Let's start this story in the middle of the 20th century, when consumer confidence was high, unions were strong, and American factories were working overtime to satisfy consumer demand and new-found discretionary spending.
Against that backdrop a strange sort of amalgamation of hardware/auto parts/durable goods store was common in even the smallest towns in America. Western Auto and Firestone may have been best known, for these types of stores, but they were far from the only ones.
Obligatory photo of the historic Western Auto building in Kansas City.
At the time, the Sieberling Rubber Company was one of the biggest tire companies in the US, and just like Firestone and other tire makers, they ran a chain of these odd retail stores, selling their tires, car batteries and other various things... including bicycles, which they sold under their "Road King" brand.
And since Sieberling wasn't in the business of making bicycles, they contracted that work out to a different companies that once dominated US bicycle manufacturing.
So that's how the now largely forgotten Monark Silver King bicycle company of Chicago found itself contracted to build this bike:
1948 Monark-made Road King bicycle.
Which found it's way to me recently.
Monark ceased to exist after 1957, following a buy-out by Huffman/Huffy. Sieberling Rubber made it to the mid-60s before being gobbled up by Firestone, and then later becoming part of the multinational Bridgestone corporation.
I started out buying a classic cruiser, I got a lesson in America's 20th century manufacturing boom and bust.
But, about that bike: I was wanting to build a classic "Klunker" and when this one turned up on the local marketplace, I liked the details of the frame. So I threw out a low offer and was surprised when it was accepted. Next thing I knew I was driving a half-hour out of town to pick it up. Once I got it home I took some pics to document the "before" state...
At some point long ago it had been repainted. Possibly with house paint. Also, I've never seen a stem quite like that one before.
I believe the drivetrain was all original, possibly even down to the pedals. I do know this: our grandparents mashed some big gears back then.
I really like the filet-brazed frame and the unusual seatstay and chainstay arrangement. I was less thrilled to discover a possible crack by the seat clamp.
I don't think I'll be keeping this old Mesinger seat. You can get a better view of the neat seatstay arrangement, though.
I pretty much immediately began stripping it down, and was really pleased with how easy that went. I was prepared for every bolt to be stripped, a rusted-in-place seat post and stem, and all sorts of other horrors. But really it came apart with no problems, with just a little penetrating oil and patience.
Stripped down, it weighed in at 8 pounds. No featherweight, to be sure, but only a few ounces more than a modern aluminum mountain bike frame I won't shame by name.
When I took out the rear fender about a half-cup of trapped water came dribbling out of the frame.
Since the frame was originally built with 110mm spacing for a coaster brake hub, it was going to take a BIG cold-set to fit a modern cassette hub in there. It took a lot of patience and careful checking of alignment, but the old steel took the set well. It now sits at 135mm, ready for modern hubs.
Test-fitting with a spare wheel I had laying around. The string is there for double-checking alignment.
I really debated what color to paint it, but the bike kept telling me it wanted to be white. So I listened. Here it's been sprayed but still needs final wet-sanding and polishing.
And that's as far as I've made it with it so far. I've only had it a week!
Nevertheless, parts are on the way and I'm looking forward to the build. More updates will come soon.
August 18: Polishing, modernizing & test-fitting#
After wet-sanding and polishing, I was pretty happy with the finish.
You really can get good results from a rattle-can paint job, but it takes a lot of patience and work. I'm willing to work, but not always patient enough. Nevertheless, I was pretty happy overall with the paint after wet-sanding and polishing, especially considering the number of nicks and divots in the nearly 80-year-old steel. I may still give it a bit more love, but it's really looking pretty good to my eyes.
The original headbadge also cleaned up nicely. I wish some prior owner hadn't "touched up" the paint, but I'm not going to try to correct it -- it can wear it's history. I just wanted to polish the grime off and bring back some shine.
Conversion kit.
I put in a nice bottom bracket conversion kit so I can use modern three-piece cranks. I also had a nice, light Sunlite bottom bracket with chrome-moly spindle in the toolkit, so that will save a few grams, too. I considered external bearings and a hollowtech crank, but I'm not sure how well they'd play with the conversion kit, and good quality square taper stuff isn't much heavier at all. Plus I have a lot of good square taper stuff laying around already.
And another conversion kit.
This bike pulled another rabbit out of its hat up front, where I've fitted a threadless headset. Basically, these old American frames used a head tube that's within a gnat's whisker of the modern 1 1/8 standard, so some enterprising soles have taken machined about 0.01 inched off a modern alumninum headset and voila it all fits.
I had bought a fork for the build, but when I put it altogether it looked goofy. So for now I've put a parts-bin GT fork on there, and I actually kinda like it, even in it's partially sanded unfinished current state.
Testing bars and stem.
Since I was throwing some parts-bin bits at it, I added a stem and some bars. Not exactly what I'd envisioned, but I like them for now and the price was right.
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