Any idea what this is? - 1920s Radior

[Woz]

Strange no serial number found anywhere.

Still .... worst things have happened at sea .... like finding no serial number for something under water.

 

[Woz]

The front brake along with the levers if you can scrub it up and find some engravings will provide many clues.

The front light bracket is not French and potentially a British addition done by a past owner.

The crank if original is in astounding condition, and so are a few other bits like wing nuts etc.

 

[PhillB]

Fully supporting you on this. This will be a project. Feel free to PM me if I could help out the other side of "La Manche".

Cheers @Woz, I may well take you up on that!!

 

[PhillB]

Strange no serial number found anywhere.

Still .... worst things have happened at sea .... like finding no serial number for something under water.

So it does have a serial number. '274686' Which doesn't really give much - unless of course it was made in 1927...there were no other marks thought

The front brakes are Philco. I need to look at those a bit more closely. The rear brake is not original and someone has fashioned a crude bracket to fit it via a mudguard hole.

 

[Woz]

Typically, the mudguard hole would have been drilled "vertically" on the rear stay bridge at this period, at least for French mudguards, if indeed it was intended to have mudguards to begin with.

Bowden cable operated brakes only came in the picture around the very late 1910 or for the most part in 1920s. They were to my knowledge always attached to the forks or rear stays - like an optional extra. A flip-flop rear hub would have been the norm, with potentially one rear brake.

When you stripped it, did you notice any witness marks on the forks the brake had moved lower? Potentially it may have had 700B wheels.

It's a great find this is. If only it could talk

 

[PhillB]

Typically, the mudguard hole would have been drilled "vertically" on the rear stay bridge at this period, at least for French mudguards, if indeed it was intended to have mudguards to begin with.

Bowden cable operated brakes only came in the picture around the very late 1910 or for the most part in 1920s. They were to my knowledge always attached to the forks or rear stays - like an optional extra. A flip-flop rear hub would have been the norm, with potentially one rear brake.

When you stripped it, did you notice any witness marks on the forks the brake had moved lower? Potentially it may have had 700B wheels.

It's a great find this is. If only it could talk

Yes, this one does have a vertical mudguard hole on the rear stay bridge. There were some brakes on the front which were attached only to the forks - (something I had not seen before) The cables had unusual shaped ends, so was careful to unthread rather than just snip the cables.

I didn't see any witness marks, although I didn't look to closely, mainly because I thought the brakes might have been fitted later, but they might be original I guess? I need to look at them in more detail.

It came with Dunlop 26 1 1/4 rims which are just about salvageable (and a later addition for sure), but could well have been 700B, I hadn't;t thought of that, although 700C fit with a fair bit of room (700B are bigger IIRC?)

There must be an interesting story around how it managed to end up in a shed fire in Surbiton after all these years!