Western Flyer 'Cosmic Flyer'

[drabe]

A buddy of mine has had several old cruiser bikes for years but has no time to work on them. For months I've been pestering him to at least let me go thru them and get them ridable (at no charge even!).
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he calls and says he wants me to ' lightly restore' or clean up his Spaceliner, in return he'd give me a Rollfast (which I haven't seen yet) and this one (which I picked up last night).
It's a 26" late '50s or early '60s Western Flyer (Cosmic Flyer) single speed (no kickback). .
It appears to be in really good shape and almost entirely complete. The only problems I see so far is the cracked up chrome shroud (and missing lenses) for the headlight and the broken knob on the headlight switch.
It's got a lot of really cool details, like the chaingaurd and the striping on the rack. Not sure what my plans are for it right now (other than yank the pedals), I'm going to be a good guy and work on his Space Liner first.

 

[sjcruiser]

Nice! That Cosmic Flyer gets extra points just for the name alone. Love the color. Looks like it should clean up pretty well.

 

[roadmaster]

totally diggin it! id have to agree, clean up and leave as is. never could understand the straps around the hubs. very cool find what looks to be in descent shape with an awsome frame.

 

[drabe]

Nice! That Cosmic Flyer gets extra points just for the name alone. Love the color. Looks like it should clean up pretty well.

Yeah, I love the names they came up with back then.
The color looks like a brownish gold, it's kinds rough but I haven't tried to buff on it yet. The chrome is in excellent shape and should polish up real nice!

 

[drabe]

totally diggin it! id have to agree, clean up and leave as is. never could understand the straps around the hubs. very cool find what looks to be in descent shape with an awsome frame.

The straps are hub cleaners and boy do they work, the hubs look like brand new underneath!
My buddy bought this as a parts bike for his SpaceLiner, which is complete but someone had painted the handlebars and rims silver or rattle can chrome. I may still use some parts from this bike to make his real nice!

 

[cheesegrabber6]

Very nice bike. I'd kill for that tank.

 

[drabe]

Very nice bike. I'd kill for that tank.

Tanks! It is pretty cool.
The tank itself is in great shape, but it does have it's problems though.
The housing for the headlights is in pretty bad shape and the knob for the light switch is broken.
I'll have to figure out a way to fix it or replicate these pieces. I'm not sure about fixing the housing, it's pretty brittle plastic.
I have thought about using LEDs to replace the lights though (I'm sure this is not a new idea though).