Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird NEW PICS pg8

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Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Wow, what a great bike. Clean it, show it, ride it, but you best have a coulpe of big body-guards to ride along with you.

I hope you don't pee your pants with excitement on your way home, it's ok if you did, you don't have to say anything.

What you really should do is put a bunch of crazy things on it just to mess with people, nothing that would hurt the bike, like put a RatRodBike.com sticker on a magnet and a grayhound on the front fender and find some blue tires.

Congrat on your find
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

cman said:
Rat Rod said:
If Hooch had it, it would be on Ebay right now. :lol:

Nahh....he would have a new signature line" I will not sell by Bluebird for all the money in the world" after he sells the Amsterdam.
lol thats why i collect tattoos because its the only thing I cant sell!
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

dos cruiser said:
Wow, what a great bike. Clean it, show it, ride it, but you best have a coulpe of big body-guards to ride along with you.

I hope you don't pee your pants with excitement on your way home, it's ok if you did, you don't have to say anything.

What you really should do is put a bunch of crazy things on it just to mess with people, nothing that would hurt the bike, like put a RatRodBike.com sticker on a magnet and a grayhound on the front fender and find some blue tires.

Congrat on your find
Looking for New friends, have to be 6'6" at least and 300 Ibs. or more and scary as heck. to protect and serve the Beloved Bluebird. :D
still cant believe I have it trying to talk the wife into letting me bring it into the house tried to tell her this is more then a bike it is ART
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

npence said:
. . . . trying to talk the wife into letting me bring it into the house. tried to tell her this is more than a bike, it is ART.
If I can do it with a basic Elgin, you can definitely do it with the Bluebird! It took my wife the whole weekend to notice it was even in the living room! She walked past it three times before doing "the double take".
ElginGirlsBike049.jpg
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Were you trembling when you first saw it?
It looks like Indiana Jones found the ark!
Wow what a find!
Jeff
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Hooch said:
screw the restoration clean it carefully and its a survivor too many of them are "restored" from a bunch of parts from different bikes. this one is a complete bike! :) or let me cut it up hehehe


He is right they are original only once.

Great find!
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Spokeshave said:
Were you trembling when you first saw it?
It looks like Indiana Jones found the ark!
Wow what a find!
Jeff
Woulda been cool if he had to do some random crazy obstacle course on his way out...probably would suck to do while having ti lift that thing :lol:
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

still cant believe I have it trying to talk the wife into letting me bring it into the house tried to tell her this is more then a bike it is ART

Clean it up real good first and put some tires on it. Then show her the bike on ebay and tell your it's not a garage kind of bike, you most hing it over the fireplace.

What year is this Elgin?
I have a 42 that looks like yours, but in a kind of salmon color.

If I can do it with an Elgin, you can definitely do it with the Bluebird! It took my wife the whole weekend to notice it was even in the living room! She walked past it three times before doing "the double take".
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

GTCOMA said:
Does it have grease zerks on the bottom bracket and head tube like the Robin does?
Yes on the hub and crank housing.
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Do those have problems with grease going everywhere, I'd think if you're filling the entire bb with grease it'd go out through the bearings? If not I might install one on my bike so I don't have to re-pack the bearings every 6 months.... :mrgreen:
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

outskirtscustoms said:
Do those have problems with grease going everywhere, I'd think if you're filling the entire bb with grease it'd go out through the bearings? If not I might install one on my bike so I don't have to re-pack the bearings every 6 months.... :mrgreen:
On my Elgin, the grease zerks have a teeny little metal tube on the inside that basically directs the grease towards the bearings. They were present in the head tube but were missing in the bottom bracket. Just as you imagined, when I took the cranks out of the bottom bracket it was slammed with grease. Gobs and gobs of it! So much of it, it almost filled the BB and went up into the frame tube! The only thing I can think of is that someone kept pumping a grease gun thinking they'd keep pumping until grease came out the bearing cups. I imagine they ran out of grease before that happened!
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong because I've been told that this is the grease gun that came with the Elgins of that day.
Greasegun004.jpg


A close up:
Greasegun010.jpg


I just leave mine in the front basket but I'd like to know if it ever came with a bracket or something like it. It would look so rad mounted on the frame.
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

Pudge said:
outskirtscustoms said:
Do those have problems with grease going everywhere, I'd think if you're filling the entire bb with grease it'd go out through the bearings? If not I might install one on my bike so I don't have to re-pack the bearings every 6 months.... :mrgreen:
On my Elgin, the grease zerks have a teeny little metal tube on the inside that basically directs the grease towards the bearings. They were present in the head tube but were missing in the bottom bracket. Just as you imagined, when I took the cranks out of the bottom bracket it was slammed with grease. Gobs and gobs of it! So much of it, it almost filled the BB and went up into the frame tube! The only thing I can think of is that someone kept pumping a grease gun thinking they'd keep pumping until grease came out the bearing cups. I imagine they ran out of grease before that happened!

Well considering I had to take a pipe wrench to get the seat post out of my bike when I got it, a little extra grease in reserve wouldn't hurt anything...... :wink: and it'd keep the bike from rusting on the inside....lol. summer heat would melt the grease and keep it sliding downward anyway so it means you'd never have to grease the bearings in 20 years. :idea: Uh oh you got the gears turning now.......lol. :mrgreen:
 
Re: Barn fresh Elgin Blue Bird

I'm still thinking about this bike.
I thought about it all day! :lol:
 

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