Western Flyer
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Just thought I would chime in , The BOOK is a factory identification and parts manual that was printed by Western Auto Supply in 1959 to help their counter boys order the correct parts. There are several gray areas in the book that raise alot more questions, but their is no other info for dating these bikes known to exist. So we can not confirm or deny the info in this book and use it as a reference only. Hopefully there are no typos in it. CWC used same letters a few times so you need to know style changes over the years and for 47'-52' . I think they used A 47' , B 48' , c 49' ,...... not sure or confirmed. so my guess is f=52' just a guess. Hopefully in the near future some one could fine tune the book to be a little more understanding....Thanks, Brian
There is some good and some spurious information posted so far in this thread. The bike in question did start out as a Western Flyer Super similar to the completed bicycle in the photos and the serial number suffix ACw, along with the frame details, shows the bike was manufactured in 1950-1951.
This is another opportunity to thank Brian for making the Western Autos booklet he found available to the hobby. I believe it is one of the most significant documents to become available in quite some time and it has cleared up a number of CWC (as well as other manufacturers) serial number mysteries for me.
I have been studying CWC serial numbers for several years and currently have information from about 400 bicycles. To date any Cleveland Welding bicycle you need to start with the actual characteristics of the frame, consider the fittings (keeping in mind these are often not factory original), and then use the serial number to narrow down the window for the production date.
I believe most of the CWC information contained in this book is generally correct but there are some things need to be taken into account.
First, this book was produced by a Western Autos distributor in 1959 and that is a few steps removed from the actual factories that built the bicycles and originally recorded the serial number data. The information also may refer to when the bicycles were received by the distributor rather than the bicycles actual factory production dates.
Second, there are a few fairly obvious typos in the body of the charts.
Third, there are some vaguely documented and confusingly listed segments in the sequences.
And, against the background of my own research, there are serial number sequences that do not appear to have actually been stamped in the real world in the same manner they are recorded in these charts. It would have been helpful if CWC had used 48Cw through 51Cw suffixes to differentiate bicycles produced in those years but I have not recorded any bicycles with those suffixes so I don’t believe the bicycle frames were actually stamped in that manner.
CWC appears to have used the Cw stamp without a date in 1947-1950 and the ACw stamp in 1950 an 1951 only adding a two digit year code in 1952 (52Cw).
At some point I will try to put together a more complete piece on my interpretation of the information in the Western Autos book but, while Brian has offered me essentially carte blanche in quoting from the book, I still believe that to publish too detailed an account of my take on the information would have a negative effect on sales of the document and that is something that I don’t want to do on principle, while the book is available in print.
This is another opportunity to thank Brian for making the Western Autos booklet he found available to the hobby. I believe it is one of the most significant documents to become available in quite some time and it has cleared up a number of CWC (as well as other manufacturers) serial number mysteries for me.
I have been studying CWC serial numbers for several years and currently have information from about 400 bicycles. To date any Cleveland Welding bicycle you need to start with the actual characteristics of the frame, consider the fittings (keeping in mind these are often not factory original), and then use the serial number to narrow down the window for the production date.
I believe most of the CWC information contained in this book is generally correct but there are some things need to be taken into account.
First, this book was produced by a Western Autos distributor in 1959 and that is a few steps removed from the actual factories that built the bicycles and originally recorded the serial number data. The information also may refer to when the bicycles were received by the distributor rather than the bicycles actual factory production dates.
Second, there are a few fairly obvious typos in the body of the charts.
Third, there are some vaguely documented and confusingly listed segments in the sequences.
And, against the background of my own research, there are serial number sequences that do not appear to have actually been stamped in the real world in the same manner they are recorded in these charts. It would have been helpful if CWC had used 48Cw through 51Cw suffixes to differentiate bicycles produced in those years but I have not recorded any bicycles with those suffixes so I don’t believe the bicycle frames were actually stamped in that manner.
CWC appears to have used the Cw stamp without a date in 1947-1950 and the ACw stamp in 1950 an 1951 only adding a two digit year code in 1952 (52Cw).
At some point I will try to put together a more complete piece on my interpretation of the information in the Western Autos book but, while Brian has offered me essentially carte blanche in quoting from the book, I still believe that to publish too detailed an account of my take on the information would have a negative effect on sales of the document and that is something that I don’t want to do on principle, while the book is available in print.
I have the same green frame (w/out fork & spring) 
My # is H22504AC .The guy that sold me the frame told me it was a CWC W/FLYER SUPER It has the same color of green same two small holes in top bar .I e-mailed to get to that ref. catalog,So far it seems the guy that sold me the frame was right. Thanks for the info ,you guys have some great examples! I hope I can post a pic (first time)
My # is H22504AC .The guy that sold me the frame told me it was a CWC W/FLYER SUPER It has the same color of green same two small holes in top bar .I e-mailed to get to that ref. catalog,So far it seems the guy that sold me the frame was right. Thanks for the info ,you guys have some great examples! I hope I can post a pic (first time)
largek9 said:I have the same green frame (w/out fork & spring)
Thats a 1951
You can see the turn signal switch on my 53 Hawthorne.
http://www.nemontel.net/~gbradbury/53hawth.JPG
http://www.nemontel.net/~gbradbury/53hawth.JPG
largek9 said:I have the same green frame (w/out fork & spring)
Can you post a pic of that bike & any other parts you have?
largek9 said:I have two they are the same ,Sorry all I have is the frames and misc, parts,you'll see a "SUPER PRIMO" example above in this post.
Thanks! Unfortunately It's not was I was hoping it would be.
