Ratty 3 speed (Huffy?) & Mystery frame

[motopsyco]

Got this in a batch of bikes that I picked up today, I believe it's a Huffy but cannot find any identifying marks on it. Have not looked at the mechanical bits but the brakes and the shifter work which is more than I can say for the other 15 bikes I bought today (mostly nondescript road & mountain bikes. One of them is a really nice Fuji that needs a front derailleur ) The irony is that this old thing is absolutely the ugliest and crustiest of the bunch, but is the only one that appears to be fully functional.

I'm fairly certain from the drive sprocket that it's Huffy but if you know that I wrong let me know.

The ladies frame here is a complete mystery to me. I can tell it had a head badge at one time but there is nothing left to identify it, especially since I really don't know much about old bikes yet. The fork construction is different from what I've seen in the past. The sprocket is really cool looking. Anybody got any Idea what it is?

 

[scrumblero]

ya. and the white one looks like a huffy just like you thought..

 

[Wildcat]

The bottom bracket and cranks are American, and the sprocket looks like a Ross. The forks look like Raleigh, but are a little wider than they made, I've never seen a pair of forks like that. The top and down tubes are different widths, that's different. Handlebar stem is American too. I was trying to piece together what the word was on the chain guard, hard to tell.

 

[Unchained]

I am pretty certain as well that the first bike is a Huffy. The dropouts, chainguard, fork crown, and chainring are all Huffy bits. Looks like someone mounted your rear brake on the wrong side :mrgreen: It should be above the bracket...

The ladies bike is a bit of a conundrum. The fork is very Raleigh-ish (many Raleigh forks have that horizontal piece of tube to join the legs together...) but I feel certain she is not a Raleigh or English. The headset looks very basic, like a stamped steel vintage American setup... English bikes did not have retained headset bearings for the most part and had much more refined (more nicely machined?) bearing cups and headset hardware. Also, it has one piece cranks, whereas most if not all vintage English bikes have 3 piece cranks. In addition to those things, it all looks fillet brazed- English bikes, again, were just about always lugged and silver brazed. The stem looks like a Wald piece (American made) and the seat post looks like the smaller size used on most vintage American frames.

I want to say that it is a CBC/ Ross frame, based on the cranks, seatpost clamp, and dropouts, but I don't know for sure. I feel pretty certain, but not 100% positive. Hopefully someone can deny or verify that guess. :wink:

** As a side note: The forks could be from a Raleigh, but the thread is a slight bit different for vintage English forks and 1" threaded American forks. If it is an English fork, then someone probably cross threaded the American hardware onto it.

 

[Metal Militia]

the mens is a huffy built, it may be a sportsman, free spirit or ted williams model. i'd guess a ross for the ladies.

 

[motopsyco]

Thanks for the help gentlemen, I am thinking of just putting a set of tubes in the white one (and a lot of oil on it) just to see how it rides as it is.
Tomorrow after I've had some rest I'll look at the ladies frame and start soaking it with WD40 just so I can take it apart and measure the stem and the threads. I can tell that it had hand brakes and judging by what looks like the remains of a shifter bracket on the handlebar it was probably a 3 speed also.

 

[Wildcat]

I'll bet those are the forks that came with the bike. The fork ends look just like those on my late 50's/ early 60's Ross. Raleigh forks had different ends, not stamped. Ross bikes were made by the Chain Bicycle Corp, starting right after WW2, so you may have an early model. The serial numbers won't help dating it, they didn't keep them in any order, according to the history I read on Chain Bike Corp.