# Hawthorn age and style



## biketec (Oct 30, 2008)

Hi I recently bought this bike and was wondering if someone could help me with the age and style of the bike the Ser.# is D28768 here is a link to the photo http://i12.ebayimg.com/06/i/001/16/f0/0883_12.JPG


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## redline1968 (Oct 30, 2008)

looks like in the 1950's era. possibly late 40s.


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## AntonyR (Oct 30, 2008)

'50 or later. The Safety bar truss rods came out in 1950, and the CWC straight bar frame as well. Somewhere in the early to mid '50s.


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## flat black kustoms (Dec 11, 2008)

*Hiawatha..gambles Hardware.*



biketec said:


> Hi I recently bought this bike and was wondering if someone could help me with the age and style of the bike the Ser.# is D28768 here is a link to the photo http://i12.ebayimg.com/06/i/001/16/f0/0883_12.JPG





The forks are HIAWATHA FORKS, wich means that the frame is probably a HIAWATHA!
This IS NOT my bike, but I thought you might like to know what you have! I dont know what year or model..just that it is a HIAWATHA!

I found this on another site...Hiawatha brand bicycles were sold by the Gambles Hardware stores. Most Hiawatha bicycles were manufactured by the Cleveland Welding Company or the Shelby Manufacturing Company, however some were made by Murray of Ohio and Huffman Mfg. The most sought after Hiawatha bicycle is the late 1930's Arrow model, built by Shelby. It featured extreme styling and was similar to the Shelby Airflow model.

Hope this is good info for you!


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## PCHiggin (Dec 12, 2008)

Looks like it was made by Colson/Evans.


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## Gordon (Dec 12, 2008)

*Hawthorne*

Here are pics of my 1953 Hawthorne. All original except seat.


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## Strings-n-Spokes (Dec 12, 2008)

*forks*

I have three roadmaster frames with the same springer/fork your hawthorne has most likely it is a Cleveland Welding frame early fifties


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## jdw (Dec 12, 2008)

*interesting*

I'm new to this, and noticed how parts sometimes seemingly jump from one brand to another. For instance, I got this 1950 WF Super, and noticed that the same parts show up on Hiawatha and Hawthorns a couple years later. The chainguard on your bike looks very similar and the back rack/lights, also, with just some modest modification.

Was this marketing..ie that brands were emulating popular models, or that makers of components tooled up to make certain parts and it's just what was available for everyone to buy?


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## 37fleetwood (Dec 12, 2008)

jdw said:


> I'm new to this, and noticed how parts sometimes seemingly jump from one brand to another. For instance, I got this 1950 WF Super, and noticed that the same parts show up on Hiawatha and Hawthorns a couple years later. The chainguard on your bike looks very similar and the back rack/lights, also, with just some modest modification.
> 
> Was this marketing..ie that brands were emulating popular models, or that makers of components tooled up to make certain parts and it's just what was available for everyone to buy?



Hi, Western Flyer, Hiawatha (Gambles) and Hawthorne are not bicycle manufacturers they all bought bikes from bike makers and in this case Cleveland Welding. in different years they have used different manufacturers, and in some cases, the same year has several makers for different models.
Scott


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## jdw (Dec 12, 2008)

*thanks, Scott...*

Makes sense.


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