Western flyer? 10-sp? Any info or insight

About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"
on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?
Ken


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"Ken Marcet" wrote in message
...
About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"
on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?
Ken


Okay after doing some googling of "western flyer" I seem to have found lots
of links pages that talk about "western flyers" that date all the way back
to the 40's! Now I know this 10 speed is NOT that old. And I have read that
some "western flyers" were sold at Western Auto Parts stores. Read somewhere
that some were built by Schwinn anyone know if this is true?

Ken

--
More of my mind dribblings: http://mind-dribble.blogspot.com/
And my homepage: http://kcm-home.tripod.com/

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 14:30:30 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
may have said:

About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"

House brand for Western Auto. That chain was borged by Sears about 15
to 20 years ago, and is essentially nonexistent now. The last Western
Auto stores that I have seen still in operation are in small rural
towns, and they are essentially just small Sears stores with a
different name at this point.

on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

That would be consistent with what I recall of them. Cheaply made and
heavy.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?

Probably made by either Huffy, Ross or Murray; ISTR that all of them
made private-branded bikes at one time or another. If you pull the
BB, you'll probably find that the frame is arc-welded. As a beater,
it would probably serve for a long time; inelegant but relatively
sturdy. Its primary value in my estimation is as a bike to use in
circumstances where loss due to theft is a concern. A great many of
the various Western Flyers were sold, and unless this one is pristine,
quite old and/or unusual, its value as a collector's item is probably
low or nil.



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On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:11:30 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
may have said:

Okay after doing some googling of "western flyer" I seem to have found lots
of links pages that talk about "western flyers" that date all the way back
to the 40's!

And farther, into the late '30s.

Now I know this 10 speed is NOT that old. And I have read that
some "western flyers" were sold at Western Auto Parts stores.

All of them. It was a WA house brand.

Read somewhere
that some were built by Schwinn anyone know if this is true?

In the day when Sears, WA, JCPenney and Montgomery Wards were serious
competitors for the general public's bike-buying dollar, all of their
sales people used to make allusions to their bikes being "just like a
Schwinn" or "identical to a Schwinn that costs twice as much". I have
no hard information to the effect that Schwinn built private-label
bikes for the big retailers, but it's possible...however, they would
likely not have been just Schwinn models with a different nameplate
slapped on. More likely, these bikes were copycats made by other,
lower-bidding suppliers.

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Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
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"Werehatrack" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 14:30:30 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
may have said:

About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"

House brand for Western Auto. That chain was borged by Sears about 15
to 20 years ago, and is essentially nonexistent now. The last Western
Auto stores that I have seen still in operation are in small rural
towns, and they are essentially just small Sears stores with a
different name at this point.

on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

That would be consistent with what I recall of them. Cheaply made and
heavy.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?

Probably made by either Huffy, Ross or Murray; ISTR that all of them
made private-branded bikes at one time or another. If you pull the
BB, you'll probably find that the frame is arc-welded. As a beater,
it would probably serve for a long time; inelegant but relatively
sturdy. Its primary value in my estimation is as a bike to use in
circumstances where loss due to theft is a concern. A great many of
the various Western Flyers were sold, and unless this one is pristine,
quite old and/or unusual, its value as a collector's item is probably
low or nil.


Well upon closer examination of the frame, I pulled the fork out and it
looks to be a brazed frame.


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"Werehatrack" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:11:30 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
may have said:

Okay after doing some googling of "western flyer" I seem to have found
lots
of links pages that talk about "western flyers" that date all the way
back
to the 40's!

And farther, into the late '30s.

Now I know this 10 speed is NOT that old. And I have read that
some "western flyers" were sold at Western Auto Parts stores.

All of them. It was a WA house brand.

Yeah I found some small printing on the front decal, that reads "Western
Auto Stores", imagine that! I learned something new today!

Read somewhere
that some were built by Schwinn anyone know if this is true?

In the day when Sears, WA, JCPenney and Montgomery Wards were serious
competitors for the general public's bike-buying dollar, all of their
sales people used to make allusions to their bikes being "just like a
Schwinn" or "identical to a Schwinn that costs twice as much". I have
no hard information to the effect that Schwinn built private-label
bikes for the big retailers, but it's possible...however, they would
likely not have been just Schwinn models with a different nameplate
slapped on. More likely, these bikes were copycats made by other,
lower-bidding suppliers.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Ken Marcet wrote:
About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"
on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?

Unfortunately, I know them intimately.

You own the beta version of Carl's "Fury"; before they were
worth all of $59.95.

You have a Columbia or Murray Ohio built bike-shaped-object
that can be made to work if you're hellbent on that. But it
won't ever be as fun or useful as a similar era (1970s/80s)
Japanese bike.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 17:16:21 -0600, A Muzi
wrote:

Ken Marcet wrote:
About this bike someone gave me,
The only decals on it are on the top tube reads "Western Flyer"
on the seatpost tube "10 speed"
and on the front of the headtube "Western Flyer"
looks to be an old American made bike, with ashtabula style crank
Shimano rear derail, stem mount shifters and 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims.
Frame looks as though it is a lugless design with no weld visible on the
main triangle.

Anybody have any info or insight into this bike?

Unfortunately, I know them intimately.

You own the beta version of Carl's "Fury"; before they were
worth all of $59.95.

You have a Columbia or Murray Ohio built bike-shaped-object
that can be made to work if you're hellbent on that. But it
won't ever be as fun or useful as a similar era (1970s/80s)
Japanese bike.

Dear Andrew,

Actually, I think that I got more fun out of the Fury
Roadmaster than I would have gotten out of a drab
touring-style bicycle.

Carl Fogel

wrote:

A Muzi wrote:

You have a Columbia or Murray Ohio built bike-shaped-object that can be
made to work if you're hellbent on that. But it won't ever be as fun or
useful as a similar era (1970s/80s) Japanese bike.

Actually, I think that I got more fun out of the Fury Roadmaster than I
would have gotten out of a drab touring-style bicycle.

What was the nature of this additional fun?

--
Benjamin Lewis

I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of
oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate
commerce. -- J. Edgar Hoover

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 16:20:19 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
may have said:

Well upon closer examination of the frame, I pulled the fork out and it
looks to be a brazed frame.

Possibly from as far back as the late '60s or the '70s, then. The
ones known to me to have been from the early '80s were welded...and
not as good as the older brazed frames in my opinion.

I'd call them not so awful as to merit summary trashing if they're
functional, but not so wonderful as to merit spending bucks on if
there's a better unit present which needs the attention more.

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My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
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Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.