WWII Columbia

[skoda]

I have this Hawthorne which appears to be the same bike (one of them) that was used as a Military bike in WWII. They were Columbias but I'd suspect that may have been who built this Hawthorne. See the link at the bottom for where I have read about these so far. It looks like some OD green paint, truss rods and light (and handlebars) I'll be well on the way.

The Huffman bike shown has a straight downtube, but as noted in the article, earlier Columbias were curved like my Hawthorne.

http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm

 

[user 135]

Sweet link. Have fun.....Military builds are fun.

 

[Rustinkerer]

I'm a lil confuzzled... The red bike is your Hawthorne? It's sporting a Huffman sprocket and chainguard.. From what I've seen, most Hawthornes built after the mid 30s were either CWC or Harris(Rollfast) built. But ya never know, stranger things have popped up. ~Adam

 

[Gdcast]

Wow very cool!!
Will you restore it as a military bike? I hope you do!! :lol:
I´ve been carring the OD fever since quite a long time now, and I love to see this type of bike.

Check out what I did with one of my brits: