Of all the old rusty bikes I got in my latest score, this one speaks to me. I’m not usually a middleweight fan, but this bike has details from multiple eras. These came out in ‘54, so they came out at the tail end of the height of balloon tire era and very early in the middleweight era. The frame shape, besides the “missing” bar kinda looks like most balloon tire era bikes if the time, but the fenders seem to be inspired by the European bikes of the era that really got popular on into the 60’s and 70’s. The ridge running down both of them is very pronounced and they cut of the ends and front of both of them are very cool. The shape of handlebars and different than most and then you have the red block pedals and the same Columbia chainring used since the late 40’s.
The Bendix hand shifted 2 speed and the (still working) Stewart Warner Cadet speedo add a cool factor to it that is unlike any of my other bikes. The Speedo is showing 1209 miles on it and the bike has some Champion spark plugs waterslide model car decals on it that probably means the kid who had them one was dreaming of hot rods while putting those miles on it.
iDK (or care) if these are valuable or sought after, but something about this little bike makes my socks roll up and down!
The Bendix hand shifted 2 speed and the (still working) Stewart Warner Cadet speedo add a cool factor to it that is unlike any of my other bikes. The Speedo is showing 1209 miles on it and the bike has some Champion spark plugs waterslide model car decals on it that probably means the kid who had them one was dreaming of hot rods while putting those miles on it.
iDK (or care) if these are valuable or sought after, but something about this little bike makes my socks roll up and down!