1900 Mead Amazon Special

[nosferatu1381]

I picked these up a year and a month ago and just realized I do not have a build thread in here. I spent the last year trying to find parts for this thing, finally gave up last month and just started making parts that would work.

the bottom bracket is the problem, it is not remotely close to any standard. I started with a stronglight type chain wheel and cut this to use as a crashring. I found an odd size set of cups in a German bike that were small enough to fit in here


then i filed a couple of adapter rings to fit in the bottom bracket


polished these up and i finally had a starting point to make it a rider

 

[nosferatu1381]

problem number two, wood wheels and 100 year old hubs 100 year old tires etc do not work with standard hoops. I have one complete unmolested 116 year old bike already no point in having two that no one can ride without an anxiety attack on my part. I built a set of roadster wheels for myself last year that would look the part for this one so they were added so i could use the dyno hub and the three speed

 

[nosferatu1381]

now the lamp, I never could find the right bowl for this one and oil lamps on bicycles are cool but not very practical so I packed an led conversion into this one

 

[horsefarmer]

I like how you are bringing this frame back to life with modern improvements...

 

[nosferatu1381]

next problem, needs a seatpost nothing fits

I had this useless section of seatpost some one cut for who knows what purpose. I adapted it to work. Spent several hours with calipers digging through frames and found one the correct outside diameter that was a tight fit for the inside diameter to make a nice concentric barrelled post with the correct t.o.c. look


some welding filing polishing cursing later , perfect fit

 

[nosferatu1381]

luckily these I was able to find

this is not normal just sayin

nervex chainwheel, stadion cups, sheffield pedals, christophe clips, sram three speed, dyno hub, schwalbes, dutch hoops, troxel saddle (temporary I need to finish one with a shorter womens frame for this one) cwc seatpost, and columbus bars and stem and collet it is starting to look like a bicycle

 

[nosferatu1381]

this was broken and i had no brace so i made a new brace and and new fastener to hold that muddie together on the bike

 

[nosferatu1381]

I like how you are bringing this frame back to life with modern improvements...

It is alive now, she loves this bike.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

 

[nosferatu1381]

now the skirt guard issue, I have some old skirt loops and hate them. None of them look right or remotely resemble the ones for the Amazon so more digging and ratting. I found a pair of forged scissors with a little mod they worked perfectly



waxed cotton cord looks like what was on the bike when i got it a little lacing and braiding later

 

[nosferatu1381]

oops that actually took all night morning coffee progress pics 28 hours left to the tweed ride

 

[nosferatu1381]

time to mount the lamp and install a shifter for Kate. i am going to skip the fifty failed attempts to get that done. I have brass trim used for detail work on concourse cars that I finally used for the lamp mount. It was made to fit on the axle. That was not going to happen. The shifter was simpler I only scrapped five or six tries on that one and went with trigger shift. Brass is a real pain to file. just sayin




plus one day it is fully funtionally three speed with dyno powered mounted lamp

 

[nosferatu1381]

nailed it, drinks are on me, cheers, carry on, back to the shenanigans

 

[horsefarmer]

Amazing work!

 

[Hophead]

I agree. Great work and ingenuity. You have some great skills.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Wow, spectacular!


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[LukeTheJoker]

Really nice work bringing that back to life!

Luke.

 

[user 135]

Very cool bike and i like the creativeness in getting this bike back on the road. Is that fender original?

 

[nosferatu1381]

Very cool bike and i like the creativeness in getting this bike back on the road. Is that fender original?

Yes, I just needed to repair the crack in it, make a new brace for it and I think I used jacobean and pecan to stain it.

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[order99]

Wow...i'm really glad you put 'functional machine' over 'museum-class restoration'-you might have waited a lifetime to get that bike on the road if you hadn't! And that would have been a real shame!

(slides virtual Sasparilla in your direction)