Vintage treaure hunt... woohoo!

This past summer I placed an ad for vintage cruisers 1950's and older in the local paper and among some duds got two nice old Schwinns, one a 1951 and the other a 1942, both step through models, but lots of good parts. A month and a half ago I got a call from a guy I knew twenty years ago saying he had a bunch of old bikes under tarps and in sheds, a garage... and needed to get rid of some stuff. Fasteddy was visiting from BC at the time and we went for a quick look. The guy had little time to spare that day due to a death in the family. We peaked in some sheds at hanging bikes, wheels, forks, you name it and peaked under the corners of a couple tarps. It was hard to tell what might be under there. Scott and I talked and came up with a plan for me to help him go through bikes in exchange for some old cruisers. I waited for a long time to hear back from him and we finally set up a work day... today in fact. The first order of business was to remove the tarps and then to start pulling bikes and sorting them into categories of what Scott want for rebuilding to sell or for parts, ones I might want and the rest to go to the metal recycler. There were a lot of bikes, all told I counted 94 and we never got to the ones inside sheds, etc. this was just the ones under tarps.
A mutual friend, a mixed blood Italian Ojibwa Indian who is a welder started dropping these bikes off at Scot's once it was announced that the city dump was closing and a transfer station was going to replace it. The bikes started accumulating and once sheds were filled they went under tarps until finally Scott said, "enough". It has been fifteen years they have been sitting there. Scott is retiring and going back into the bike repair business which was once his trade, so it is time for him to go through things and get rid of. Take a look at all those bikes...

... sorry for the technical difficulties. Pictures below. In a bit I'll show you what i found in the middle of all that mess. 94 bikes and Scott picked out half a dozen to save for himself. I did a little better with nine I brought home, several of those just for one part I wanted... but there were a couple real fnds... which I]ll post after I go for a bike ride to celebrate the day. Back in a bit.
SB

O.K. waiting for my hands to warm up from the ride. Love that 50 Schwinn Motorbike I'm just finishing the build on; a four stroke and what a great ride that is. It's already getting chilly in Northern Minnesota with frost on the windshield this morning. Woods stove has been going steady for the past couple weeks. Pretty soon it will be too cold for this old man to go riding around on motorbikes and everything will get put away for the season... bummer. So now I'm grabbing every opportunity.
So, out of 94 bikes, Scott picked out a half dozen high end type racers, ,mostly for parts, saved out another half dozen to maybe make back into riders, but none of them the fat tire bikes I so love.
As I said, I brought home nine in my bike hauling trailer (no new white van) pulled behind the old Cherokee. Two of these were for things like the rear side baskets, one just for the cool seat shown in the first photo. I can rebuild that seat, a nice springer that does not belong on that girl's bike. It is long and and is much like the one on my 50 Schwinn. With it gone over with a wire wheel, new paint, foam padding and a leather cover it will be an A! seat. Made by Messinger. The second photo is a skinny tire bike I took for the speedometer mounted low on the front fork. I've never seen one mounted like that. I also wanted to the bike for a bikebug motor, like what Barely is doing with his Stickfish. It is a Free Spirit, sold by sears and the bug motor is also a free spirit I found at the dump last month. The motor is complete, so the two would go together nicely. The third and fourth pictures are of a nice cantilever Schwinn middleweight which could make a nice motorbike with balloon tire wheels. It's in pretty nice condition and has rear baskets and a front rack, worth bringing home. The fifth picture is of that Free spirit an behind it an interesting multi speed I might instead mount the bug motor on. It is a more expensive, high end bike I would maybe put a three speed rear wheel on. Keep it simple and give it upright handlebars. But the good stuff is yet to come...
SB

The bike in the next three photos is interesting. It says Hiawatha on the front fender ornament and is the main reason I took the bike. I also could see that the seat could be a good springer when rebuilt. Once I got it home I studied it a bit more and kind of like the fender supports... what do you call them, brackets? Supports? Anyway they're curved in sweeping lines and are different. Not sure I like them, but they could be interesting. Fenders are in pretty good shape and it is a skip tooth sprocket. I think this would be a bike sold by Montgomery Wards way back when under the name Hawthorne I think. The next bike I need some help on...

By the way, I'm going to see what the men's model of that Hawthorne looks like to see if I would want to pick up a bare mens frame. Worth researching to see if it would be a cool bike to complete with the girl's bike parts.
Yes, now this one is a mystery. I didn't think much of it at first, but staring at it has improved it's value to me. I thought maybe it was a Schwinn at first glance due to the cantilever frame, but I see that the front fork is way different and is something new to me as I don't recall seeing one like that before. Is that some kind of springer fork missing something perhaps? I can see this one making a cool motorbike and there would be room for a four stroke in frame. And the cool seat from the first in the series of photos would be just right for it. Make a nice in frame copper gas tank... vroom. Any help in identifying this one would be much appreciated. I think it's a winner, whatever it is. But the next one is the real find...

