# 1942 Mercury Victory?



## schaeferville (Dec 1, 2013)

Recently came across this bicycle. I sent some pictures into the NBHAA.  They told me it was a ww2 1942 Mercury Victory.  He said it was manufactured in early 1942.  I cannot find out any other information about this bike frame, or  find any info on a mercury victory or that mercury even made military bikes in 42.  The only one I can come across was from 1947.  Here are some pictures.

skip link chain
new departure brake
Androck front basket
Serial MG 15 81 8

Honestly this may not be a military bike just what i was told.  To me it looks closest to the Schwinn Military bike.  But the Serial number starting with MG is very similar to the columbia military bikes.


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## jpromo (Dec 1, 2013)

Definitely built by Murray. Mercury did not build their own bicycles, instead they sourced out frames from Murray and had bikes badged Mercury. I have heard of Elgin Victory bikes, so that may get you more google hits. Both were made by the same company so they'd identical.

The MG is definitely a sign that it was designated for military use, likely on a stateside base. I imagine it stands for Military Grade, though somebody else may know better. The pedals look to be wartime wood blocks, probably all blacked out or olive drab rims, crank and hubs. Though they may have had chrome parts left over and used on it considering it would have been early on. Looks pretty untouched to my eyes. What does the saddle look like? Great find! Too bad you didn't wind up here first, we could have saved you some $$  enjoy.


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## schaeferville (Dec 1, 2013)

*1942 mercury victory*

hey thanks for the help.  luckily I didnt pay anything they wanted money for more info.  I will do some more looking around,  thanks for your time


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## schaeferville (Dec 1, 2013)

one other thing that I was curious about is that the bike has skinny tires and not balloon tires.  is the most likely the product of using left over parts?


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## jpromo (Dec 1, 2013)

A lot of the wartime bikes actually were lightweight models. I would figure it was mainly to cut down on material usage, but lighter bikes made for more nimble transportation, easier to transport. Most bicycle companies were forced to convert their factories to build other war materials during the war. So 1942 is considered the cutoff year for every company other than Columbia and Huffman, which remained building bicycles for military and limited civilian use.

All of this is speculation and logical deductions. There seem to be no hard-set rules when it comes to wartime production.


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