Recent Finds

[thirstee]

Went to look at a 1947 J.C. Higgins but the owner tried to talk me into restoring it for her after deciding not to sell it?! I declined and bought the Hiawatha instead. Fell in love with the mudflap! Almost every component has been repainted. Not sure what year or model, thinking early 50's. Serial # G99509. 1950? Paid $50. The Monark is a 24" model that I have no use for, but I couldn't pass it up for $25. I have no clue what year or model and cannot find a serial number on it yet. This one has been repainted also so it's probably just hiding under there some where. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Spokeshave]

Yeah ,that head badge with the Milwaukee Road "Hiawatha" EMD locomotive is got to be my favorite.
Great bikes.

 

[El Duderino]

i really dig the shape of that seat on the hiawatha, how it dips really low in the middle

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

nice score for the money !,i'd say that first one is defintly pre-war ,the rear drop outs with the adjusting screws are a tell tale sign.... :idea:

 

[rms37]

Your Hiawatha is not pre-war but it is from the first series of postwar Cleveland Welding built bicycles. The serial number places the bike in late 1946 or early 1947.

The Prewar versions of this frame still sported tangs on the rear dropouts for a drop stand. The first postwar bikes were generally identical to the last prewar version but without the tangs. The second (next) series is again similar but featured a revised down tube with a deeper curve.

The Rear facing drop out/pre-war rule is useless in a generalized context; CWC used rear facing dropouts on all their balloon frames until 1953-54.

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

OOPS :? my bad ,had a feeling rms would correct me..
foiled again ! i'll get you rms i'll get you ! :wink:

 

[ozzynut2]

That CWC looks just like the one I found this summer. Here are pics of how it looks now.

 

[rms37]

It looks like your bike has the second series frame with the deeper curved down tube.

Here is a picture that helps illustrate the difference, in this case, the front end of a prewar (1941) 3-gill frame is ghosted over the top of a 1951 3-gill frame to show the difference in the curvature of the downtubes. The early shallow style was used between late 1940 and 1942 and again in 1946 when CWC returned to bicycle production, The deep curve was introduced around the beginning of 1947 and was used on all full size 26" CWC boy's bikes through the remainder of the forties and fifties. The black 1951 frame has the rear drop outs that were current from 1950 through 1953-54.

 

[thirstee]

Thanks rms37 for the info! I love this site and the abundance of friendly, helpful and knowledgeable members. I have another CWC bicycle that I have not been able to date. The serial # is A37190 AC with the w inside of the C. Hopefully rms37 or another member will see this and chime in. I will pm rms37 as well. Thanks again to all for making this site so gr8!