Morgan, et all:
Your Mead cycle is one of the nicer made bicycles of those years.
Arnold, Schwinn made bikes for Mead for a fair amount of years, don't
remember when they started without researching. I think they quit sometime
in the later '20's or '30's.
The earlier racing frames were usually lighter tubing,and used 1-1/4 to
almost 2'" tires, all 28" and were more natural rubber type.
The standard bikes like I think yours is used the regular rubber 28x1-1/2"
single tube tires.
I think the '20's started the smaller1 to 1-11/8" racer type single tube
tires and smaller racing type sew-ups.
I haven't looked at some of the old listings and books for a while and may
be off a few years on my timing.
You can certainly use a Morrow coaster brake for the back wheel as the
longest lasting but not fastest stopping.
The New Departure brakes stopped quicker but wore the discs a little sooner
than the morrow shoe.
Mussleman was the least of the three, but adequate.
You can use your front hub if you have good internals.
I do have period front hubs if you need one.
I'd have to check my inventory stash to see what I have on rear coaster
hubs.
Let me know.
You could always attach one of the fork mount English front brakes as a
second unit if you wanted to. You could get iron clad wood rims if you
wanted heavier duty service.
Your chain may be one of the older roller or block chains that were fatter
for durability, but still 1-3/16 standard size.
They made wider sprockets, chainwheels, and chains like 1-1/4" but those
were older.
The bolt that's holding your chain should have a nut behind the link to keep
it in place. Your inside plate is threaded. Set your bolt adjustment for
easy flex, no bind when you tighten the little "lock"nut.
Usually you would hold a small hammer or weight on the screw head and tap
the screw threads that come thru slightly by the nut and tap the thread just
hard enought to flatten a thread so the nut wouldn't unscrew.
Many block racing chains were made this way thru the years.
I think the racers could always be easily recognized because they had
narrower frame and fork design for tire clearance and many also had three
piece type hangars, as compared to your one piece crank as a general rule.
Many of the bikes like yours came with fixed gear or coaster brake as an
option.
A lot of guys still rode coaster brakes on their track bikes in the '30's
for training and commuting type riding, and changed wheels to fixed for
racing.
Lighter wheels and tires being the issue so they wouldn't go into a race
with beat up everyday wheels and then get a defect when under more stress,
speed and tire pressure.
I just took an old V-shape Fairbanks Boston wood rim Coaster brake wheel
apart that my dad trained on in the "30's and put an old style BSA track hub
in it's place to put on a BSA fitted bike to make up a nice old racing
machine.
The front wheel I had came from Hank Sima, a fellow my dad raced with. Hank
was on either the '32 or '36 Olympic team.
I have a picture of my dad and other riders including Hank about 1935 after
the amateur hour team race preceding the 6- Day race at the Chicago Stadium.
Many riders put on drop bars or reversed the ones on the bike to "race" it
up and changed saddles to a more racing style because it was more
comfortable when leaning down.
The wider seat you have on will be uncomfy if you get too low.
You should be able to change clamps on any saddle you get to make it fit the
5/8" post. They also make sleeves or 1/2 moon clips that fit inside the 7/8"
regular clamp to size it down to fit your post. 1/8" thick sizes down to
5/8". Voila! Paradise Regained as Milton said.(wrote)
Then you could get some nice 1/2" steel pedals and put on some toe clips and
straps. If your gonna scorch, do it right!
Hope this gets you rpm'd up, any more Q's ask away.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
>I recently acquired an old Mead Ranger "Special" (or maybe "Roadster").
>It's not quite lightweight, but I hope it might be of interest to you, and
>also I hope you might be able to give me some advice on it. (I cleared this
>post Dale, first.)
>
> The bike:
>
> http://www.wooljersey.com/
>
> What's maybe more interesting is that I also got a 1919 Mead Catalog,
> complete with extra bits like order forms, wholesale price sheet, etc. I
> scanned it and put it here:
>
> http://www.wooljersey.com/
>
> Click the medium-sized pics to see them full-sized. It's like stepping
> into a time warp! There's some fascinating stuff in there. (Even if it's
> not from Europe and not quite for lightweights as we know them.)
>
> I want to make this into a rider. I posted some questions about it here:
>
> http://thecabe.com/
>
> If any of you are of a mind to answer them, or offer advice, I'd be happy
> to hear it. Sheldon has already kindly answered some of my questions.
> Thank you, Sheldon. I hope you like the catalog scans. Ted Ernst, if you
> read this, how far off from a period racing bike might it be? If I added
> some racy (coaster brake) wheels and tires and saddle
> and drop bars, could it pass? Yes, I am a poser, but I do plan to ride it.
>
> Morgan "wannabe scorcher" Fletcher
> Oakland, CA