Elgin?

Greetings bike guru's. I have several questions about Elgins. First I see Elgin's for sale images that are of the latter 20's and some from the mid 30's that are head badged with the appropriate slanted Elgin logo. Mine has no holes in the head where it had one and I have the factory painted word Elgin on the down bar, I don't see a lot of these when I search Elgin Images. When looking into the fork crown I see red paint yet the bike from exposure years is a dirty brownish red with white striping. Could this be a Cardinal? Finding anything out on my serial number finds me nothing from the internet. The number is: 818584. Bike pedals great, lots of fun but no clue what the Hell it is or year...Thx. Roger

The bike looks Westfield built, should have a letter before the serial number. I'd guess an M or N or maybe even A. This would put it at 1935 plus or minus a year. I'll have to check but I think that motorbike frame was known as an Oriole until 36 when the more streamlined frame was introduced.
Your bike looks great and has aged well.

Not a cardinal, but unnamed early, then shortly thereafter the oriole until '36.
I have a nice badge for sale for your nice bike.
Chris

I checked, and see a partial dented area covering the bottom of what's looks like a letter P, or R, or B followed by the number 8. No M, N, or A. Like I mentioned why no head badge? My other Oriole I restored a (35) had a badge, were they optional or maybe a feature that dated the bike? Thanks for the research and helping to date this guy...Roger. One more thing, were Oriole's factory red?

It could be a B, making it a 37 frame. Although by then the raingutter fenders were phased out. Also the triple drop rims were being replaced with dropcenter rims. The fork with the built in truss rod holders was last used on Westfield bikes in 36. Perhaps the use of these older parts indicates it was built for Elgin using obsolete parts and may have appeared in one of Sears catalog supplements and sold as a "Special". This also might explain why there was no headbadge. Just conjecture.

Thanks for that input, a little more heads-up on what it could be. It was surely red in the day with undisturbed frame/fender white or cream factory striping and elgin lettering. Im still trying to research what Elgin models or that time frame came in red. See nothing in the Oriole line in red.

I checked and I see that Elgins were still shown in 37 catalogs with that fork. Although I'm still fairly sure Westfield had stopped using those forks after the 36 models on Columbia and other badged models. That frame was available in black or red through this time frame. Although like stated earlier the Oriole name was used on the curvy more streamlined frame starting in 36. Your model had no name after then. Rims on those motorbike models were also commonly enameled silver instead of chrome.
Also by 37, many of these models had the Alemite grease fittings on the frame. They also had the longer crescent fenders.

Thanks, this thing is getting narrowed down. Fair to say it could be a 36 or earlier?

My 37 has grease fittings, no fork truss support, but the same geometry as yours and is in red.

36 elgin

picked up this elgin a few weeks ago and its a 36 has same colors and fenders,added the serial # hope this helps