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Happy 100th Birthday Old Girl

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Brian R.

Wore out three sets of tires already!
This 1918 CCM Cleveland Ladies' Roadster, model 455 was found several years ago in a barn, covered in bird poop, in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada. When it came to me, it had been cleaned up and made rideable, but with a more modern CCM steel wheel set, saddle, a replacement fork, chrome stem and bars, and rubber grips. Fortunately, the previous owner had kept the original hubs and fork, although the fork tube was in two pieces.

The bike wears serial number 028, and - who knows - could possibly be the 28th bike to come out of CCM's Weston (Toronto) factory that was constructed in the fall of 1917 (demolished after 1983). In honour of it's 100th birthday, I've tried to make it look as close as possible to its 1918 CCM catalogue image. The original fork tube was welded back together, and I found nickel plated CCM stem and bars. The original hubs, which were caked in a thick layer of oily dirt were cleaned up revealing beautifully preserved nickel plating underneath. I greased the bearings and laced them into period CCM wood rims that I painted with pattern # 71 green, black, and gold stripes (see rim colour page), and coated in clear marine spar varnish. This rim pattern matches the paint pattern on the frame - a trace of the original gold pin stripes can be seen on green paint on one of the fenders. I installed inner tubes that have a threaded metal stem (not half rubber), metal stem covers, and Electra Amsterdam 700C 622 cream tires. I installed a correct ladies saddle and tool pouch, found the pump online, and added a period correct Miller acetylene lamp. Finally, I laced the skirt guard with black cord in the original pattern, although I looped it around continuously instead of tying a lot of knots - not sure how they did it in those days.

Oh, and since every old lady needs an old man (and vice versa), I recently found a dashing old gentleman - a 1918 Cleveland Mens' Roadster model 458 - to keep her company in my garage. Happy 100th birthday!

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