Hi joined looking for help!

[Shawn Oen]

Hi,

I joined here looking for help on an old bike my father has. We grew up in ND on a farm and my dad held onto this old bike from his and his childhood. We live in Minneapolis now and they've downsized to a townhouse since retiring.

Long story short, he wants me to restore it for him or try and sell it.

I was a teenager in the mid 1980s and had several freestyle bikes BITD. I have several 85-87 Haros and Redlines and know the value of a survivor vs restored.

First of all, what is this bike and how old is it? Should we restore it and are parts available to bring it back to NOS spec?

I don't want to break it down and have anything media blasted and powdercoated to find out there are key parts not available. I'm sure a good oxalic acid bath would bring some of the chrome back too but some of it may need to be redone.

Thanks!

http://imgur.com/a/eOkkQ

 

[Wildcat]

That's a 1949 Schwinn, IDing by the serial number. Made on July 28th.

The chain wheel isn't Schwinn, but everything else looks original. Nice!

The model is probably a Deluxe Autocycle with optional springer, forebrake and cyclelock.

It probably has more value left just as it is, not even cleaned up or anything.

 

[Bike Bum]

First, welcome to RRB. Second, That is a Schwinn that was sold thru the Our Own Hardware stores. They're pretty rare. (The bike isn't rare, it's the head badge that makes it rare) They were were not the top of the line Schwinns at the time but they did use some of the top of the line parts, springer forks, nicer paint, the front fender light, front drum brake, ect.

Wildcat is right, that's a 1949 Schwinn. If I were you, I would not restore this bike unless you can get all the original parts and you have a way to restore or repaint the original paint job. There are people looking for these Schwinns, people with lots of resources and the ability to restore this bike correctly. You'll get more money for this bike as is, but if you try to restore it yourself buy just throwing a random paint job on it, you can actually ruin the value of the bike. I've only seen two of these Schwinns with the Our Own Hardware head badges. Cool bike, Good luck.

 

[RustyGold]

"Guaranteed as long as you own it!", time to give Schwinn a call...I think you need a couple pedals and a headlight lens to start

Welcome to RRB!
Jason

 

[Shawn Oen]

Can anyone give me a ballpark what I should sell this for? My dad isn't really concerned about the money, he'd like it to go to a good home and see it restored.

 

[Wildcat]

I wonder now if that chain wheel came with it, as it's a Hardware store bike. I know the Montgomery Ward branded bikes had their own chain wheel (Hawthorne), but were made by CWC or Snyder bikes, as shown in my Avatar, maybe Schwinn did that too.

I'm not sure how much to ask for it. Different parts of the country seem to have more interest than others. You could put it on Ebay with a fairly high reserve to see what bidding will drum up.

This pedal is pure rat, I wish I had a matching pair!

 

[rickpaulos]

FYI, Schwinn used to make bikes to be sold as many other brands back then. A practice they finally stopped in the 1950s to focus on their own brand name. Some will have Arnold & Schwinn on the badges, some not. That would have been a detail worked out between the retailer and Schwinn. That sprocket might have been swapped in to get a lower gear ratio. Some of the 1940s Schwinns had 52T sprockets which is rather large for that kind of bike.

You might want to sign up with schwinnbikeforum.com where the Schwinn collectors are.

And CABE.com where the experts are on much older bikes.