madscrambler

As a Swede, my fathers side, i was always Curious to own A Crescent bike. This company started out in USA and then for some reason moved to Sweden. This is a Crescent VarldsmasterCykein modeled on World Champions Bikes by this Company. This is (i believe) an early 50's bike and its one piece crank is quite unique in Racing Bikes to this brand. I saw this last week on the face book market place and decided to purchase it. 100 included the frame, fork head set, crank set bottom bracket and pedals along with the seat post. A complete company team version of this bike is for sale at Steel-vintage.com it shows a French ensemble. I will be looking for similar parts to complete this bike. My swedish side is looking forward to getting this going again.
beautiful day to buy a bike! from Oakland. Santa was late arriving and perhaps stopped over in las Vegas


One piece crank set

Note no shifter Boss on left side.

madscrambler

i will measure it tomorrow i am just getting started.

juvela

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chainset either Briga or Fauber

pedals appear they may be Phillips Apollo, from the UK -




bottom bracket thread may be metric ("french") 35.0 X 1.0mm

steerer and other frame tubes should be BSC

drive train could have been derailleur three, four or five speed

suspect OEM gear ensemble would have been Freres Huret

member @styggno1 shall be able to offer lots of assistance


MCB factory located in Varberg, image from 1956:




in case you have not as yet discovered it there is a Swedish cycle forum which abides here -

Forums - CykelForum.se

at the time of this product the firm also was a producer of mopeds

manufacturer catalogue of 1951 -

https://www.raketsport.com/cyklar_51.htm

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oneclick 

There is a wrinkle in the image of the top headset race - if it is real it needs investigating.

reconnaissance

It’s a flat spot due to denting.

Prowler 

Congratulations. Nice historic bike. Mine is a 1974 92319 made in Varberg. I'm Carolina dirt farmer but my father-in-law was Swedish. Not why I bought the bike but it's a nice connection. I REALLY like my bike.

IIRC Crescent did not move to Sweden. Crescent was a very large and successful Chicago based company through the first US bike boom but when that boom collapsed so did Crescent. Before they did, Sweden was one of their largest export markets*. The Stockholm importers obtained a license to make the bikes in country and when the Chicago firm closed the folks in Stockholm just continued.

I find it pretty cool that the basic headbadge design from the start has continued to this day, something like 130 years now. Minor adjustments but fundamentally the same. Good luck with yours. Lucky guy.

* I've read that Crescent was the first bicycle manufacturer to have sufficient production that they filled rail cars with bikes and shipped them to the east coast for further distribution and export. I've heard that the quantities exported to Sweden were quite large.

madscrambler

Thanks juvela as always.

madscrambler

Oneclick
for some reason because of sun angle the pictures became wavy like the tubes were pretzels. I had to select pictures where this was less of a problem. I like our sunny winter day however!

Reynolds 

Nice and unusual (at least for me) bike.

oneclick 

I though that might have been the case - there is a similar (though smaller) distortion in one of the images of the headbadge.

madscrambler

Vintage-Steel had these comments about a very similar bike they have for sale "Crescent was founded as a cycling brand in Chicago in the 1890s. But it was when a Swedish company started to import them, that the future of this brand took an unexpected turn.

At first Crescent was sold as a budget alternative for people who were looking for a reliable bike with a choice of quality parts.
But some years later Crescent as a brand and its production was completely moved to Sweden, where also a some road bikes were made.

In 1912 the legendary olympic cyclist Henrik Morén established a new 24 hour record and did so on a Crescent bike. A feat which suddenly made the brand famous on an international scale.
And more triumphs should follow in the decades to come: 1928 Henry Hansen won a gold medal in the Olympic Games and in 1931 he was triumphant at the world championships.
The world championships proved to be a good event for Crescent bikes to shine. In 1948 Harry Snell won the title on an orange bike from Sweden. The colour had become iconic and was typical for Crescent bikes by this time.
It was after this Victory that Crescent marketed their racing machines as world champions bikes 'Världsmästarcykeln'. "

juvela

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as you probably recall our local MCB stockist was Stone's on the island

