Steel in Motion

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Joined
Jul 24, 2021
Messages
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Location
ITP ATL
Well here goes nothing. First RRBO for me. I was planning on building this over the winter so when I saw the Skinny Wheel option I figured why not do it on here.

Back story: I picked this frame up this past summer off a Marketplace ad. It was a multi-bike ad trying to sell an entire collection in a small town in rural South Carolina. Nice bikes but I bet he got few bites from the locals.
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In one of the the shots I saw a buried in the middle a black archbar and in another up on a shelf a white archbar that peaked my interset.

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I was planning to be in the general area for a Hot Rod event called Steel in Motion and hit him up to check out the collection. I really had no intent on buying 100+ bikes but figured he may let one or two go. We had a nice visit and I walked away with just the one I wanted. He was a fairly knowledgeable collector, but trying to sell that many vintage bikes in the middle of nowhere was going to be a struggle. The white one was a Iver but was missing the crankset and I knew they are specific and harder to come by. The black one he didn't know what the make was. The extended setm that was on it in the pic had been removed as he had a third archbar, another Iver, that was not for sale as he was building it out and installed it on it. So I made a deal on the single black frame, I paid $250, not sure if that is good or bad but I wanted it. It came with a crank and sprocket, Japanese stem and a chain. And threw it in the back seat of my 47 Chevrolet for the ride back home to Atlanta.


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So this is what I bought:

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After some investigation and help from folks here on RRB and the CABE I have determined that it is a 1918 Snyder built Rollfast that was badged as an American Flyer, like the model trains. The badge is long gone but the adhesive from the down tube decal remains and when excited in UV it glows and is readable. Its easy to see American Flyer once you figure it out.
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Plans are a "Resto-rod" of sorts. Original look and feel with a three speed Shimano Coaster IGH wheel set. The frame is in OK enough shape with decent original paint but the fork will need lots of love. I've been collecting parts and have most of what I need, excepting a proper seat post and saddle. I will try and post somewhat regularly, but I've been known to be a slacker in that regard, hopefully this build off thread will keep me on track.
 
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Cool score story. Once you finish this, you need to come down to Savannah for a ride.
 
Well here goes nothing. First RRBO for me. I was planning on building this over the winter so when I saw the Skinny Wheel option I figured why not do it on here.

Back story: I picked this frame up this past summer off a Marketplace ad. It was a multi-bike ad trying to sell an entire collection in a small town in rural South Carolina. Nice bikes but I bet he got few bites from the locals.
View attachment 211893View attachment 211894

In one of the the shots I saw a buried in the middle a black archbar and in another up on a shelf a white archbar that peaked my interset.

View attachment 211895View attachment 211896

I was planning to be in the general area for a Hot Rod event called Steel in Motion and hit him up to check out the collection. I really had no intent on buying 100+ bikes but figured he may let one or two go. We had a nice visit and I walked away with just the one I wanted. He was a fairly knowledgeable collector, but trying to sell that many vintage bikes in the middle of nowhere was going to be a struggle. The white one was a Iver but was missing the crankset and I knew they are specific and harder to come by. The black one he didn't know what the make was. The extended setm that was on it in the pic had been removed as he had a third archbar, another Iver, that was not for sale as he was building it out and installed it on it. So I made a deal on the single black frame, I paid $250, not sure if that is good or bad but I wanted it. It came with a crank and sprocket, Japanese stem and a chain. And threw it in the back seat of my 47 Chevrolet for the ride back home to Atlanta.


View attachment 211900

So this is what I bought:

View attachment 211901
After some investigation and help from folks here on RRB and the CABE I have determined that it is a 1918 Snyder built Rollfast that was badged as an American Flyer, like the model trains. The badge is long gone but the adhesive from the down tube decal remains and when excited in UV it glows and is readable. Its easy to see American Flyer once you figure it out.
View attachment 211902

View attachment 211903
Plans are a "Resto-rod" of sorts. Original look and feel with a three speed Shimano Coaster IGH wheel set. The frame is in OK enough shape with decent original paint but the fork will need lots of love. I've been collecting parts and have most of what I need, excepting a proper seat post and saddle. I will try and post somewhat regularly, but I've been known to be a slacker in that regard, hopefully this build off thread will keep me on track.
I haven't been to that show yet but it's been on my radar. Apparently they have a huge gasser gathering and grudge races? Sounds like my kind of jam
 
Cool score story. Once you finish this, you need to come down to Savannah for a ride.
Would love to, I have been following your builds for a long time. I do occasional work for the Telfair Museum so a random trip is always a possibility.

I haven't been to that show yet but it's been on my radar. Apparently they have a huge gasser gathering and grudge races? Sounds like my kind of jam
Yes its a great time, cars and guitars is their moto. Its a camping/drag racing/swap meet/rockabilly kind of deal with a pin-up contest and some late night shenanigans with bands on stage. Last year they had four top alcohol nostalga funny cars running exhibition. The South East Gassers used to run but have not been there in a few years. Lots of grudge racing, pretty much can run all day if you want, get to the end turn anround and do it again. I run my car down the track a few time each year though with only 90hp its neither fast nor quick, but it is fun and I can cut a good light. Mine is the no-hood blue firewall car, rest are club buddies cars.

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Got a little work in. The frame was decently straight for being 104 years old. The left seat stay was straight while the right side was gently curved to the outside. There was a slight dent of the outside. I used the Sheldon Brown frame straightening technique and fixed the seat stay and got the dropouts and total frame alignment near perfect.

Here I used some light weight aluminum angle to check for out of alignment:
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The right was at 1/8 and the left 1/16, pretty close, but this was before I corrected the flattened stay.

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It is hard to see because it really was subtle but the left seat stay was flattened just a bit however the resulting misalignment at the drop-outs is easier to see:

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After some leverage with wood blocks the seat stay is again as originally slightly curved, and the dropouts are near perfect by my poormans' Part Tool-like bolt jig:

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A little bit at a time. The chain tensioner bolts were missing from the frame and the threads were pretty rough. I could not easily figure out what pitch thread they were as none of the random bolts I tried would fit. Using some undersized taps as a guide I found it to be 24 TPI.
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I picked up a pair of used tensioner bolts in 24TPI from eBay and measured them out to be 1/4" x 24TPI. An amazon order next for a tap and die set and I proceeded to chase the bolts and recut the threads in the dropouts.

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Some nice fresh threads.
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With the bolts installed I could not help but try out the rear wheel I'm leaning towards using. Its an aluminum 622 with a coaster brake 3 speed Shimano Nexus hub that came from a hardly ridden $22 "Americano" ladies bike I picked up from Marketplace. I have an 11 tooth Ichibike 1" pitch skip-tooth sprocket on the shelf ready for this bike. I dislike the brake surface and blockiness to the rim and have some plans to smooth it out and faux-wood grain it only after doing a test ride to see if I like them on this. The rubber is 700 35c Kenda and is probably not what I will run. I really want white tires for it but, I have 700 32c clay colored Kenda's that I will most likely transfer over from another Marketplace bike. I have one other possible set of rims with a much better visual profile but are skinnier and not a coaster brake hub, so a switch over and re-lace and true would be necessary (which I have never done).

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