I have saved the best for last. I knew even at a distance that this was a Monarch and when I pulled it out for a closer look I was very pleased to see the condition of the chrome... not scratched and not pitted. The tail light housing even has the lens without a flaw. I believe this is a Monarch Silver King, a bike many a young boy dreamed of having, but few did as they were very expensive. Against the faded paint the chrome looks a little gaudy, but with the bike painted up, an engine in that roomy frame (could be a two stroke or a four), make a nice in frame gas tank for it and boy oh boy, what a motorbicycle! I'm hoping for some input from Fasteddy who this past winter restored a 1950's Monark Silver King Deluxe and had all the chrome work redone. I imagine that just the chrome work on this bike would fetch top dollar to restorers.
I had been hoping to find another 50's Schwinn straight bar, or something with a Monarch springer fork, but no deal. What I did find I'm very pleased with. There are a couple of others I didn't show which I can use the truss rods from, fender reflector, rear rack and that sort of thing. And that's it, but next summer Scott and I will go through the sheds, the old garage and a greenhous type of enclosure, all of which contain bicycles. Scott already gave some away a year ago (no cruisers were given away) and figures that all together there were some 300 bicycles. So close to 2/3 have not yet been looked at. One shed has just wheels.
As valuable as the bicycle finds are the renewed friendship with Scott who is knowledgeable about bikes in ways I am not is also of great value. And Scott is becoming interested in the idea of motorbicycles since I showed him my 50 Schwinn with the four stroke. "Wow", he said and looked everything over closely. Next summer we are to go riding together on my bikes and I have a sneaky suspicion I may be able to contribute to the delinquency of a senior and have another partner in crime. Ha! I wonder what's in those sheds.
SB

Kevlarr said:

That last one looks like an original Schwinn springer minus the spring. Does it have a lock on the fork?

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You know, the spot where there had been a head badge looked like the shape of the Schwinn head badge, but the sweep of that front fork threw me. Yes, I think you may be right and picturing a spring there makes it more familiar. I'll look tomorrow to see if there is locking feature. If so, it isn't locked.
SB

bairdco said:

next summer, hunh? i just might need a vacation out that way next summer...

seriously, awesome score. i'd go crazy scrounging around in all that. a good kinda crazy, though.

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And if you find yourself in this part of the world next summer, please take part in the rummage. You would always be welcome here. Bring your fishing rod, too.

And Fasteddy says the Monarch is a deluxe. Sounds kind of rich for my blood to try to restore. So the headlight was shaped like a speeding train? They sure were into auto, airplane, train and rocket motifs in the 50's weren't they? Anything suggesting speed. I was looking at the black Schwinn this morning and it looks better than I had thought yesterday. Then I noticed the chain guard says "Hornet" on it. That paint is good enough to give it the Bairdco Colson treatment to bring it back. I'll check tire size more closely today and serial numbers for it and also the Schwinn with the springer missing parts to see when they were made. For my purposes the Hornet may turn out to be the treasure since I wouldn't have to strip it and paint the whole thing. Fenders are in pretty nice shape, too. A four stroke will fit nicely in those Schwinn cantilever frames.
SB

I do feel fortunate. I discovered this morning when I looked up Hiawatha bikes that I was wrong about a connection with Montgomery Wards. That was Hawthorne they sold. Gambles Hiawatha was sold through the Gambels chain of hardware stores, which must be long gone because I don't remember them. Anyway, this being a skip tooth pretty well puts it pre war and not a real common bicycle. Apparently the men's models of the late 30's, the Hiawatha Arrow, is highly sought after and uses the same fenders with the odd curved brackets and the Indian head fender ornament. The frames were made by Cleveland Welding and Shelby. It might be an interesting bike to try a four stroke on or if I found a mens frame I could go that way and use parts from this one. Kind of a cool bike and certainly different. A collector's item I guess. With the right paint it could be neat. Somebody has got to do a four stroke step through so maybe that's the bike.
Regarding the Schwinns. The Hornet is later, a middleweight and has no serial number under the BB. The one with the partial springer is a heavy weight and has serial numbers under the BB reading HO23915. Can't remember now where to look that up for a date. I wonder how good those springers were. Did they actually do anything? Replacement parts are not cheap.
Yeah, why don't you guys hop on your bikes and come up here next summer? Nice and cool in the summer with great lakes for fishing and swimming. Actually it is nice and cool in the winter, too, with absolutely no one on the beaches. Snow white beaches in the winter.
SB

Venice Motor Bikes said:

That Monark will be very nice with a little sand blasting & some basic paint!!

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I'm not too sure what to do with that bike. It almost seems like it should go to someone who has the knowledge and means to do it right. Cool bike, though.
Hey Norm,
I forget where it is I'm to look for the Schwinn serial numbers. You gave me a link once which was in the laptop that burned. Do you still have it?
SB