Age of Columbia Torpedo bike
 

I was tasked with fixing up this Columbia Torpedo for a friend. It didn't need much! It mostly needed air in the tires and a good cleaning,. I took it all apart and put it back together again and it's in great shape.

I can't find much about these online. Does anyone know approximately what year it was built? It seems to me that it's intentionally designed for a time when people were infatuated with space and the future, while also being very functional.

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thank you for sharing this project! :thumb:

this cycle will be right up the street of the experts over at thecabe.com forum

they are primarily concerned with U.S. brands of balloon and semi-balloon type machines

registration there is without cost

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Love the name "Torpedo".

Condition and construction have me thinking 1960's. The squared leading edge of the "gas tank" is definitely reminiscent of that time frame with Columbia in my observations.

Thank you, I will check that out!

Wow, is that just supposed to look like a gas tank, and for purely aesthetic purposes?

Most that I have seen in real life had a stamped rear luggage rack, the tubular one with the taillights is very cool.

Yours has the '60s "thinline" tank. My sister had the girls' version of that. Mine was the late '50s style, full with a scalloped cutaway deal in the back. For knee clearance, maybe? The headlight, riveted to the front fender was the first casualty. Then the horn rusted out.

It was stolen in '62.

Westfield was was a skip and a jump across the Connecticut River, where I grew up. Columbia also made the school furniture we sat at all day.

It houses the horn, silly. Very functional.