An emotional find

[dragnusa]

These will be cleaned up and made rideable and added to my collection. Not because they are some rare or fancy bike but where they come from. The story starts a little over a week ago the Thursday before halloween. My half sister I never knew got a hold of me and we talked and spent time together this last week, well she came to my sons football game last night and we got home late so she just stayed over and after spending time with her today I took her to our dads house, we was sitting in my truck having a heart to heart. When my dad that I hadn't seen in 38 or so years came out and I had to decide whether to be a donkey or man up and get out and shake his hand. shook his hand then ended up talking to him for about 2 hrs. Talking about hobbies and other things, My sis had done told him about me working on bikes. Well he asked if I wanted to see a couple bikes he had in the tractor shack. Then after showing them to me he asked if I wanted them so they didn't just rot away where they was. So I loaded them up and brought them home with me.
First is a schwinn 10 speed and the other is a western flyer lug framed 3 piece crank bike

 

[Kruez]

That's a good story, and a couple great bikes.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N915A using Tapatalk

 

[dragnusa]

Looked up the numbers on the schwinn and it looks to be a 65 Varsityhttp://schwinncruisers.com/catalogs/1965.html

 

[rrtbike]

Good luck to you with both the bikes and the relationships. I think you should enjoy both. It sounds like you defiantly are doing your part.

 

[Wildcat]

Good bikes at a great price!
I think the Schwinn has another letter in the beginning of the number. They started with the numbers on the head tube in 70. It looks early 70's but hard to tell as they stuck with that frame for years. It sure looks like a Varsity. The chrome they made back then was very good, you'll be surprised how well it comes back.
The Western Flyer looks like a late 50's English made bike. If it has a SA 3 speed hub, there may be a 2 digit date on the hub shell near the Sturmey Archer name. If it came new as a 1 speed it may show the same thing on the hub shell.

 

[dragnusa]

Good bikes at a great price!
I think the Schwinn has another letter in the beginning of the number. They started with the numbers on the head tube in 70. It looks early 70's but hard to tell as they stuck with that frame for years. It sure looks like a Varsity. The chrome they made back then was very good, you'll be surprised how well it comes back.
The Western Flyer looks like a late 50's English made bike. If it has a SA 3 speed hub, there may be a 2 digit date on the hub shell near the Sturmey Archer name. If it came new as a 1 speed it may show the same thing on the hub shell.

The flyer is a single speed, haven't had a chance to work on cleaning it yet but did look at the brake arm and it just has a checkered design on it.

 

[Wildcat]

The checkered design is like the one speed Phillips bike I fixed up a few years ago. Made in England like a lot of lightweight bikes that were imported here. On that bike, the hub was Sturmey Archer and had a 70 date stamp on it. Yours looks older than that. Usually the rear hub shines up very well as they have a layer of oil and dirt built up on them.

 

[dragnusa]

Haven't done anything with the bikes yet. I've spent some time with my dad since getting these bikes from him. I actually have my own junk pile spot out on his land so now all my parts bikes and bikes I won't get to for a while are going out to his land, took 15 bikes out there this evening and probably have 2 more loads to go.

 

[scrumblero]

When my dad that I hadn't seen in 38 or so years came out and I had to decide whether to be a donkey or man up and get out and shake his hand.