So, the craigslist ad said: "four old bikes, $75" and had a pair of small photos of the fronts of four bike crammed close together in someone's dark basement. The seller tells me how a buddy had bought a house & barn, and while cleaning out the barn they found the bikes. The friend was going to scrap them, but this guy decides to take them and fix them up. Of course, he never gets to and now wants to clean out his basement. All four are cantilever-style frame bikes. I was really only initially interested in the first one here, but was willing to take them all of his hands.
So, here's what I found (pictures are taken in my garage, where they currently reside).
A nearly intact Schwinn American, from the serial number was built 10/9/61. Does that make it a '61, or would have been an early '62? The bike would rideable as is with new tires/tubes, assuming the wheels aren't bent. The only thing missing is the rear fender reflector. The fenders are somewhat bent, but there isn't anything here that couldn't be cleaned up and fixed.
The second bike is a Columbia, but I don't know the vintage or model.
As you can see, it's not much more then a frame set, but it has a horn tank. Somewhere along the way, somebody decided it would look better painted up like a fishing boat, and painted everything (except the head badge) a metal flake blue. I did not find a serial number anywhere on it.
The third bike here is interesting. It resembles a Murray or a Flightliner, so I think it might be a Sears bike, but I'm not certain. The seat tube decal says "_ _ SS", so I'm thinking Ross. Any help identifying it would be appreciated. It has a cool headlight tank, what looks like an aftermarket saddle, a rear carrier (that's in poor shape), some period accessories and painted full fenders. Again, I found no serial number on it.
The last bike in the group has the least to go with for identification. It does have a serial number though.
It had a head badge once, but it's long gone. The serial number appears to be a Schwinn format, for whatever that's worth, but I couldn't correlate it to the log shown on re-cycle.com, I didn't find any that started with a "U" and had 6 digits following. This one is definately lighter than the Columbia frame, even though it has a number of parts on it still that are missing on the other.
I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with any of these yet. The American I may just clean up and use as-is, or I might restore it. I don't know. The others...who knows? I guess it depends on what they turn out to be.
So, here's what I found (pictures are taken in my garage, where they currently reside).
A nearly intact Schwinn American, from the serial number was built 10/9/61. Does that make it a '61, or would have been an early '62? The bike would rideable as is with new tires/tubes, assuming the wheels aren't bent. The only thing missing is the rear fender reflector. The fenders are somewhat bent, but there isn't anything here that couldn't be cleaned up and fixed.
The second bike is a Columbia, but I don't know the vintage or model.
As you can see, it's not much more then a frame set, but it has a horn tank. Somewhere along the way, somebody decided it would look better painted up like a fishing boat, and painted everything (except the head badge) a metal flake blue. I did not find a serial number anywhere on it.
The third bike here is interesting. It resembles a Murray or a Flightliner, so I think it might be a Sears bike, but I'm not certain. The seat tube decal says "_ _ SS", so I'm thinking Ross. Any help identifying it would be appreciated. It has a cool headlight tank, what looks like an aftermarket saddle, a rear carrier (that's in poor shape), some period accessories and painted full fenders. Again, I found no serial number on it.
The last bike in the group has the least to go with for identification. It does have a serial number though.
It had a head badge once, but it's long gone. The serial number appears to be a Schwinn format, for whatever that's worth, but I couldn't correlate it to the log shown on re-cycle.com, I didn't find any that started with a "U" and had 6 digits following. This one is definately lighter than the Columbia frame, even though it has a number of parts on it still that are missing on the other.
I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with any of these yet. The American I may just clean up and use as-is, or I might restore it. I don't know. The others...who knows? I guess it depends on what they turn out to be.
