24" Colson

[highship]

I just looked at a 24" Colson loop tail last night, I walked away from it though. I still might be working a trade for it though.

The reason I walked away was because there was something really wrong with the crank, there was tons of play in it. Normally that wouldn't be an issue for me but heres where I got tossed for a loop (get it?)... The BB was really small, maybe 1 1/2" in diameter, and the BB was two pieces.
On one quadrant (say 3:00) the bottom half of the BB hinged into a tab on the top half of the BB; and at the opposite quadrant (say 9:00) it was bolted to the top half of the BB. I have seen this once in pictures and it was on an early 1900's Indian but never the real deal. So what's the deal? If it needed bearings or something could I find them? Oh ya... and one of the pedals was welded on Other then that the bike was sweet cool colors, good paint, all around nice. Is it worth getting?

[Henry morgan]

depends on the price.. but you can always change the crank set.. I just went to a house that had a bike listed from the 30s
for sale.. it was from the 60 and crank was bad also .. but it had the tank.. the lights and was complete.. i looked at it long enough they dropped the price in half.. so I took it..

[ZygoteLittle]

Don’t walk away from a difficult project; often, inspiration prevails! And besides, the crank and BB can be worked in several ways; this’ll make it your bike.

“Practice a relentless attitude of perseverance.” – Buddha

[dogdart]

That's a pretty cool lookin Looptail , the smaller loop makes it look more of a fastback than mine

[yeshoney]

I believe the bike is a Stelber. I had one just like it with a slightly different frame. Same small BB and the same fork and chain guard. It is not an old bike, 50's for sure.

Truth about the bearings etc is that you can change the bearings but if I remember correctly the races are part of the crank and not interchangeable with anything.

Good luck if you buy it!
Joe