# 1940 Westfield Sports Roadster Back On The Road



## SirMike1983 (Apr 16, 2016)

Warmer weather means I can pull some of the older (and perhaps a bit more primitive or fragile) lightweights out, and get them back on the road for this season.

1940 Westfield Sports Roadster:

http://bikeshedva.blogspot.com/2016/04/1940-westfield-sports-roadster-returns.html




 



 



 

I spent part of the fall/winter cleaning up the old Philco handbrake that came with the bike. This is not factory original, but I suspect it was added at the bike shop when the original owner bought the bike. These Philco units are somewhat peculiar and primitive, but they actually function smoothly and stop reasonably well. They function like a hybrid of a center pull caliper and cantilever brakes. They are quite heavy, but do let you add a hand brake where your fork does not have a brake bolt hole. I suspect the owner wanted a little extra stopping power than just the New Departure coaster in back. 

I use the Philco sparingly. These rims are NOS originals (ISO 599/ 26 x 1.375) (what are the odds, right?) that I bought from a parts dealer awhile back. I doubt I will find another such set. Luckily, Schwinn spec (ISO 597) tires will just fit onto the rims and run smoothly.


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## Awhipple (Apr 16, 2016)

I like it!


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 17, 2016)

Brill, cracking, bofo


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## sailorbenjamin (Apr 21, 2016)

Georgioius!  How is the ride compared to the old 599s?  I just got my Roadmaster put back togetther with some really nice 599s, but I haven't had it out of the basement yet.  The anticipation is killing me.


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## SirMike1983 (Apr 21, 2016)

sailorbenjamin said:


> Georgioius!  How is the ride compared to the old 599s?  I just got my Roadmaster put back togetther with some really nice 599s, but I haven't had it out of the basement yet.  The anticipation is killing me.




They ride reasonably well, no better or worse than what I'd call "average" tires today. I've never ridden a good set of 599 tires. The closest I got was that I briefly tried some old ones, and found the side walls were pretty deteriorated.

What surprised me was that that it was not overly difficult to mount the tires on these rims. It took a little pulling, but really doable. 

The bike rides like your basic light roadster/Raleigh/Schwinn type bike of this type, but it's really primitive. You can tell you're on a light roadster when riding it, but everything is very basic and primitive on the bike compared to, say, a 1950s-60s Raleigh. It really does have its own character.


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