1924 girls Crescent help with parts

Submitted by njn on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 20:49

Hi. I am fairly new to this forum. I recently purchased a 1924 girls crescent. The rims do not match. The front has a wood rim with dunlop fort tire. It is in great shape and is holding air. The rear rim is metal, the hub is a new hercules pat pending (with a brake arm) and the tire is called a challenge made in canada. The rear is leaking air from the valve stem. I would appreciate any advise i can get about the bike. I would like matching front and back / tires and rims ; however, this might be very difficult given how old the bike is. Would it be possible to put the hub on a wood rear rim. Looking at catalogs of the 20s it would seem the bike could have either and the wood rim appeals to me but perhaps is unrealistic. Also, i am in BC and there are far fewer old bikes around her than back east.  

6 Comments

Submitted by njn on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 20:50.

Opps. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks Nicole

Submitted by njn on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 21:40.

I don't seem to be able to add photos if the bike. Will keep trying. Nicole 

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Submitted by jdwillia on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 21:53.

Hi Nicole,

Congratulations on finding a fairly rare bike. I would like to start out by asking you what you plan to do with the bike (is it for riding or for display?). It can be made rideable with either type of rim, but wooden rims require more work. First of all, wooden rims were meant to be used with a maximum tire pressure of 30 to 35 psi. Anything higher than this, and you risk blowing a section out of the side of the rim. Truing wooden rims is also a lot more difficult than steel rims. It is rare to find an old wheel with a wooden rim that does not require truing or re-tensioning the spokes. Also, since the maximum tire pressure with wooden rims is limited, it is a good idea to try and find some larger section tires like 28 X 1 3/4 or 700 X 47C. They will require less air than the smaller 28 X 1 1/2 (Canadian size) tires. This also presents problems because it is difficult (but not impossible) to source this type of tire that does not have a modern look. The Dunlop Fort tire on the front was a good tire sold by CCM, but probably not available much after WWII. I still have some that look almost new on a 1936 bike that was really never ridden, but they are also hard to find.

If you feel that you really want 2 wooden-rimmed wheels, I could possibly make up a rear wheel that, hopefully, would be a reasonable match for your front wheel. However, I live in Edmonton and it would take some time and I would have to mail it to you.

John Williamson

Submitted by Cbgimse on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 22:14.

Hi! I am in Victoria and have steel wheels and other misc parts if you need anything
My email is same user as here at gmail
Bjorn

Submitted by njn on Thu, 10/22/2020 - 00:05.

Thanks so much for the replies.  I guess I am not sure exactly what I want to do with the bike.  I initially bought it with the hope of being able to ride it around and therefore the steel rim would be much more practical; however, I have sort of fallen in love with the idea of owning a bike with wood rims, even if I can't really ride it (or at least only ride it very carefully).  I do have three other ccm bikes from the 60s that I enjoy riding around town.  It is good to know there are people interested in these old bikes out west.  The front wood rim on the bike is surprisingly true and the tire is excellent.  It has been painted so perhaps this protected the wood from warping etc.  

John how would you 'make up' a wood wheel?  Do you mean put one together with various old parts or actually make one from a piece of wood.  Seems one would need a lot of fancy machinery to do this put I am interested.

Bjorn thanks very much for the offer.  I will get in touch through email.  

IThanks again, Nicole

If anyone has any pictures of the correct way the fenders were laced, I would be interested.  The few pictures I have seen from the catalogues are illustrated in a vague way.  I am also interested to know what colour people think the string would have been.  There was a piece of green string hanging from one of the eyelets, but I would have expected the string to be brown / beige.  

Submitted by jdwillia on Thu, 10/22/2020 - 09:39.

Hello Again Nicole,

I would never attempt to make a wooden rim from scratch. I have some wooden rims that were used on CCM bicycles. I would make up a wheel using old parts. I am not sure if someone has painted parts of your bicycle or whether the rim was originally painted black (some of them were). If you want to ride a bicycle with wooden rims, it would probably look better to have varnished rims, or wood in more of a natural state. If the wooden rims are in reasonable shape, and the wheels are true, the bicycle can be ridden.

John Williamson