do not know who has been taking care of things there since Dennis' passing

you could bring the frame by as a conversation piece/ice breaker and see if the person has any MCB knowledge

at the desk in the back of the shop there is a good supply of MCB dealer materials
do not know how far back they go; perhaps there may be nothing earlier than late 1960's; worth a check in any event

these materials go into far more detail than anything available to the general public so represent a valuable resource for the researcher

if you have not paid any attention to it previously you might like to see Dennis' personal copper plated model 320

iirc as part of the shop's permanent holdings there is also an example of the inox model which was offered

last time seen the shop hours were rather limited so you would want to check with them first

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xiaoman1 

I really like mine and the color and the head badge IMHO are standouts.
Enjoy the build.
Best, Ben

BFisher

That is one of the coolest one piece cranks I've ever seen.

3alarmer 

.
...this is, I believe, the longest thread on Bikeforums with information and photos of Fauber cranks.

madscrambler

Thanks for your comments and the link. I can say that the 1 piece crank set and bottom bracket are of top quality.

madscrambler

Juvela was right pedals are Made in England. The name is Brampton. The reflectors are very high quality and appear to be nordic ? in origin name for them appears to be: Dennekant UDAD.

juvela

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verily, there must be a career awaiting madscrambler in the field of diplomacy!

i got the brand name of the pedals incorrect

i got the model name of the pedals incorrect

yet he writes that i was "right"

if he were working at the United Nations he might be helping to avoid wars...

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first pink Fauber chainset encountered -



Fauber lapel pin -




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history -

this forum post gives an english translation of a swedish timeline history for MCB

it begins with Nymans Verkstader, makers of a marque called Hermes but stay with it as it gets to Monark/Crescent/MCB in due course...

https://www.bikeforums.net/11164810-post10.html

post is part of this discussion thread covering a Hermes badged machine -

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...la-hermes.html

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madscrambler

however you got the country of origin of the pedal correct.

Insidious C. 

The identical (to my eyes at least) pedal sometimes is marked Phillips, sometimes Brampton, sometimes no marking on pedal at all.

madscrambler

This is a shot of the back of the one piece crank note the Slugs that hold the pedal to the crank one on each side.
I have measured the Pedal shaft length and it is 17.4625 c approximately Center of pedal to center of the Crank. I measured my Campi 170 the same way it came to be 16.828 c. This is an adult sized crank.

On the Handle bars it is a Titan M.Kint, A. Schotte and S. Maes. It is one from before 1970 because the lettering on the Bar is read from the pilots position. The names of the Sponsored Athletes and their arrangement will allow further refinement on the handle bar date. After 1970 the lettering can be read from the front of the Bike. I need the Titan Stem and it is an odd size 27c one of the largest and that Sheldon lists as obsolete. Any one have one of these laying around?

I will be looking for a 3 or 4 speed cog freewheel for fitting to a French hub to go with the Simplex JUY 543 rear derailer that i have. Brakes are also needed and french as well as Juvela suggested. The derailer is an expensive item and i got it for another bike i have but now it is repurposed to the Crescent Build. the Stem; brakes and wheel set are needed. The Handle bar stem will be the greatest challenge as the size is larger than other vintage french stems.

juvela

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thread needs vistation from member non-fixie for TITAN stem/bar information


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non-fixie 

Roland Buyssens of Tielt, Belgium began making aluminum bars in the 1930's. The "Maes-Kint" model for road use, the "G.Derycke" model for track applications. Sylveer Maes had won the Tour de France in 1936 (and '39) and Marcel Kint was the 1938 World Champion.

I notice that Rik Van Steenbergen's name is missing in the description, while Briek Schotte's is present, which would probably date it around 1950. Schotte became World Champion in 1948 (and '50) and Van Steenbergen in 1949 (as well as in '56 and '57), after which their names would be added to the bars.

You may find a two-digit date (year) code on the sleeve.

madscrambler

this is the logo on the bar; below is a stamped number 8 seen on bottom of the bar below the logo- Is that the date stamp?

tallbikeman

How is this build going?