Late 30's/Early 40's Women's Bike

[YettiMatt]

I'm looking for help trying to identify about a bike I have. The bike is a women's bike, most likely from the late 30's/ early 40's. The bike belonged to my grandmother and she got it new. The story is she got it as an 18th Birthday present in 1938, but I have no way of verifying that. It looks like the bike is a Fleetwood, but I have not found much on that manufacturer. Possibly it was made by another manufacturer and rebadged. Any help would be appreciated. If you know anything about it, any guesses to it's value in current condition? Thanks!

 

[YettiMatt]

I went back and looked at the serial number the serial number is 18171 F8 and below the 5 digit code is E8. Any ideas why the double marking? The bike looks similar to the '38 Colson Vogue, and because of that I'm thinking it may be a Colson-Made Firestone Fleetwood, but I still don't know if there's a model name to this type of bike. The bike has a Troxel seat on it, I don't know if that has any significance.

 

[Ratfink1962]

First off, welcome to the site!

As far as year... the E8 to me says that it was manufactured in May of 1938.

I think sometime later in 38 or early 39 they changed the truss rod design.

I believe the serial number is the longer set of numbers above the E8 code.

Hopefully RMS37 will chime in... he is the expert when it comes to dating.

 

[Ratfink1962]

Value...

Well sadly it it worth more in parts than whole. You might be able to find someone willing to buy the whole thing at a decent price, but the chances of that are slim. In order to sell the whole thing you may have to price it much less than the sum of the parts. And even then the buyer may just be buying it to part out.

Selling it as parts... I would hate to see a complete bike like this get broke down and parted, but it may help get several old bikes back on the road.

As far as parts cost, You can always use eBay as a guide, or browse the for sale ads here to give you a general idea of pricing.

 

[YettiMatt]

Thanks for your input! I had figured it was a 1938 but I had no way to verify that so that seems promising.

That's also really surprising to hear that it's worth more to part it out, especially because the bike isn't missing a thing. It's been in the family since new and other than wear, a little rust, and that kinda stuff it's complete. I probably won't part it out just because of the time to try to disassemble it and try to find people for the parts. There is a bike shop close to me that buys vintage bikes and I was considering taking it to them. Do you think $40 seems reasonable for the whole thing? Is that low or high?

 

[Ratfink1962]

$40 is too low.

to give you an idea of the actual value, Ive paid $50 for just that same chainguard.

 

[mos6502]

If that were in my family the last thing I'd be doing was selling it. Not very collectible as is, too original and nice to part out - but has family history, hanging on to it (at least for now) is really the best option unless you're too hard up for space or starving. Just my two cents though.

It's hard to give values for lady's bikes because they're generally worth less than the equivalent men's model. On the other hand how much less is highly variable model to model, and depending on whether you can find somebody who is looking for one. Some people are just more willing to shell out for women's bike than others. Some people won't even touch a women's bike except maybe to get parts off of it.

 

[YettiMatt]

If that were in my family the last thing I'd be doing was selling it. Not very collectible as is, too original and nice to part out - but has family history, hanging on to it (at least for now) is really the best option unless you're too hard up for space or starving. Just my two cents though.

To be honest, the more I research it, the more I'd love to hold onto it, for the neat factor and history factor, but the sad reality is that my family is going through a major downsizing right now. About 2 months ago my Dad was in a serious motorcycle accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down and had to have his right leg amputated. Luckily because he was wearing the proper riding gear he's alive, but now we have to move and downsize and move and there just isn't room for bigger items like this. So we'll see, if I don't get anything worthwhile maybe we can hold onto it, but I've just been researching it to see if there's any money behind it because I know the medical bills will be coming as well and we could also use the extra money. So yeah, that's the whole story behind the bike.

 

[ratina]

Where are you located?