Possibly a 1959 JC Higgins?

[restodave]

I just picked this up. The owner said it's a 1959 JC Higgins but I'm not so sure. I'll post serials a little later. It's remarkably clean for a bike it's ostensible age.

 

[Bicycle808]

Murray-built "Flightliner"-style bike; could've been badged as Higgins (many were), and '59 puts it right in the thick of flightliner production. Here's a pic of a clean example; not sure how original it is, but looks pretty close....... FWIW, the Higgins-badged bikes of this style were typically badged as "Flightliner"; identical frames wore different badges and were sometimes offered with different equipment. All were made by Murray, though. Those dropouts are a dead giveaway to indicate a Murray-built frame, and that is the traditional Murray front sprocket, too.

HTH
Rob

 

[deorman]

Seems about right time wise, looks like mostly stock Murray stuff, aside from the seat, Flightliner, Fleetwing perhaps, I think there were a couple of other model names, Jet fire maybe?

 

[Bicycle808]

Yeah, they put a lot of different labels on those frames, but they're all from late 50s/early 60s, all made by Murray, and it seems to me that the ones badged "JC Higgins Flightliner" were the most common. It's a cool bike no matter what stickers it came with; whatcha gonna do with it?

 

[restodave]

It has a Bendix red band hub, which if original puts it in the early sixties at the oldest.

 

[restodave]

... whatcha gonna do with it?

It's already a rider, so I think I'll just tear it down, grease it up and ride it for a while. I'm sort of curious about the two-speed hub, I want to see how that handles. Maybe I'll try my hand at some pin striping.

 

[Bicycle808]

Good plan!

 

[restodave]

The serial number is MO R228 164755



I'm going to create another thread in the builds sectoin to cover the tear down.