Frames Found in the Woods

[B607]

I was arrowhead hunting a few years ago and found a junkpile in a ravine behind an old farmhouse. I found these two frames, brought them home and hung them up in the barn for a rainy day.

Winter's here and I'm caught up so I got the frames down and started working on them. The Monark frame came apart pretty easy with Liquid Wrench. I bent the fork back fairly straight, put some old wheels I had off of another Monark, cut the bad portion of the fender off and put on a pair of pedals. Haven't tried to ride it yet but I think it will go now that everything is regreased.

The bike appears to be a Monark but it has a Sears Roebuck tag on the crank housing. By chance, the tires I had were also Sears Roebuck "Allstate". Also on the fender is a cool Pinkertons Security sticker.

The other frame appears to be an early to be a mid 30's with ears for a dropstand and a straight lower bar. It had green, white, blue, and factory red paint on it. I removed all the rusted parts and took a file to it to remove the old paint. It's pittied a lot more than the Monark and I found 2 pinholes in the frame where it rusted through.

Can anyone ID the maker of this frame? Here's pics of the dropouts. I can post more pics if needed. B607

 

[snfargle]

by arrowhead hunting do you mean bowhunting?
if so what bow do you shoot.
over in the UK bowhunting is illegal so i dont do it but i would really like to, i have done a bit of field archery.
i shoot an english longbow 35lbs at 29" i know it isnt a huge amount of power but who wants to get tried out?
btw good finds

 

[Unchained]

Wow, cool sotry! The Monark looks great... If I'm not mistaken, Monark made some of the biccyles sold by Sears under the JC Higgins name (thoguh they don't seem to appear that often). I believe the second frame is a Hawthorne/Rollfast frame.

 

[thatismytruck]

Bikes are great!! I love that you were able to make the first ridable so quickly.

snfargle: He's not bow hunting, but searching for old Native American stone arrow heads. Many many do that in the midwest as they are all over the place.

 

[schwinnmesa]

Nice finds! 8)

 

[B607]

snfargle...thatismytruck is correct. I was looking for Native American artifacts...flint arrowpoints, flint spearpoints, and flint knives. Like he said, there are a lot of them still to be found here in Illinois. I have an average collection of them.
I also bowhunt for deer around here. We have tons of deer and car/deer collisions are all too common. I shoot an Excalibur Exocet crossbow made in Canada. I've bowhunted for years and now I only hunt the big bucks. I didn't get a shot this year, but that's how it goes. A friend gave me a small buck for meat so I have plenty of venison in the freezer. I live in a very rural area and as you can tell, I do rural things. 8)
A Monark Sears and a Hawthorne Rollfast...wow! This is Schwinn country as we are downstate from Chicago and the majority of bikes found from that time period are Schwinns. I'd like to get the Hawthorne frame going but it's more work than I want to tackle. The pinholes need welded, the thing has lots of pits and needs bead blasted and epoxy primed, the rear end needs cold setting and I have no non-Schwinn parts. It will make someone with more drive than me a fun project. I'm old, tired, and resting on my laurels. :wink:
On the Monark, I was able to reuse all the bearings and cones. They cleaned up really nice. The frames weren't exactly laying out in the open. They had thrown a bunch of sheet tin siding on the pile and that covered them up somewhat, at least from rain coming from above. B607 Gary

 

[bombshelterbikes]

That first frame might actually be a JC Higgins. I know for certain that they had that same Pinkertons security badge on them. Were Monarch also made by Sears? I did not know that.......

Anyway, great find! Nice to hear when people get rewarded for not sitting around watching TV!

 

[Rustinkerer]

If I'm not mistaken, Monark made some of the bicycles sold by Sears under the JC Higgins name (thoguh they don't seem to appear that often). I believe the second frame is a Hawthorne/Rollfast frame.

Unchained is correct, Monark did build a few JC Higgins in the mid 50s. The second frame looks like a Cleveland welding frame. They built some Hawthornes also. Phil (RMS 37) could probably id it better, he has "the eye"! ~Adam

 

[roadmaster]

diggin the bikes. cool stuff you can find out there, huh? also like the old school tires on the first bike. to find something like that, that old and in that good of shape is really cool. whatcha gonna do with the 2nd frame?

 

[B607]

diggin the bikes. cool stuff you can find out there, huh? also like the old school tires on the first bike. to find something like that, that old and in that good of shape is really cool. whatcha gonna do with the 2nd frame?

I'll probably sell it or trade it for something I can use. You want it? B607

 

[B607]

I changed my Monark around a little. I scrubbed the frame with soap and water, dried it good and then cleared it. Now the frame looks like it's made of walnut wood. Put on some S2's and Typhoons I had, put on a Troxel seat with a new bent seat post, and then put on a sweetheart ring I found that is smaller than a Schwinn. Only 22 teeth. I took the bars off of the light green Hawthorne frame above and repaired the crossbrace. I found an old Krate truss rod and cut the ends of it, drilled new holes in the bars and mounted it. Those Krate parts have a use afterall. Even found some old black Hunt Wilde grips I had. So now I'm ready to ride if we can just get rid of the snow. B607

 

[Rat Rod]

It really does look cool.

I really like bikes like this that look period correct and all the parts are weathered just right.

Nice work on the cross brace too. :wink:

 

[stretch]

my buddy found this pile of bikes out in the woods by his house. most of them have been there for a loooong time, and that area is all damp, so all the frames were junk, save for a few. i think the collection is a bunch of stolen bikes, because all of them that have paint have been repainted and have non-original parts(wheels, seats, handlebars) he picked out a dec. 1968 schwinn(american i think, he wanted to believe it was an old 50s phantom, i told him no way it has no parts like a phantom.) and he got a huffy radiobike(yeah, really ) but the frame was shot. oh and a rusty 70s lil girls schwinn hole-e-wood.

 

[Unchained]

I believe that the Hawthorne/Rollfast frame isn't CWC made, but rather H.P. Snyder made. I could certainly be wrong though... I loved the Monark made JCH before, and I like it now. Nice work! As far as hunting for Native American artifacts, I really want to get into that hobby, it's great stuff. I have some neat little bits already, but not all that much. Living up here on some well drained New England farmland that is close to several lakes, I know there's bound to be things up here waiting to be found. However, being that my Dad was an excavation contractor, some of the land has been changed... when he brought in material I used to find old marbles, face cream bottles, soda bottles, coins and all sorts of other trinkets... We also pulled an old 12 gauge out of the pile of hauled-in-material once. :lol: :shock: Good memories.

 

[user 135]

Nice find and job in bringing them back to life. Great idea on the crossbar.