# 1940 Kalamazoo Supercycle New World



## keith kodish (Feb 8, 2016)

all orig,other than tires,tubes,and the sturmey roller wheel. patent pending sturmey hub,no date,camelback frame,too


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## greenephantom (Feb 8, 2016)

Neat score. The camel-back frame seems unusual. Rad badge, too. I grew up in Kalamazoo, kind of have a hankering for a badge like that.
Cheers, Geoff


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## keith kodish (Feb 8, 2016)

geoff,never seen a kalamazoo cycle supply bike,built by schwinn before. rides like a dream!


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## greenephantom (Feb 8, 2016)

Well of course it rides like a dream, it's a Schwinn.
Cheers, Geoff


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## cds2323 (Feb 8, 2016)

Most of those badges I've seen have been on Schwinns from the forties and fifties. Also seen on some CWC bikes from the same period. Saw a Shelby with the badge once.



Kalamazoo Cycle was around for many years on Harrison St. until the late eighties when one of the owners was murdered. The long time owners were two brothers who were also in their eighties. 

I also grew up near Kalamazoo and remember the shop.


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## greenephantom (Feb 10, 2016)

Oh man, I remember that shop.  Crap, I must have imprinted on that place when I was young, that explains quite a lot about my life right now.  That place was overflowing with old bikes and parts, like snowdrifts of metal.  Man, given a time machine, that would be one of the places I would visit.
Cheers, Geoff


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## 37schwinn (Mar 1, 2016)

greenephantom said:


> Oh man, I remember that shop.  Crap, I must have imprinted on that place when I was young, that explains quite a lot about my life right now.  That place was overflowing with old bikes and parts, like snowdrifts of metal.  Man, given a time machine, that would be one of the places I would visit.
> Cheers, Geoff



Looks like catfish scored the female mate to this bike. And for and awesome price.  

http://thecabe.com/forum/threads/1941-kalamazoo-supercycle-badges-schwinn-w3lfc.76046/


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## schwinnderella (Mar 1, 2016)

I visited Kalamazoo Cycle and Electrical supply numerous times in the early 1980's. I bought a lot of stuff from them. I believe I bought at least 50 pair of NOS CWC chrome peaked louvered fenders and lots of other stuff. Most all of the stuff was sold long ago. At that time Earl was the brother who was running the shop, I never met the other brother, perhaps he was no longer alive at that time. Earl had a lot of young people working for him and he sat in a chair behind the showroom counter bossing them around. None of them seemed too fond of him. When I heard he had been killed I wondered if one of the employees had done it.
The first time I walked into the shop which was a real mess, there was a pile of used frames in the showroom, the top frame was a Silver King hex tube. Earl was one of those old guys who was not really to interested in selling a lot of his old stuff. Eventually he let me go upstairs which was loaded with NOS parts. I suspect I was not the first collector to look the stuff over as it seemed somewhat picked over but there was still lots of desirable stuff There were a couple of buildings which I never did get in. . At some point there had been a fire there I believe and on one of my visits I was able to rescue a lot of fire damaged stuff from a dumpster. The first time I bought a load of stuff from him I paid him around $900.00 cash. As soon as he got the money he hustled off to another part of the building which appeared to be his living quarters,I assume to hide the money. I remember thinking that that was not wise as it sort of advertised that there might be a lot of cash on the premises. I believe when he was killed it was during a robbery. After that a lot of the stuff was auctioned and a lot of it showed up at Ann Arbor that year. I knew about the auction but for some reason I did not attend.


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