jc higgins vintage question

[roadmaster]

so i have this old cruiser i get from a real estate guy years ago who know i collect. no badges or anything, i never knew what it was untill i took it to the original paint scheme and read jc higgins deluxe on the chainguard.

i know the whole bike except the wheels on it now, seat, grips and post are all original, so i believe it is a jch like the chainguard said, but i am confused by the chainring, which i've seen on older huffies before. i am guessing it is a 62 or 63 by the style of graphics and by i also believe after 63', sears dropped the jch nameplate and just called them sears.

so here are my questions:

1. does anyone know if the jch nameplate was used afer 63', and if so, for how long?
2. could this bike have been built by huffy, sold to sears and called a jch deluxe or are the chainrings coinicidence or?
3. mine had a komet oil port lubed coaster brake originally. anyone with a better guess at the vintage? id love to hear any therories.

thanks in advance.

 

[Unchained]

Great bike! I'm pretty sure that the Jc Higgins name was pretty well done by 64 when the Ted Williams name took over the sporting good line at Sears. Still, I do see Spaceliners listed as 1965 made very often- So the year is a little un-clear to me. That is a huffy made bicycle down to the frame, fork, chainring, and chainguard- and you do sometimes see Huffy made JC Higgins bicycles, though they are less numerous than the Murray made bicycles. Jc Higgins bicycles were also made by Columbia and Monark at different points in the 1940's and 50's. I'd say your bike is huffy made, built close to the end of the JCH production run, 1963-1965.

 

[CCR]

ill second the jc higgins name drop, sears spaceliners after 63 just based off what ive seen around. the chainring isnt too familiar with me though. ive had later 60's huffys with the same white drop centers but usually had a different hub for me.

 

[roadmaster]

thanks for the response, you just about perfectly answered my questions as well as confirmed my huffy suspicions.

my problem is now i really wanna start work on it (again), and i won't be able to go get it to bring it up to yreka till monday (uugh!). in my multibike collection. this is one of those bikes that i've had about the longest and took the quick path to slap on paint and get it on the road, but now i wanna get it riding without any troubles. last summer it was the bb bearings on it, bad wheels last fall, and now with doner wheels from a mid 60's MW starliner girls bike that are true, i wanna put a few miles on it. as it sits now, i added a rear chrome rack and abandoned the whitewalls for 26x1.75 michilin rock slicks (they have the coolest "file" patern tread ptrn) and now gotta diagnose a "noise from the drivetrain, possibly a hub or as simple as a pedal. i really dig this bike, it has a nice low slung look to it and is mostly original. it sad to think that only 4 years ago, this bike had almost been mistakenly taken to the scrapyard in the sky.

thanks for taking the time to listen (metaphorically, of course) to me reminisk on my ol' jch. something is talking to me, cuz im dreaming in bikes again. 50's and 60's, cruisers and krates and in technicolor of course. and ya'll know what it means when we dream in bikes... :mrgreen: