# 1962 J.C. Higgins made in Austria



## Oilit (Jan 9, 2021)

You see a lot of the diamond-frame J.C. Higgins/Sears Austrian 3 speeds but fewer of this style. The chain guard on this one isn't original, but most of the rest is. A lot of the details are very similar to the diamond frame lightweights, so I'm guessing these were also made by Steyr/Daimler/Puch, but my knowledge is pretty sparse. The tires looked new and the gum walls looked fine until I pumped them up, but then they came apart like a bad marriage.


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## 3-speeder (Jan 9, 2021)

Nice looking bike. I like the outside-mounted fender braces. Maybe these canti framed bikes would suit a shorter rider better?


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## Freqman1 (Jan 9, 2021)

Shoot Joel Mark A. would ride those tires! Normally I'm not a fan of these but this one is pretty cool--I like the color. V/r Shawn


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## juvela (Jan 10, 2021)

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Thanks very much for sharing this find!   

Looking great she is.

As you probably know already, these have one unique dimension.  Their steerers are 26.0mm in diameter.  This means that the headsets are special.

Spanner twistin' tip -

in the closeup image of the shell it appears the fixed cup may have loosened.  when you get 'round to repacking the bottom bracket you may wish to check on this.

Tyres -

from the appearance of the sidewall (not the failure) they appear to be a rock bottom asian item such as Kenda.

this machine should probably have some Semperit rubber.

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btw - have "the bombers" been 'round to initiate it onto the grounds of the estate?

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## all riders (Jan 10, 2021)

Those are great 3-speed hubs(great looking too)---I forget but, I think, Sachs


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## GTs58 (Jan 10, 2021)

Sharpe looking three speed and that brought back the memory of my first big boys bike. On Christmas 1962 I got a 4 bar Kent cantilever three speed in Flamboyant Red with aluminum fenders and a rear carrier. Beautiful bike and have yet been able to find a picture of one of these let alone an example. The Troxel seat only lasted a year before it started to fall apart and the fenders were all ripping at the attachment points.  The frame style was cool I and would like to find one of these.


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## Oilit (Jan 10, 2021)

juvela said:


> -----
> 
> Thanks very much for sharing this find!
> 
> ...



Juvela, I did not realize that the steerers were a unique size, thanks for letting me know! There are clues that somebody was fiddling with this bike, for one thing the cranks are not at 180 degrees, so it's going to need checking over before riding. I didn't check the make of tire, but they're obviously cheap. Looking at the chain stays, a set of Panaracer Col de la Vie 26 x 1.5 might work, but that's probably as big as will fit. And the "bombers" were on top of the car snoozing in the sun, so I was able to shoot these pictures without distractions.


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## Oilit (Jan 10, 2021)

GTs58 said:


> Sharpe looking three speed and that brought back the memory of my first big boys bike. On Christmas 1962 I got a 4 bar Kent cantilever three speed in Flamboyant Red with aluminum fenders and a rear carrier. Beautiful bike and have yet been able to find a picture of one of these let alone an example. The Troxel seat only lasted a year before it started to fall apart and the fenders were all ripping at the attachment points.  The frame style was cool I and would like to find one of these.



Kent just imported bikes, correct? Do you have any idea where the bike was made?


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## juvela (Jan 10, 2021)

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the 26.0mm steerer is sometimes referred to as "Austrian size"

Styria employed this massive looking simple crown for _decades_

have oft wondered if perhaps the buyer got a great deal on them way back when; maybe a foundry customer could not come up with payment for their order so Styria got them at a Filene's basement type price...

alternately it is possible Styria large enough to make some of their own castings & forgings
a company needs a tremendous volume for that to be economic so it is probably doubtful

are blades d-section?  this crown only accepts a certain blade cross section which the manufacturer employed for all of its lower adult models

this crown and blade pattern also found on some Sears tenspeed models, had one come through me shop in this same red flambouyant livery

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again, congratulations on the excellent find.  wonderful that it is so complete, original and without damage...and only sixty years young!    

all best to the explosives experts!  

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## GTs58 (Jan 10, 2021)

Oilit said:


> Kent just imported bikes, correct? Do you have any idea where the bike was made?




No idea where it was actually made, assumed it was manufactured here in the US. The name on the guard was Londonare or something like that. Had a Sturmey 3 speed and an aluminum alloy (modern) kickstand. The rear reflector was not the European type.


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## juvela (Jan 10, 2021)

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have a faint memory of reading up a bit on Kent in the past

iirc company HQ located in Tacoma, WA

products not sold in bike shops afaik

sold only in chainstores from what i recall

another member is sure to have more accurate and full information...

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edit -

_juvela wrongo como normale _









						Kent International | Bicycles for the Whole Family | Pedal Together
					

A family-owned business, Kent International Inc has over a century of experience supplying millions of bikes to customers globally. We've got bikes for the whole family and accessories, too. Support a healthy lifestyle for your whole family - Pedal Together with us!




					kent.bike
				




this forum post explains co. history:

_17_

[and no connection to the folk who invented the micronite filter]

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## GTs58 (Jan 10, 2021)

juvela said:


> -----
> 
> have a faint memory of reading up a bit on Kent in the past
> 
> ...




While checking out a chain store before Christmas with my Father I saw this bike and really liked it. The store was like a Kmart but the name was Totem. My older Brother got a Black Royce Union three speed diamond framed bike that Christmas also. 

_Near the end of 1960, Wigwam expanded to Arizona but the state already had a business named Wigwam, which wanted $15,000 for the rights to the name.[citation needed] The partners of Wigwam decided that the name was not worth that much so they decided to call the Arizona store Totem.

The expansion soon made its way into Southern California. At the peak of the southwest division, the Southwest had 25 stores between the two states. In California, the stores that Wigwam took over were Malcum and Webb's. The group decided to keep the names of both stores. There were also some department stores with the name of Wigwam opened in California. After Wigwam moved to the Southwest, the company needed capital to continue the expansion, so it made an initial public offering in the stock market in 1970. Wigwam sold 250,000 shares at ten dollars a share as an "over the counter stock" that was not traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[citation needed]_


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## Oilit (Jan 11, 2021)

Wikipedia's got a little bit on Kent. It says the current company started in 1947 as Philkam Cycle, "supplying bikes and parts to stores in the eastern United States." Philkam Cycle became Kent International in 1958 and they started manufacturing bicycles in New Jersey in 1979, moved manufacturing overseas in 1990 but then opened a new plant in Manning, South Carolina in 2014. It also says Kent was originally founded in 1909 in NYC, so it sounds like Philkam Cycle must have bought them out. Maybe Philkam was ready to expand beyond the eastern US and buying Kent was the quickest way to do it. It also sounds like they were more of a wholesale distributer before 1979, selling bicycles made by other companies, although there aren't any explicit details..








						Kent International - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## juvela (Jan 11, 2021)

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thanks very much for this additional history Oilit!   

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tip i forgot to mention for Styria product owners with 26.0mm steeerers:

a poster over at BF mentioned that he was able to locate new reproduction headsets from Asia of good quality

he ordered one for one of his holdings as was quite pleased with it

cost was a very reasonable 20USD

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## Oilit (Jan 12, 2021)

Thanks, Juvela! Always good to have options!


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## juvela (Jan 22, 2021)

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advert of 1956 from a Styria products distributor located in Los Angeles:






one would _thimk_ the _importer_ be able to spell the noma _keyrekt_

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## Oilit (Jan 22, 2021)

juvela said:


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> 
> advert of 1956 from a Styria products distributor located in Los Angeles:
> 
> ...



I've seen Steyr and I've seen Styria, I'm beginning to wonder if it's two different spellings or two different companies. But when you see how some immigrant names get Americanized, it's probably just two different spellings.


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## juvela (Jan 22, 2021)

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company located in Graz

city of Graz located in a region called Styria









						Styria - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				





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## Oilit (Jan 22, 2021)

juvela said:


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> 
> company located in Graz
> 
> ...



So the Steyr Company is located in Styria? That makes sense. Two similar names, but not the same.


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