# Help ID Murray OH lightweight... Wartime?



## scrubbinrims (Nov 27, 2012)

I was in and out of antique shops while out of town yesterday and in conversation, a lady mentioned she had her Dad's bicycle in her garage still.
Her Dad would have been 89 and used his bicycle to court her Mother before getting married in 1944, or so the story goes.

I am a balloon tire guy, but I did follow her to the garage and picked this up nonetheless, knowing little about it other than I suspect this was an Elgin produced around 1942 lacking a badge or holes with some blackout parts (or is is black housepaint?).
The serial number is MO 194 73.
Anything special about this bicycle? I'd like to know before listing it for sale...I know little about lightweight or wartime stuff.
Chris


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## sailorbenjamin (Nov 28, 2012)

That's really cool.  I love the way Elgin did their headtubes back then and this looks a lot like the way Elgin did their headtubes.  Rear hub looks Elgin, too, so I'll agree with you about it being Elgin.  Those tires look like 26x1.375s which are different than 26x1 3/8s, either the English kind or the Schwinn kind.  Those are hard to find.  Do they hold air?  I know they used them in the late 30s and into the 40s but I don't know when they stopped so the bike is somewhere in that timeframe.  The chrome hubs and chainring don't look wartime to me.  You find painted rims in most time periods so that's not a really good indicator.
These are really cool bikes but they don't have collector factor that the ballooners do so the value isn't what it should be for a rarity.  I've got one in my keeper fleet, though cause it really rides nice (it's a Roadmaster, not an Elgin but similar timeframe).  I've put 26x1 3/8" wheels on it for the time being but I've almost got enough parts to make a correct wheelset for it (tires being the real hard part to come by).


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## s1b (Nov 29, 2012)

WOW, great score! 
Hard to tell if its wartime.
Is the head set "Blued"?
I thought the back of the frame was different on a wartime Elgin. More like a Monark frame, "wishbone".


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## s1b (Nov 29, 2012)

Stolen from Ohdeebee.
War time Elgin


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## sailorbenjamin (Nov 30, 2012)

Oh man, that's beautiful!


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## Adamtinkerer (Dec 5, 2012)

The OP's bike looks to actually be stamped 'MG', which would be 1942. The Elgin was in fact built by Monark, which wasn't common, but there are a few out there as well as Monark build JC Higgins bikes.


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