Going through old collections is always exciting because you just never know what will turn up. I’m helping a fellow collector liquidate some of his collection and came across this bike in one of the sheds. It was hard to see but I could see it had a Colson snap tank. Of course I assumed it was a Colson.

As soon as I posted this bike on The CABE bike forum people pointed out it looked like a Cleveland Welding Company (CWC) built Western Flyer. I’m fairly familiar with CWC bikes but not very familiar with Colsons. All indicators said this was CWC but it took a friend to convince me that this was a CWC double bar roadster and not a Colson. For some reason I got stuck on the tank and the look of the truss rods which certainly don’t look CWC to me.

What is amazing to me is that the Colson tank fits this bike almost perfectly! This bike has been repainted, obviously a long time ago, and it appears the tank was added about the time of the repaint. The lesson here is that people started messing with these from about day one so just because you find something that hasn’t seen the light of day in years doesn’t mean it is what it appears to be. Thank goodness for a knowledgeable friend to set me straight (and teach me how to spot a Colson)!

Enjoy the ride!