One Trippy Mead Ranger, but what year?

bprophet · May 13, 2012

One of the results of some recent "Spring Safaris" has been this psychedelicious old Mead Ranger bike.
Black light paint, man - pretty far out.
The serial is scratched off, suggesting a nefarious past - and that might have been my best clue as to what year this is.
I would be grateful for any additional info on this old beauty.

chainwhipped.jeff · May 14, 2012

Pretty sure its a 1926 :?:

B607 · May 14, 2012

No offense, but that bike is just plain ugly. Yuk!

That's a Schwinn built bike. It's a 1941, no doubt about it. It has the deluxe chainguard with clamp mounts, first and only year for those was '41. ($$$) Has the smaller size tank (compared to 1940 girls tank) that came out in '41.

I'm thinking that particular springfork will also fit postwar frames, but not positive.

The rack is some aftermarket thing. Gary

someguy83 · May 14, 2012

can we see what it looks like with the black light on it?

bprophet · May 15, 2012

B607 said:
No offense, but that bike is just plain ugly. Yuk!

That's a Schwinn built bike. It's a 1941, no doubt about it. It has the deluxe chainguard with clamp mounts, first and only year for those was '41. ($$$) Has the smaller size tank (compared to 1940 girls tank) that came out in '41.

I'm thinking that particular springfork will also fit postwar frames, but not positive.

The rack is some aftermarket thing. Gary

No offense, taken - but we prefer "unique"

Thanks for the info, 1940s makes sense to me, as does the Schwinn connection. I saw an AS logo on the Springer, and the chainring is Schwinn, not the 'spiderweb sprocket' i usually see on Meads.
So it really got me thinking about it as I cleaned it up...

The 1941 catalog didn't have a pic with the springer, but the 1946 does, on their "Hollywood"
http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1941 ... 6b_09.html

So, was Mead just a mail order subsidiary or distribution network for Schwinn before they got a lot of stores?
This history is so interesting.