Who made what ?

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honestherman

honestherman

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Is there an organized thread or list of who made what bike ? For example. Schwinn made Cadillac and American Standard bikes . But for who why and for how long (year)? Huffy ... Who made Huffy? Western flyer ... Who made Western flyer? Ross... Who made Ross ? For who, why and when or for how long? That seems like a very important topic in bikes . This could be a huge list .. I once picked up a Free Spirit by Sears then another Free Spirit by Montgomery Wards. Why ? :)
 
If you go to "Dave's Vintage bikes", he lists a lot of those connections, but...you'd have to dig through each bike page. They are not listed all together on one page.
 
You should start a database. There are more variations with the store brands. Examples Sears, Montgomery wards, Western Auto, Etc. Their bikes came from different suppliers over the years, so there are a lot of variations.
 
No such list exists to my knowledge, but my hat would be off to whoever dared to try to compile one! Some names where used by several bike manufactures....Awesome, but pretty steep request.
 
You should do this. The brand names or badge names could be listed in alpha order and the frame maker could be listed after that. Other data could be added such as manufacturers date ranges, etc.
This group could fill in most blanks but it would be fun to see what blanks remained. Badge names vary across the county, I know Whites Auto sold a lot of bikes in Texas.
Badge collectors also seem to know this subject.
 
Neil S Wood wrote a book or two called Evolution of the bicycle, if you can find copies of those you'll get some of the info you seek.
 
Falstaff said:
Neil S Wood wrote a book or two called Evolution of the bicycle, if you can find copies of those you'll get some of the info you seek.
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If you happen to see Volume 2 look me up thers 6 of my bikes printed in it from my early days of restoring & collecting.

~ Rafael ~
 
Bicycle808 said:
That thread was locked from jump; seems like some folks didn't want any discussion on the factually correct but arguably oversimplified explanation offered therein. :grin:
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Yeah, I got another explanation....Cut throat hobby with a bunch of selfish, confused, information hoarding donkeys. I could be wrong, but I aint. lolololol Love ya 808, hope this is taken correctly. :D
 
CrazyDave said:
Yeah, I got another explanation....Cut throat hobby with a bunch of selfish, confused, information hoarding donkeys. I could be wrong, but I aint. lolololol Love ya 808, hope this is taken correctly. :D
Click to expand...

:cry:
 
In search of information of "who made what". I personally look for simple answers . How complicated can such an answer get ? Although there may be a few variations. It's still a pretty black and white question and answer . In the words used in the movie Enemy Mine.. "Truth is Truth" . Sometimes arguing about stuff or falling off topic just gets a thread closed ! Sure would be nice to find one location for who built which makers actually built what private label . I already know that Stellber badged bikes were made by several different companies, even some made in England.
 
honestherman said:
In search of information of "who made what". I personally look for simple answers . How complicated can such an answer get ? Although there may be a few variations. It's still a pretty black and white question and answer . In the words used in the movie Enemy Mine.. "Truth is Truth" . Sometimes arguing about stuff or falling off topic just gets a thread closed ! Sure would be nice to find one location for who built which makers actually built what private label . I already know that Stellber badged bikes were made by several different companies, even some made in England.
Click to expand...

Answers aren't always simple. A lot of badges will have had been produced by different manufacturers over the years... sometimes, they'll come from different manufacturers, even within the same year. Case in point: Elgins. Pre-war Sears bikes were badged as "Elgins;" most were made by either Murray or Westfield. And, decades earlier, there was a manufacturer called Elgin that made their own Elgin-badged bikes, and are entirely unrelated to the Sears bikes. So, one might find out that Murray made the Bluebird and deduce that Elgin-badged bikes were made by Murray, but that only tells a third of the story, at most...

CeeBee gives some good advice as far as finding out the trademark characteristics of the builders. For me, I find that dropouts, Serial location, and headtubes are good general places to look for hints. In terms of specific makers, he gives good advice on top-tube and seatstay arrangements.
 
CeeBee said:
My approach to "Who made what?" has been to educate myself to some degree on frame styles and variations made by the major manufacturers. Once you can recognize the differences between the "major" manufacturers, you then become your own base of knowledge. When you don't already know, ask someone who does and add that new information to your own book of knowledge.
For example a Schwinn built frame looks like a Schwinn built frame regardless of if the head badge says Excelsior or Joe's Hardware.

Does this Hawthorne have a curved lower main tube and the rear chain stays kick up in the back? Well it must be Cleveland Welding...
Does this Western Flyer have pointy drop outs and a tapering top bar? If so, its made by Murray....
Does this Hiawatha have a split wishbone at the seat post? Oh yeah, that's a Shelby characteristic....
Does this goofy little disproportional kids bike have plastic bearings in a BB poorly welded to the seat tube? Must be from Stelber...
Does this bike with no head badge or original paint have double curved top bars and the top one drops off sharply behind the seat post? It's a prewar Snyder.....

Once you learn a relatively small number of details that were proprietary to the well known makers of bicycles, you can then identify about 90% of all bikes that you ever run across.
Then you can write a book for the rest of the people who want to take the easy way out........:D
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Great details you have learned ! Thanks for sharing. I'm sure this will help several people on the site. Most people enjoy discussing this stuff. Thanks again
 
I'm always amazed at the amount of people on here that can identify an old bike, almost to the year, based on...the kind of rear dropout, the stem style, whether the seatpost bracket is integrated or not..etc. etc.

I'm not really good at identifying older bikes...I usually will pick up what looks good to 'me'....I think the oldest I've had was a '57 Chicago Schwinn, and then closest to that is probably an early 70s Vista 3 spd something or other with cool lines... then I do the research later.

As far as who made what, seems it's a very complex science in itself...and perhaps that thread just seemed waaaay to convoluted. (although interesting)
Did to me anyway....;)
F.
 

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