identification

[asdfqwer426]

so I found this bike in my uncles barn on his farm. he said he got it pretty new around 1960, although with the new departure and skip tooth i'm sure if it would have been brand new. it was covered in rust, the old wheels were shot, and the chain was almost solid from rust. but i really wanted an old bike like this and almost passed this one up as too much work when i saw the skip tooth sprocket and chain, which i'd never seen before, so i decided to clean it up. it turned out good but i really want to identify the frame, maybe buy an old head badge on ebay if i can.

anyway, here's a pretty detailed pic of the frame. it's similar to a 40's schwinn dx in style, but there are differences so i'm pretty sure its not that. also, the serial number is on the botton of the crank area.

before i sanded and painted it, it was black, and when sanding it was a red/orange below the black. i'm not sure if it was maybe a primer or what.

it came with this skip tooth sprocket on the front. a 26t. i tried to maybe identify the pattern, but i've had problems finding pictures of bikes with it. i found a few when trying "hawthorne skip tooth" on google images.

the bike also came with these torrington handlebars.

and this crank

the rear rim and spokes were rusted out but the hub was good. its a post war model D new departure hub. i'd put a picture up, but they're fairly common i feel.

the seat post was a smaller lucky 7 seat post, i believe its 5/8 of an inch diameter. I have pictures of most everything else, so if anyone has any tips, i'd appreciate it. also, I knew theres a thread for this already, but its pretty vast and i wasnt sure where to start.

 

[axsepul]

maybe hawthorne or rollfast i think!!

 

[rms37]

The frame was made by Murray and it dates from the late forties through about the mid fifties. Murray sold these bikes through a number of retail outlets although the largest number were sold by Sears as J. C. Higgins bikes. The sprocket is not original to the bike, it is a Cleveland Welding sprocket and that design was produced from 1937 through the early 1950's

 

[Uncle Stretch]

One thing bad about that frame is they are short....probably 4'' shorter than most of the other frames. Here is one I stretched 7'' and it was only 2'' longer than a normal bike.

 

[asdfqwer426]

The frame was made by Murray and it dates from the late forties through about the mid fifties. Murray sold these bikes through a number of retail outlets although the largest number were sold by Sears as J. C. Higgins bikes. The sprocket is not original to the bike, it is a Cleveland Welding sprocket and that design was produced from 1937 through the early 1950's

Thank you! Thank you so much! kind of a bummer the sprocket wasn't original, but oh well. I really appreciate your help.

 

[asdfqwer426]

One thing bad about that frame is they are short....probably 4'' shorter than most of the other frames. Here is one I stretched 7'' and it was only 2'' longer than a normal bike.

yeah, after putting it all back together with some new parts here and there i felt like i was riding really close to the handlebars. i ended up flipping the lucky 7 post around and putting the seat on it backwards, so it was the right way again, that actually helped a lot.