Old Hawthorne with extra frame tube.

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Hey I'm curious what you guys think of this bike. It was brought to Georgia from Michigan 20 years ago and has been sitting in a shed ever since. Until yesterday. American pickers and all that.

It's apparently a circa 1940 Hawthorne - but it has caliper brakes, a three speed hub with single pitch chain, 26x1 3/8 wheels and three top tubes, lol Well two top tubes and a middle tube, or a lower tube, i dunno! I'll get better pics than the ones I'm posting here tonight.

http://perpetualmotionbikes.com/bike/ here are three pics. Hey, look at the GT Performer hanging by the window in the first pic!

I looked pretty hard on the net and didn't see a pic of one quite like this. It has fork stabilizers set very wide and the caliper brake is between them. It has dropout adjusters in the rear.

Obviously a prewar bike fitted with post war parts, but something is just curious about the way it was made - apparently at the factory.

Whaddya think? Maybe a military bike that had a heavy ammo can fitted to it? Maybe some type of reinforced delivery bike?
 
Well it really does look factory in person - i looked at the pics and you see tell where we've been inadvertently rubbing the dirt off - we havent cleaned it any at all. I don't know if that makes the lower tube look different to you. The paint is a single layer of black and it looks the same everywhere. I've gone back and forth on it myself, to be honest. The rear brake bridge looks fabricated after, but the work on it is quite good for it's day, it's aligned really good and exactly at the right height. The front one is incorporated into the fork crown. Maybe modifications were made to it in a good bike shop where frame alterations were made.

Better pictures to come...
 
My guess would be that it was built up from a bare frame sometime in the past at which time somebody added the extra bar, the rear caliper bracket , stripped it to bare metal and painted it. The fork looks later, but the paint seems to match. The head badge screws dont match which could indicate that it was removed for painting. That's just my opinion though. All that considered its funky and its cool.
 
I would guess the wheels are not original. If it is a 1940, the wheel would probably be 26 x 1.375, not 1 3/8. Is the 3 speed a Sturmey Archer? If so, 99% of those have the date stamped on them. Interesting bike though.
 
That is pretty sweet, I have never seen anything like it. I'd look at the welds really well and compare them to the other welds on the bike. If the welds match either someone was really good with a welder or it's factory.
 
The welds look pretty good - i think i'm just gonna build it back like a '38 w a new departure dual pitch setup and some whitewalls and a new paint job.

Thanks for all the feedback.
 

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