Colson Decoliner, Breathing fresh air into this stale build

[Walker]

So I think KZ1000 felt bad for me at the conclusion of the Monson swap, or he wanted to save a trip to the scrap dealer. Either way I stopped by his place on the way home and loaded a dozen ladies bike frames into the subie. One frame in particular was too nice to chop up.......NOT! This Colson frame has such nice lines. I'm going for a streamlined look without messing up the art deco styling, similar to the bicycles designed by Viktor Schreckengost.

the plan as it stands so far..

my local dumps says "No dump picking" but i asked the guy if i could take a look in the dumpster for some tubing. I dug out a 12' length fo 1" od steel tubing from a overhead garage door, perfect.

Some creative bending yielded a pair of top tubes.

Mock up..

I used one of those tubing miter programs and it worked pretty well to get me started with the grinder

tacked up the lower tube, double checked alignment and started laying in some beads.

And then I ran out of steam, i mean gas.. :|

to spring or not to spring?

Digging through the fork bucket for some kind of blade fork to use for the lower top tube extensions. Still need to do some headscratching on the curvey fender braces.

 

[user 135]

Re: Colson Decoliner

I am liking all the details. The frame extension on the second bar looks sharp.

 

[dogdart]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Very nice start , of the three springers , I like the forward look of the Beehive 8)

 

[yeshoney]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Walker,
Whichever spring you decide make sure the fender braces bolt to the part that doesn't flex or your fenders will be a bouncin'!

Joe

 

[American Vintage Bicycle Supply]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Dude...That's Sick. Man how I love Colsons. Also I'm not sure if your measurements are right but I know a guy that makes fiberglass bull-nose tanks! It would help complete the look :wink:

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Re: Colson Decoliner

This is SWEET

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

All of the forks need some work, of course.. The X-53 is missing the upper spring bracket hardware (anyone gots em?) and most need steerer tube repairs/replacment. I'm liking the curves of the beehive but the X-53's shorty fender kind of extends the visual line of the bottom tube. I wonder if I could combine the two forks somehow? Doing a springer is going to complicate my curvey fender braces, HMMM. We'll see. I probably can't swap my bottle till later in the week.

I'm going to run my creme brick tires on triple drops, not sure about the hubs yet. A modern internally geared coaster would be cool but I havent one of those...

 

[Bettleguise]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Awwwshum!
What's the plan for the bottom cut? Looks like the frame was cracked there to begin with. Think it might look good if you welded some kind of cap on it, a ball, door knob, shifter?

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Tthe frame was intact when i got it, just got more anxuious about cutting it than taking photos. I wanted to leave in that remaining part on so as to add some stability to the front half of the frame while under the fab. I'll be cutting it out when the top tubes are in, I think I can re-use it though in a boardtrack build to get the dropped bottom tube look, it's got a nice tight radius to it. I did try flipping the cut piect around so it extended up and back toward the seat tube. It would intersect with the top tube. it was a neat look but not where I wanted to go with this one. I plan on doing a few more gender swaps this spring and selling the frames as projects, so maybe on the next one I'll get funky.

 

[Gdcast]

Re: Colson Decoliner

I really like where you´re going with this frame, I now is gonna a killer bike.
The problem is, I wanna see more!!!

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Probably going to clean up these double drops

lace them to this in the back and a matching black out front. I've got black spokes in stock for the rear, not for the front though..

mmmmmmmmmm, creamy!

got my bottle exchanged today, hopefully I'll get some welding done tonight.

Here's the badge

It really wraps around the headtube

 

[ADRNLN]

Re: Colson Decoliner

can't wait to see more

 

[KZ1000]

Re: Colson Decoliner

X-53 belongs on that frame, that shory fender goes with your curves nicely. Glad to see those frames used.

 

[dogdart]

Re: Colson Decoliner

the x-53 top piece is the same as on the Murry truss rods , I think I have an extra

 

[ratina]

Re: Colson Decoliner

The x-53 fork fits perfect. The bottom tube flows right into the fork

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

got more welding done tonight, made one mistake that I'll need to sleep on to decide if it's worth re-doing. I'm making a slight design tweak to the secondary frame extensions. Stay tuned...

Once I get the frame presentable, I'll do a for real test fit with the forks. I could possibly trim a bit of fender to make the beehive look like the X-53 but I hear where you guys are coming from.

Thanks all

 

[Skipton]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Great stuff!....Love the rear hub....Keep it coming!

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

thanks Skipton.

I was welding last night by floodlight, managed to mis-align the upper top tube just a bit, enought that it bothers me. I'll be cutting it out and doing that one over.

For paint, I'm thinking green & creme. Looking into Montanan Gold spraypaint, they seem to have the best color selection in rattlecan. Anyone uses this stuff?

 

[Walker]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Update!

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Re: Colson Decoliner

Looks great :shock: Nice to see some good use out of a womans frame :mrgreen: