So Friday morning, I'm on my way home from work, and as I'm going past the local junk collector/seller, some chrome and a bit of yellow catch my eye. It's the headlight on an old Raleigh boy's bike.
Later that day I go back to check them out and, after getting some cash and hooking my trailer to my truck, I wind up taking all 3 bikes home. I haven't gotten around to dating any of them yet, but I'm thinking early/mid 60's on all 3. The seller said 1950's, I'm not sure. All 3 were fresh barn finds.
The Raleigh has a beautiful chainring, generator front hub, really cool little taillight (damaged lens) and nice Sturmey-Archer headlight. Peaked fenders, solid condition throughout. Perry B 100 rear hub.
The Schwinn is incredibly heavy, especially the rear end - not sure if it's all just the wire racks or what, but WOW, it's a monster. Peaked fenders, and an interesting front fender. I'll have to get a pic of it. I don't see too much of anything special on it, so it'll likely be a parts bike. I do love the seat. Old brown leather stretched over horizontal springs in the rear of the seat pan. Very nice condition throughout, rear fender has some dents. Very, very wide flat bars.
The black Columbia will be for my wife. I love the graphics on it, she loves the basket, our son loves the horn. Bendix red band single speed, Messinger seat, better condition than the Schwinn overall.
I ran out of time to really go through these and see what they're all about, even ran out of time for pictures, but they're safely hanging in the garage.
I did get one close-up of the Columbia:
Later that day I go back to check them out and, after getting some cash and hooking my trailer to my truck, I wind up taking all 3 bikes home. I haven't gotten around to dating any of them yet, but I'm thinking early/mid 60's on all 3. The seller said 1950's, I'm not sure. All 3 were fresh barn finds.
The Raleigh has a beautiful chainring, generator front hub, really cool little taillight (damaged lens) and nice Sturmey-Archer headlight. Peaked fenders, solid condition throughout. Perry B 100 rear hub.
The Schwinn is incredibly heavy, especially the rear end - not sure if it's all just the wire racks or what, but WOW, it's a monster. Peaked fenders, and an interesting front fender. I'll have to get a pic of it. I don't see too much of anything special on it, so it'll likely be a parts bike. I do love the seat. Old brown leather stretched over horizontal springs in the rear of the seat pan. Very nice condition throughout, rear fender has some dents. Very, very wide flat bars.
The black Columbia will be for my wife. I love the graphics on it, she loves the basket, our son loves the horn. Bendix red band single speed, Messinger seat, better condition than the Schwinn overall.
I ran out of time to really go through these and see what they're all about, even ran out of time for pictures, but they're safely hanging in the garage.
I did get one close-up of the Columbia:
