Sold as a Schwinn but belive it's a Murray

[driver bob]

Brand new here so be gentle with me :lol:

Picked up this bike today, sold as a Schwinn but from a little research I believe it's a Murray sold thru Sears in either '53 or '56.

Not sure if it's a Frankenbike or is original, not that it matters.... I'm looking forward to cleaning her up for summertime ice cream runs with my kids.

BB shell is stamped: MOS-M, CD502 227 18289.

What I think I've decoded:

MOS: Murray of Ohio SUpply
-M: either 1953 or 1956, there's conflicting info out there.
CD502: 502 is the code for sears
227: model number for Sears but don't know what it is.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[ratina]

Its a Murray with a Schwinn sprocket and a 1950-54 Cleveland Welding Shockmaster fork. In my opinion the best springer fork made

 

[dogdart]

Its a Murray with a Schwinn sprocket and a 1950-54 Cleveland Welding Shockmaster fork. In my opinion the best springer fork made

I agree with all the parts , but the Shockmaster is too soft for my fatnESS :wink:

 

[driver bob]

Thanks for the replies. So she is a Frankenbike.... but I like the overall look and everything is about the same age.

Anyone know how the frame would have originally been painted or what model it is??

 

[dogdart]

It looks like someone just started with a frame , so its about impossible to tell what it exactly was , or even what badge it wore . You may be able to find traces of original paint if you carefully strip the paint .

 

[driver bob]

There is traces of a pale blue on the fender struts.... but of course don't know if they are original..

Definitely not a Schwinn though so that headbadge is going. Maybe scoop up a nice RRB headbadge :wink:

Going to start stripping it down tonight, the family is out of town for the week so I can spend some proper hours on it.

I've been looking for a bike with "that look" for a while and when I saw this yesterday it ticked the right boxes. One of those "meant to be" sales !!

 

[dogdart]

My last post was wrong , I was thinking of a Cleveland welding bike . The modle # can be referenced in Sears catalogs . If Rustinker sees this , he can probably tell you .

 

[driver bob]

More internet searching last night, and finding a site that had Sears catalogues from the time. The bike would have been sold as a J.C HIggins so my goal is to find the proper headbadge at least.

Tightened down all the loose parts last night, learned how to disassemble and rebuild a truss fork (!!) and the ride is smooth.

I'll ride her "as is" until the weather turns and then do a strip down and rebuild. Thinking about going flat black, rat rod style with red rims and white tires.. too cliched ???

 

[kingfish254]

Cool find! Have fun with it and don't worry that it has a mix of parts. Look through the typical builds here and you will see that most builds have parts from various bikes. Thats the fun of a rat rod bike.

 

[Rustinkerer]

My last post was wrong , I was thinking of a Cleveland welding bike . The modle # can be referenced in Sears catalogs . If Rustinker sees this , he can probably tell you .

'MOS-M' is actually 1948, confirmed through a 1959 Western Auto parts manual, reprinted by ABC Services last year. And 'MOS' is actually "Murray Ohio/Sears". Other branded Murray bikes, such as Western Flyers, were just stamped 'MO-', and after 1956, "MOT-". Sears bikes were then "MOST-", though by 1958 or so, were stamped with a generic 'MOD-502', followed by the Sears catalog number, plus one extra digit, usually a 1 or 0. Anyway, this bige began life as a 1948 JC Higgins, but only hung on to it's chainguard as everything else was changed. -Adam

 

[driver bob]

Rustinkerer: Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou !!!!! I'm slightly obsesive about the details so knowing the year and make is awesome info !!

 

[Terry66]

Nice find. Even though they are fairly common, I think the Murray built Higgins/Western Flyer frames have that classic vintage look to them. It is one of my favorite frames! I used the same frame in my buildoff bike this year and I am currently looking for another one for a Western Flyer set of "rocketship" tanks I found.