L.W. Keenan Champion branded bikes...Colson Heavy Service and ACE HIGH brands as well

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Nooooooooooooooo!

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I've been in contact with the SF 'Heavy Service' guy...made an offer, but, we seem quite far apart. I did some research and from what I can tell, aside from the badge, that bike doesn't have any of the 'Heavy Service' specific parts with it...it is just a standard 18" Colson with a badge I really want. It doesn't seem, to me, to be priced as such.

Jason
 
:43:

...any history or info on this bike? 'Ace High' is new to me and will be near impossible to get anything but poker references on Google searches, I suspect.

Thanks... very cool badge on that one!
Jason
I tried researching this and that is how I ended up here. I wanna find out more about it! I bought it from a 70yr old man who got it from his uncle (only 2 owners) he said that he repainted it when he was a teenager and it’s been in the garage for the last 30+years. The rear hub is a Morrow and it’s stamped with F4, 1936.
 
From the pic it looks either Colson or CWC made (a pic of the rear dropouts might help). Fork and truss/rack bars look 60s-ish. It's cool that it appears to have the original wheelset, as '36 should be about right. I don't think the chainring is Colson, but might be CWC.

Pretty much everything I've found so far is, or there are links to, in this thread...if you come up with anything else, please feel free to share :grin:.

Are you in the Oregon/Washington area...or has this bike traveled over it's lifetime?

Let me know if you ever want to move it along, as I'm kind of addicted to the whole L.W. Keenan thing :nod:

Jason
 
I live in Portland, OR.
I took this to a bike shop today and they told me of another fellow who is kinda a historian bicycle guru. They are gonna show him and see what he knows about this. I’ll let you know what he says.
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Got some more info today:
It's Cleveland made, rainbow frame. Headbadge licensed by Schwinn to maker. At the time the bike was made there were over 2000 independent makers that were being commissioned to build bikes for others to brand.
 
Got some more info today:
It's Cleveland made, rainbow frame. Headbadge licensed by Schwinn to maker. At the time the bike was made there were over 2000 independent makers that were being commissioned to build bikes for others to brand.
Sounds about right :thumbsup:...don't know about the Schwinn license thing, Schwinn had an 'Ace', but don't think they ever had an 'Ace High'.

Thanks for sharing!
Jason
 
I've found several other Colson 'Heavy Service' branded bikes...as the SF ad stated, it seems that if you ordered enough of them, they would put your bike store on the generic Heavy Service badge. I still want one, but they aren't as big a draw as the Champions...or now, the Ace High brand :grin:.

Jason
 

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