So I'm trying to get the women in my life interested in taking a bike ride with me now and again. Recently, both my wife and my daughter have made it clear that they prefer the 3-speed Shimano thumb click shifter on the girls' Free Spirit I picked up a couple of years ago to the vague 5-speed stem shifters on the numerous girls' Collegiates in my fleet. (Note to self: stop rescuing girls' Collegiates.) Problem is, that Free Spirit is the only girls' 3-speed I have. Must be time to start bike hunting!
Call me a heretic, but I'm not a fan of old S-A thumb shifters, so the Schwinn Breeze is out. A quick trip to FB Marketplace turned up this Western Flyer, which I picked up today.
The elderly woman selling the bike insisted that according to the research she and her husband had done, this bike was from the 1950's and could be worth $300-$400 restored. I saw no point in correcting her, though I guessed early '70s based on the shifter and BMA sticker.
Interesting center/side pull brakes:
Pretty cool pedals, all 4 reflectors are intact.
Nifty little odometer gizmo.
The WESTERN FLYER lettering has gotten chalky the way some Schwinns do; I'm gonna have to be really careful cleaning it up.
The paint kinda seems like a Spectraflame-type job with a metallic/aluminized base coat and a transparent color coat, and the color coat is wearing off in places.
Can anybody help me decode this serial? Manufacturer and year? First two digits M0, so maybe Murray 1970, or is that too obvious?
Call me a heretic, but I'm not a fan of old S-A thumb shifters, so the Schwinn Breeze is out. A quick trip to FB Marketplace turned up this Western Flyer, which I picked up today.
The elderly woman selling the bike insisted that according to the research she and her husband had done, this bike was from the 1950's and could be worth $300-$400 restored. I saw no point in correcting her, though I guessed early '70s based on the shifter and BMA sticker.
Interesting center/side pull brakes:
Pretty cool pedals, all 4 reflectors are intact.
Nifty little odometer gizmo.
The WESTERN FLYER lettering has gotten chalky the way some Schwinns do; I'm gonna have to be really careful cleaning it up.
The paint kinda seems like a Spectraflame-type job with a metallic/aluminized base coat and a transparent color coat, and the color coat is wearing off in places.
Can anybody help me decode this serial? Manufacturer and year? First two digits M0, so maybe Murray 1970, or is that too obvious?