Restoration of 1922 CCM Gendron Ladies - No Expense Spared

[Brian R.]

Hello Cabers. I used to be on the CABE daily. Then, as they say, "life got in the way" and I fell off the radar. I had decided to move, which required months of non-stop work to get the old house ready for sale. After about 2 months in the new house, thieves burned down my garage. Fortunately, most of my complete bikes (about 45) were stored elsewhere, but about 20 project bikes together with all my parts, wood rims, saddles, etc. were in the fire which was hot enough to melt my child's aluminum bike. Then my second marriage started to fail... 2021 was undoubtedly the worst year of my life. I might start a separate thread about the fire and aftermath, but here I would like to mark my return to the CABE by talking about a recent project I completed.

2022 was the 100th anniversary of Canadian Tire. If you've ever travelled to Canada you've probably driven past several locations of this hardware mega-store chain. The execs decided to mark the occasion with a good old-fashioned "industrial musical" (see Wikipedia). I was approached by a theatre set designer who said they needed a 1922 Ladies bike that looked like new. The musical was to open with a girl pushing her mother's bike - with flat tire - across the stage to an actor playing the founder of Canadian Tire. He would pump up the tire for the girl and presumably lots of singing would follow. Of course, I had all the necessary bike parts to make it happen. The designer said: "I want to pay you two-thousand dollars to restore the bike and lend it to us. You can keep it when the musical is over." I took about a half a second to agree.

Here is the bike I chose to work with - the "before picture." It's a circa 1920-22 CCM Gendron. I bought it several years earlier because it had a very nice and rare badge for CCMs, I could see that the fork was originally nickel plated at the bottom section, not painted like all the other CCMs I had seen, and it had holes for a fender skirt. I had thought it had potential to become something really special:

The goal was to make it look like this 1921 CCM catalogue image, and make it look like new:

More to come...

 

[Archie Sturmer]

Welcome back to the CABE, eh?

 

[Brian R.]

I only had three months to build the bike so it was fortunate that I already had a pair of striped wooden wheels ready to go. You can read about how I painted them in my older thread: "How to Paint Wood Rims with Zero Skills." Sadly the red striped rims in that thread burned, but my green set was on one of the bikes in storage. Here is one photo showing how I did it using electrical tape, which unlike masking tape, can curve in two dimensions at the same time:

 

[Brian R.]

Some of the parts had already been nickel-plated. The plater I had always used had retired so I had to scramble to find an affordable new plating shop to finish the the remaining parts. While the fork was being plated there was no time to wait around so I sent the frame in for blasting and a professional paint job in black. When I got the fork back it looked gorgeous but I had to figure out how to paint the upper section of the blades - something I had never done before. I decided to adapt my trick with the electrical tape on the rims to use when masking the forks. Electrical tape cuts very nicely with a razor-type knife, so I rolled out a long strip and cut a curved angle on two sides, over and over again, until I got both the curve right and got them symmetrical. I had to do this four times for the sides, then cut four more strips with the U-shaped curve for the fronts and backs of the blades:

 

[Brian R.]

To paint the newly nickel-plated fork I used a spray can of self-etching primer, followed by another spray can of Canadian-Tire Tremclad rust paint. Thankfully, with it being black, matching the colour was not a problem.

The frame of this bike was not in the garage fire, but the fenders were. The firemen threw them and everything else into the snow in the backyard where everything sat for several weeks. With the paint burned off they started rusting immediately. The fender stays needed to be bent straight again and I bought a pall-peen hammer to gently remove the dents.

For the pin-stripes, it was time to call in a professional. I found the website of someone who has painted million-dollar classic cars and thought, that's the guy! When I dropped off the frame I also provided a 1942 Wartime CCM Ladies that was also black with gold stripes, to use as a model. CCM was a very conservative company and many of its practices lasted decades. He did great job, and is a super nice guy as he quoted me $300 (CDN) but when it came time to pick up the bike he lowered it to $250.

The wood and leather grips came - I think - from a CABE member also named Brian (if I remember correctly). The tires are Electra Amsterdam cream, which to my great dismay they don't make anymore. Were they still using cream tires in 1922? If not, call it my "artistic license" because I like them! For the skirt guard I decided to go with brown leather cord I found in an arts and crafts supply store. The saddle is a Brooks B18. The embossed pattern is one of theirs from 1915 so I thought it's as period correct as I'm gonna get for a new saddle. I had to drive all over the place looking for one of these as they are also not made anymore. I finally found one in Guelph, Ontario. The seat tube decal is the correct one for the teens and twenties.

I wasn't sure about using a brass carbide lamp but then I saw this same one in a 1920 advertisement. I was also unsure of the tool pouch I ordered online but I refused to buy one labeled "PU leather" - the last time I checked polyurethane is plastic, not leather. So I ended up with this one. I tried and failed to match the colour of the saddle. At some point I will swap it out for the normal rectangular pouch. The leather fender mud flap survived the fire inside a plastic container that melted. I just needed to trim the sides a bit and drill holes in the correct spots for the screws. Speaking of screws, the only small slot-style screws that Home Depot sells are brass. I would have preferred stainless steel or nickel-plated for more accuracy but they do look good together with the gold pin stripes, gold lamp, gold grip ferrules, gold badge, and brown leather skirt guard. I didn't have time to rebuild a pair of ladies pedals with new plating, ball bearings and grease so I borrowed a pair from a 1915 Men's CCM that had been re-plated by a previous owner.

And voila, there you have it, a $2,000+ period-correct looking stage-prop for a multi-million dollar, one performance only, old-school industrial musical hosted by Jan Arden and quietly performed without any press notice for Canadian-Tire execs, employees, and family. It now resides proudly on top of the clothes dresser next to my bed. I'm afraid to park it anywhere else out of fear it will get scratched!

 

[ssum2]

Very nice. Lot time put in beautiful results

 

[markivpedalpusher]

Stunning !

 

[Bryan Akens]

A wonderful piece of art!!!

 

[New Mexico Brant]

I am very sorry to hear about your fire and other hardships. It is great to have you back on here!

Wow! You did a fantastic job with this bicycle. Will you get to see it use?

 

[Brian R.]

Thank you so much for the friendly, positive comments. Like everyone on here I'm sure, I prefer original to restored, even rough original is great to see, but I do think there is a place - for bikes that have deteriorated past a certain point - for restoration. I think the reason so many people are anti-restoration and cringe when they see one or gasp when they hear a newbie talk about "restoring" a bike that has almost nothing wrong with it, is that many, many restorations are done unnecessarily, improperly, or poorly. Stuff like silver spray paint instead of replating ("poor man's chrome") too often ruins what was an authentic, aged machine. My approach now is if I'm going to do a restoration I'm going to do it properly, even if I spend more money than the bike is worth. It's a hobby not a business I tell myself. ...Sorry, didn't mean to rant or lecture, this just came out. In conclusion I believe there is historical value in seeing what a bicycle looked like on the bike shop floor a hundred years ago when new just as there is value in seeing what it looks like after surviving the ravages of teenage use and time.

I didn't get to see the bike on stage as I wasn't invited, due to the private - almost secretive - approach to this musical. I heard that Michael Buble was there although I don't know if it was to sing or as a guest. Other celebs were there too, but not a peep made it into the press.