Anyone know what this bike might be?

[us56456712]

This is a picture of my across the street neighbors when we were kids. The two boys on it were my best friends back in the 50s. I think this picture might have been taken in 1951 or 52? Can anyone tell me what kind of bike they are on. It's a poor picture, but the only one in existence of the bike. It was his first bike and he doesn't remember much about it except it was a skip tooth with what we called racing sprockets because the chain wheel seemed bigger than everyone else's. The truss rods look Schwinn as does the fork and that could be a sweet hart sprocket and it and it looks like some kind of straight bar but the picture is so bad I can't tell for sure. Model C Schwinn? I remember it having a cross bar on the handlebars but it looks to be missing in this picture, perhaps that was added later. Any ideas what the bike could be?

 

[RustySprockets]

It does look very Schwinn-ish to me, but not the Conti. Maybe a Model W-24/25? I can't get past the fact that this bike has an intermediate bar. Were any of the diamond-frame Schwinns so constructed?

 

[Wildcat]

Further evidence pointing at Schwinn is the rear bracket on the chain guard. No other bikes had that type that I've ever seen.

 

[Bicycle808]

I'd guess Schwinn, but not a Model C. I think the bike is more like a B9 or something along those lines; a "motorbike" with balloon tires.

Something like that,maybe? Tough to tell from the pic.... wish those kids would get off the bike LOL

 

[Bicycle808]

Scratch that... looking at where the mid-tube hits the downtube, but not the headtube, I think it's the smaller B 1½ frame, which makes sense b/c the kids are small. The B10 and B9 bikes were 18" seat-tube bikes; the B 1½ was still a 26" wheel bike, but with a 16" seat-tube and, i believe, a shorter top-tube. I'm feeling pretty confident, at this point.