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1937 ccm flyte
Today i was lucky enough to acquire a 1937 ccm flyte from a gentleman named tom in grandbend. His father bought it new when he was 18 in 1937!. Tom rode it as a kid not knowing anything about the bike other then that it was his fathers and therfore old. He used the bike to launch of ramp when he was a kid, eneded up putting a crack in the down tube. Ive talked too some good guys on here about the bike already, wondering if anyone else had anything else to offer. Looks like i need the proper rims, and fenders. pics wont upload, hopfully john an work some magic.
Hello Simonkarl,
Congratulations on your recent acquisition. It sounds like there may be 3 issues here. Are you saying that the bike presently has a cracked downtube? I am not sure how serious the crack is. If it is not oo seriuos, you could have the crack wekded up using MIG or TIG welding, and file the excess weld material to match the tube profile. This would work best if the crack is far enough down so that the seat post would not butt up against the excess weld material. If the down tube is really in bad shape, there are people around who can replace it for you, and do a good job. One such person is Arvon Stacey (Arvon's Cycles) near Tofield, Alberta.
Original Flyte fenders are hard to come by. The best solution is to gather together 3 good CCM Gothic style rear fenders. For the rear Flyte fender, sections from 2 fenders can be MIG or TIG welded together to give the extra 4" in length for the Flyte fender, holes drilled in the appropriate places (some original holes may have to be welded up), welds ground down, and the rear fender edge shaped with a large file to give it the right profile. The front fender can simply be cut to the proper length from a single rear fender, holes welded up and drilled, and the ends , again, finished with a large file. Fender braces are just standard CCM items.
It is also difficult to find the proper Dunlop chrome plated 28 X 1 3/4 W.O. rims in good condition. The original rims were fairly thin and prone to rust on both surfaces. If you find some that are rusty, you may be able to clean them up and paint them with a nice glossy aluminum paint that will look somewhat like a plated surface. The red centre stripe and painted edge stripes can also be added. Of course, rims can be replated if the rust is not too severe, but good platers are getting scarce and the cost of replating is very high. Another solution is to find some newer similar Westwood profile rims in the right size (28 X 1 1/2 F13 Canadian Size, OR 28 X 1 3/4 English size, OR 700C 622 ISO European Size). The red centre stripe and appropriate edging stripes would have to be painted on to match the look of the original Flyte rims. Care must be taken to mask the area on the rim to be painted, scuff the chrome plated surface with sandpaper, using an acid etch primer, and then painting. If the plated surface is not properly prepared, the paint will peel or wash off in short order.
Good Luck!
John Williamson
Im quite familair with getting parts re chromed, it is costly, i have a bunch of 28' rims on there own, i could grab a pair and do them up. Im torn on what to do with it..., i usually just take it to bare metal like all my other bikes and start from scratch. This bike is such a piece of history, i dont want to really mess with it. I have a guy that is going to fix the tube, he does great work and thats not a big deal for me, id like too, if possible find a set of rims and hubs for this bike, some signs of age would be ok. im kicking myself now that i sold a 1940 womens bike that had the chrome rims with red stripes to mark mcguire at the brandford show this past summer, they were mint. Can anyone tell me that hubs it would have came with originally? I have a couple 1926 Hercules coasters kcicking around that could use a home?. MAYBE anyone has a seat that would fit this bike that they are willing too part with?..
a '37 most likely came with a 37 hub
seat could be any 30's-40's seat , 2 rear springs and a front "round spring" (?name)
change the stem, put a triplex crank, follow John's advise for the fenders, find chain tensioners, find grips, change chain, find rims, and that would be it!!! deal with surface rust, clear the frame and fork and ride on
what are those rims? V160's?
Not sure what V160s are, the back has a Perry hub, front is made in Canada.
here is the kind of seat I would use
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread,php?82489-Troxel-seat
or
even cheaper with the right patina
http://thecabe/vbulletin/showthread.php?82490-Mesinger-seat
previous one should be
http://thecabe/vbulletin/showthread.php?82490-Troxel-seat
hell both aren't working go see SM2501 for sale post on The Cabe
I think it has a triplex on it.
well definately not a triplex crank, and doesn't even look like a CCM sprocket, do you have a picture from the other side
It's a ccm sprocket, and it's a triplex, I'll post a pic tomorrow.
Good for you Simonkarl and an excellent bicycle for your collection .
Nice triplex crank and Ccm sprocket .
thanks Gt