# WW1 'Military Model' Bicycle production and frame numbers



## Mercian (Jul 18, 2019)

Hi All,

carrying on the research into WW1 'Military Model' bikes, I came across a useful article on page 14 of "Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated" of Jan 30th 1919.

There it discusses the cancellation of war orders for military motorcycles and bicycles, as presented to the House of Representaives in Washington, on November 30th 1918. I have attached a .pdf of the page.

The numbers of bikes ordered, delivered and cancelled from each of the three makers is given, so that we now know exactly how many of each were made.

Combining this information with the table from an "Army Motors" article on "Military Model" bicycles by Philip Eckman (information originally taken from _Order and Production figures, US Army Bicycles in the Great War_ ), we now have a production table that looks like this:






This shows that there were slightly more "Great Western" (14%) than "Dayton" (12%) bikes produced, but the vast majority were "Westfield" (74%).

It also mentioned that an additional 900 miscellaneous bicycles had been bought.

I'm out of time to continue now, more later....

Best Regards,

Adrian

​


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## Freqman1 (Jul 18, 2019)

Looks like France would probably be the best bet to find one of these! V/r Shawn


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## hoofhearted (Jul 18, 2019)

@New Mexico Brant


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## Mercian (Jul 23, 2019)

Hi All,

I wrote 'and frame numbers' in the title since I've collected what I can in the hope of making some sense from them.

So far, this what I have. If you are able to add to, or correct these numbers or information, I welcome you letting me know.





Currently, we know nearly nothing about the Dayton and Great Western BB numbers.

We have a few more of the Westfield ones, so, with the limited sample available, these seem to fall into three types. J series, USA series and Blank series.

We know the Westfield received their first contract for 10000 bikes on October 29th 1917, with deliveries starting at 75 a day and increasing to 150 to 200 a day, so they expected to complete it in two months, roughly by the end of 1917.

They were awarded subsequent contracts through to November 1918.

I think that the USA and Blank series bikes are from 1917, the Blank bikes simply being unstamped USA bikes. The USA numbers (so far!) don't exceed 10000, which would make sense for the first order.

I also think the J series bikes are from 1918. The old Mr Columbia website with frame number listings has gone, but it can be found on Wayback, here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180318104158/http://www.vintagecolumbiabikes.com/id79.html

This is why I think the J series bikes are from 1918, though I have no proof yet.

Mr Columbia said that from 1921 the model number started with a letter to designate the year. The model number letter was also the one stamped on the crank hanger through to at least 1935.

If 1921 is M, as stated, then counting backwards, 1920 is L, 1919 is K and so J would be 1918, which makes sense from what we know of these frames. 

Note that Westfield produced many other bikes in 1918 alongside the "Military Model", so J33611 is a sensible number, even though only around 12502 Westfield "Military Model" bikes were made in 1918.

I'm happy to hear other ideas.

Best Regards,

Adrian


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## redline1968 (Jul 23, 2019)

Here’s mine add to the mix.


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## ChadC (Jul 23, 2019)

Adrian, you can update J33611 to me


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## blackcat (Jul 23, 2019)

Mercian said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I wrote 'and frame numbers' in the title since I've collected what I can in the hope of making some sense from them.
> 
> ...





Hello Adrian;
I agree with your reasoning and your analysis about the WESTFIELD bikes.
Regards;
Serge


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