Shelby Whippet Info?

[B607]

Went to a friends yesterday and he showed me a bike he bought. A Shelby Whippet. Looks like a skinny tire bike to me. Narrow seat stays and fork, but the rest of the frame looks like a ballooner. Rims look like original Lobdell but not positive on any of it. Morrow hub that was too goopy to find a date stamp on. Bike could probably be bought.

What's the story on this thing? Gary

 

[Walker]

I see block chain :shock: . stem looks rollfast to me. could be some mix and match going on but cool bike nevertheless.

 

[Jpromo]

Yeah, it's a mish mash of parts but still very cool. Looks late 20s early 30s. The chainring is 35-36 CWC. Bars and stem are a little later. I think the chain is older than the bike. Likely wouldn't have come with a chainguard originally. Saddle looks correct.

The deal with the wheels is that this would have been from the wood wheel era. So they would have originally been 28 x 1½. A few years later, '33-35, when the ballooner emerged, companies used these same 28" frames, put short fender spacers on the rear with 26" fenders, used a shorter fork, and then the balloon wheels would fit inside the stays just fine because of the taper in the stays. So it looks like somebody made an accurate, rideable bike with 27 or 28" modern wheels.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

cool. My high school mascot was The Windham Whippets.

 

[B607]

I believe the Shelby, Ohio High School teams are called the Whippets. Gary

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

oh cool. Our high school used the name because there was a dog racing track nearby. I'm guessing the same reason applied in Ohio.