Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: UncleBill on September 30, 2017, 01:43:09 PM
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I have a large box of old tools that are full of crud, rust and everything else that I keep for when I get too bored and need something to do. Most of this stuff is from estate sales and I have too much to clean and inspect so I just dump the ones I don't know into that box. While looking through a couple I noticed one had company lettering on it. I recognized the W&B but I couldn't make out the other words. After soaking it for a while and starting to clean it, unfortunately the old dull black paint started to come off, I decided to strip it down to the bare metal. Then the company name appeared - Excelsior Supply Co, Chicago. With a quick wiki search I found out who that company was and what they made -
Excelsior Motor Manufacturing & Supply Company was a U.S. motorcycle manufacturer operating in Chicago from 1907 to 1931.[1] It was purchased by Ignaz Schwinn, proprietor of bicycle manufacturer Arnold, Schwinn & Co. in 1912.[2] In 1912, an Excelsior was the first motorcycle to be officially timed at a speed of 100 mph.[3] The Henderson Motorcycle Company became a division of Excelsior when Schwinn purchased Henderson in 1917.[1][4] By 1928, Excelsior was in third place in the U.S. motorcycle market behind Indian and Harley-Davidson. The Great Depression convinced Schwinn to order Excelsior's operations to cease in September 1931.
I think with the W&B logo and some more info on Excelsior, I am dating this 1915 to 1920. The wrench size is 3/4 and 9/16 and measures 9".
Any thoughts on the date appreciated.
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What a find! Very cool to find one and research it.
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I've got agree with Papaw on your find.
I have about a dozen WB wrenches but none have any other marks other then the typical WB marks.
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As my son might say " thats stupid cool" which is a huge compliment
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That must have a very high desirability for Excelsior owners, museums, etc. Very nice!
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Thanks... I was thinking of giving this one to a museum if I can find one that wants it.. Now for my second research, find the museum..
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What a find! Very cool to find one and research it.
I've got agree with Papaw on your find.
I have about a dozen WB wrenches but none have any other marks other then the typical WB marks.
+2
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Neat! So are we thinking this wrench was part of a tool kit supplied with the motorcycle?
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or the factory assembly wrench
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I can't find a tool kit online or mention of one for Excelsior. So I am thinking this was a tool used in the factory... That's my bet..
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I can't find a tool kit online or mention of one for Excelsior.
Given how often motorcycles of that period needed maintenance or road repairs, it's odd that they didn't issue a kit. Heck, Hondas used to come with toolkits, and they were hardly of the same class as Excelsiors.
Excelsior:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Excelsior_motorcycle.jpg)
Honda:
(http://www.trail90.hondagl.com/wp-content/uploads/yearbook-photos/honda-90-ct200.jpg)
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In my experience, Hondas and other Japanese bike needed a tool kit less than Harleys ,but came with one. You could buy a Harley tool kit, but the price was prohibitive back then. I think it had more to do with the US not being on the metric system, so they felt they should supply metric tools.
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In my experience, Hondas and other Japanese bike needed a tool kit less than Harleys ,but came with one. You could buy a Harley tool kit, but the price was prohibitive back then. I think it had more to do with the US not being on the metric system, so they felt they should supply metric tools.
That may be. My BMWs, both the little single and the flat twin, came with toolkits; but the owner's manuals had all kinds of maintenance info, so I think they expected you to do your own work.
I like this line in your post: "...Hondas and other Japanese bike needed a tool kit less than Harleys..." What could you be saying here?
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Yeah Bill my BMWs came with tool kits. I once holed a piston on a ride out to the hill country here in Texas, and tore it down in a state park. I located a piston and the gaskets in San Antonio, but the cylinder head was trashed and one wasn't to be found.
I worked for the big H D shop in Houston for 12 years and can tell you the old HD bikes needed more than a tool kit!
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Yeah Bill my BMWs came with tool kits. I once holed a piston on a ride out to the hill country here in Texas, and tore it down in a state park. I located a piston and the gaskets in San Antonio, but the cylinder head was trashed and one wasn't to be found.
I worked for the big H D shop in Houston for 12 years and can tell you the old HD bikes needed more than a tool kit!
I (we, actually - my bride and I were on our honeymoon!) had a similar experience. The valves went sour (long time, but I think I burned an exhaust valve), and I had to do a top end job. We camped out at a little private campground on the north shore of Lake Erie (thus, in Canada) while I pulled the heads. We then hitchhiked into the nearest town with a BMW dealer, who could do the job right away except they lacked one valve, or valve guide, or some such; so we hitched up to Toronto and back in one day for the part. Got the heads back, reinstalled them, rode it 300 or so miles, and got the heads re-torqued in Watkins Glen, NY, by a guy who'd been a race mechanic and settled down in maybe the prettiest road racing town ever to work on cars. Amazing what you could do on the old motorcyles with a kit consisting of two wrenches and a screwdriver.