Vintage American flyer

[Oldbiscuit]

Notice the extended brake arm with the offset and the fender that’s cut out to clear the belt. Curtis is right, but I agree that the frame is bent and repaired and repaired wrong.

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Ridiculous coincidence: someone tried to sell my mother in law a whizzer this morning. Maybe you can see how it's mounted from her picture View attachment 248870
Looks like it's a bracket and rubber insulating the frame.

*He was asking way too much.

What kind of money was he talking ?

 

[Wildcat]

Ridiculous coincidence: someone tried to sell my mother in law a whizzer this morning. Maybe you can see how it's mounted from her picture View attachment 248870
Looks like it's a bracket and rubber insulating the frame.

*He was asking way too much.

It's got the same arm to the brake, so that confirms the bike was motorized.

 

[Frank wright]

That’s definitely it! Tho it’s not clear what it provides clearance for.

 

[twojs.bike]

Wow! Mystery solved!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

What kind of money was he talking ?

5k. I think he was just throwing out a crazy number hoping to get lucky

 

[Oldbiscuit]

WOW !! Even restored that would be a stretch !

 

[Oldbiscuit]

That’s definitely it! Tho it’s not clear what it provides clearance for.

Frank, the arm has the offset to clear the belt pulley that’s bolted to the rear rim. On the bike you pictured they have the arm turned around with the offset toward the wheel.

 

[twojs.bike]

There is a whizzer on CL here. Asking for an offer over $500. It doesn’t look that old though. Did they make them recently?

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Originally made from 1939-1965 then reintroduced in 1997-2009

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Here is the offset I incorporated into the frame of my latest motorized bike build to get the clearance for my rear pulley.I’m running a wider pulley and a flat belt rather than a b belt like a Whizzer.

 

[Frank wright]

I took a very close look at it. The seat stays weren't widened and I don't see any marks from brackets in the frame from motor mounts.

I believe it ran into something and bent the frame. The truss rods kept the springer from bending as the frame took the brunt of it. The front wheel was probably wrecked and the wheel set replaced. Looking at frame geometry, Schwinn cantilever frames had the angles the same, so any changes are easily noticeable.

The head tube is too vertical, it should be just about the same angle as the seat tube. When it took a hit, the top went forward, taking some of the curve out of the top tube. It's still flatter than it should be, with the correct bend would pull the top of the headtube back and get the correct angle. The cantilevers show signs of being bent also. About midway up you can see a kink in them. Where the downtube took the hit it increased the bend. That needs to come out slightly.

When the frame was fixed, they heated it up and tried to bend it back but only got it rideable, The angle of the fork is too steep and the top tube is too flat. The top tube may have had a crack that needed welded up. The down tube shows where the paint was burnt off heating up the frame.

Those frames are made from heavy tubing so if I had it it would be redone and all the angles set just right. Bending and welding and probably some hammering.
View attachment 248828


View attachment 248829Great observations and well Said.. I can see it now that you’ve pointed it out. Not sure why anyone would go to all that trouble to fix a bent frame. ! Thanks much