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WW1 Columbia military bike resto questions.

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redline1968

Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
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well I just discovered that I had purchased a military bike by accident. Yep I really thought it was just a double bar.. to my surprise it’s not. So now I’m reasearchng the historic info by reading blogs on this bike. It seams that they are kinda rare and there is not many original color pics of these bikes.. so I.. there are a few questions that I have. Should I resto it in military colors or not.. does it make a difference.. I’ve seen a USA xxx serial numbers with the military color. I don’t think it’s a color indicator... I found that they sent some to Europe during the war..could this USA prefix mean they were exports and not a indicator for color? What are your thoughts? Here are a few pics of mine I put heavy duty spokes and saddle on it since it’s military... I got the crank and chain ring on its way..yes badge is gone but not forgotten...

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redline1968 ......

Type the following in, in the CABE search feature ...

''World War One Era --- OLIVE DRAB''

Read everything ... but especially ENTRY #7
by rustjunkie.

..... patric

 
Hi Redline,

I have a 1917 one that I'm working on. Posts 3 and 4 below will give you a comparison that I made of colours found on the unexposed head of the fork.

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/ww1-westfield-columbia-military-model.109845/

That said, I think that yours is one of the ones made from and sold after the war using surplus frames, and it may be that it was always black. A good place to check for original colour would be inside the bb, or inside the headtube.

Hope this helps.,

Adrian
 
Yep black it is.. but I think since it needs resto I'm going with the alternative after all its military even if it was assembled later. And who's to say there wasn't any olive drab bikes made after..lol. . This one Just never saw bullets ... And it will look cooler ...thanks for the info
 
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That does look better. Is this the crank and ring from Hoofhearted? If so, it turned up at the right time for you, they are not easy to find.

Is that the WW2 toolbag on the back? I'm still looking for the WW1 one which is somewhat less egg shaped (-:

For the bars on mine, I used rechromed WW2 military bars, these are the same pattern as the WW1 bars, and easily available on Ebay. I discuss it on some posts here:

http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/37408-us-1917-westfield-columbia-quotmilitary-modelquot-bicycle/

The correct pattern grips I got from here:

http://www.vintageccm.com/content/corrugated-rubber-grips

Best Regards,

Adrian
 
Thank you the info and yes that’s the chain ring.. the too bag was one I had laying around. It will be addressed when I find one lol.. believe it or not I had the bars in the past I know what to look for for them. I’ll bet the military color will make this thing pop hard! But as with everything projects it will have to wait it’s turn. I’m going into gas operated mode and start working on my Pontiac and a ww2 paratrooper military simplex bike and possibly my flying merkel bicycle etc etc etc.... :0

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