I think it's interesting...
 
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@GTs58 I think you have always had the right idea about these. I'm not interested in any accessories for Gramp's bike. Despite being called a "lightweight" bike, it's heavy enough already and I have no desire to add more vintage doo dads, even if Gramps had one on there for a while... Everyone has the choice to make their bikes to their style, and there's nothing wrong with the bikes that have a bunch of accys, it's just not for me on this bike. Odometer just doesn't say "rat" to me when I look at it. The thing I like about it, is seeing the technology that was commercially viable during that time period. What could these companies make that people could afford using the tech they had at the time? Glad there are some people that are collecting and preserving that on their bikes and in weathered NOS boxes their basements.
 
@GTs58 I think you have always had the right idea about these. I'm not interested in any accessories for Gramp's bike. Despite being called a "lightweight" bike, it's heavy enough already and I have no desire to add more vintage doo dads, even if Gramps had one on there for a while...

Yes, it's sort of funny when they get called "lightweights". I guess they're "light" compared to an American balloon tire bike, but they tend to still be pretty heavy by our standards today. I think they're really just "utility" bikes. They were used as basic, all-purpose local transportation and just riding around for fun. It beats walking a lot of the time if you don't have a car or if you can't get the gas to fuel the car.
 
@SirMike1983 It is all relative right? For the materials and manufacturing techniques of the time, it was light. :) They didn't design in metal like tanks and extra frame tubing and got down to the lower weight essentials. Diamond frame with "light weight" fenders.

You have a sweet New World SirMike. The accys you have on it look great and it is so clean! Been looking at it carefully the last few weeks...
 
I've been looking at the route my Gramps would have taken from his house to the Westinghouse R&D center that he worked at for over 50 years. I think I know why he ended up choosing the 52/24 = 2.17 ratio for the fixed gearing. Those who know about Pittsburgh can relate to how hilly the terrain is. His commute was only about 2 miles but it involved climbing about 200 ft in less than a 1/4 mile, then loosing all that elevation by the time he arrived at work. So he made a steep climb twice a day when he rode the bike to work. The rest of the surrounding roads he was riding are the same way. He had to be able to tackle some steep hills with a fixed gear bike.
 
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Some of why I think Gramps might not be opposed to the rat rod approach I'm taking to his bike is that he was an early adopter of the rat rod idea. Here's a pic of the Ford he "customized" to tackle the journey to the Grand Canyon from his home town in Iowa. The roads and the vehicles of that time (mid 30's?) were not made for it. He made it there and back and loved the adventure of it. He saved this picture, and told me the story, in his attic in PA.
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Here's a pic of his dad (my Great Grandfather) driving his fast car. My Gramps said the cops in his home town asked his dad to stop letting his sons drive the car. They couldn't catch them to tell them to slow down. :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy: Love that story! And the spoked wheels.

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Finished getting the final (silver) paint off the seat tube, Miller kickstand, stem and handlebars. Not sure how important it was, but I tried to keep the thinner off the grips. They already feel like they are made of stone.

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That's some ratty gold!!!
 
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