I've owned many old bikes over the years but I'd never owned a men's tank bike. I really wanted one. I came across this bike a few months ago listed locally on Craigslist. Less than 24 hours after seeing the ad it was mine.
The backstory on the bike is kind of strange. When I called the seller he told me that his father-in-law had recently passed away. Apparently the bike had been hanging in his garage for the last 40 plus years untouched. When the kids cleaned out the estate they grabbed it with the intention of reselling it.
When I arrived to look at the bike I met the a nice older couple. The woman told me that the bike had belonged to her brother and that he had gotten it for his tenth birthday in 1963. The bicycle even still had the 1963 bicycle registration sticker on it. It didn't occur to me until later that the numbers didn't seem to add up right. The serial numbers on the bike indicated that it was built in 1953. That would mean that if her brother got it for his tenth birthday in 1963 that the bike was already ten years old at that time. I guess it is possible that he might have been given a used bike but that seemed a little odd. Little did I know at that time that I would soon find even more odd things about this bicycle.
Just from looking at the bicycle at their place I could tell it was in pretty rough shape. Starting at the front I could see the fork was bent pretty badly. The handlebars were also bent/ kinked in one spot and the grips were torn through. Something about the chrome fenders seemed off to me as well. The back wheel was badly bent and rubbed on the frame while turning the wheel. The chainguard was there (although not installed) but was just a cheapie aftermarket model. Even with all of those big negatives working against it I had to have it. They had been asking $100 for it. I told them they could maybe get that if they parted it out but that I thought a fair price would be $75. They agreed to that on the condition that I would get it fixed back up. I was very pleased and proud that night as I drove home with it strapped to the back of my Jeep.
Once I got home I began to do some research and inspecting. That was when I started to see what a real mess I had come into. I quickly learned that the wheels, crank and sprocket were off of a much older bike. The rear hub was a Morrow brand and the sprocket appeared to be mid 30's Hawthorne item. I assumed all of those pieces had probably come off of the same "donor" bike. Then I noticed the seat was a ladies Troxel seat. At that point I began to wonder if the donor bike had possibly been a ladies model. It was later pointed out to me that the handlebars were also incorrect although I never was able to definitively tell what they were from. Another weird thing was that the chain was very loose despite the wheel being all the way in the rearmost position. It almost seemed to loose to even be rideable.
The whole concoction was very odd but I assumed the original bike had probably been wrecked in some capacity and had been cobbled back together using whatever old junk was lying around at he time. Probably wasn't that strange after all. I had no intentions of doing a full restoration on the bike but I did want to bring it back to some of its original former glory. So that was my new plan.
A coupe of photos from the night I got it.
The backstory on the bike is kind of strange. When I called the seller he told me that his father-in-law had recently passed away. Apparently the bike had been hanging in his garage for the last 40 plus years untouched. When the kids cleaned out the estate they grabbed it with the intention of reselling it.
When I arrived to look at the bike I met the a nice older couple. The woman told me that the bike had belonged to her brother and that he had gotten it for his tenth birthday in 1963. The bicycle even still had the 1963 bicycle registration sticker on it. It didn't occur to me until later that the numbers didn't seem to add up right. The serial numbers on the bike indicated that it was built in 1953. That would mean that if her brother got it for his tenth birthday in 1963 that the bike was already ten years old at that time. I guess it is possible that he might have been given a used bike but that seemed a little odd. Little did I know at that time that I would soon find even more odd things about this bicycle.
Just from looking at the bicycle at their place I could tell it was in pretty rough shape. Starting at the front I could see the fork was bent pretty badly. The handlebars were also bent/ kinked in one spot and the grips were torn through. Something about the chrome fenders seemed off to me as well. The back wheel was badly bent and rubbed on the frame while turning the wheel. The chainguard was there (although not installed) but was just a cheapie aftermarket model. Even with all of those big negatives working against it I had to have it. They had been asking $100 for it. I told them they could maybe get that if they parted it out but that I thought a fair price would be $75. They agreed to that on the condition that I would get it fixed back up. I was very pleased and proud that night as I drove home with it strapped to the back of my Jeep.
Once I got home I began to do some research and inspecting. That was when I started to see what a real mess I had come into. I quickly learned that the wheels, crank and sprocket were off of a much older bike. The rear hub was a Morrow brand and the sprocket appeared to be mid 30's Hawthorne item. I assumed all of those pieces had probably come off of the same "donor" bike. Then I noticed the seat was a ladies Troxel seat. At that point I began to wonder if the donor bike had possibly been a ladies model. It was later pointed out to me that the handlebars were also incorrect although I never was able to definitively tell what they were from. Another weird thing was that the chain was very loose despite the wheel being all the way in the rearmost position. It almost seemed to loose to even be rideable.
The whole concoction was very odd but I assumed the original bike had probably been wrecked in some capacity and had been cobbled back together using whatever old junk was lying around at he time. Probably wasn't that strange after all. I had no intentions of doing a full restoration on the bike but I did want to bring it back to some of its original former glory. So that was my new plan.
A coupe of photos from the night I got it.
I liked the look of the rounded bars like in the photo of my "example" bike several posts above and found some for sale online. Once I got them installed I wasn't sure I liked them.
