# True Zep for sale on Ratrod



## RMS37 (Jan 8, 2012)

I've followed this frame-fork for a while and it is being advertised on the Ratrod site for sale:

http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=50671&p=485805#p485805

I have a soft spot for actual Hawthorne Zeps and I hope this goes to someone who would attempt a correct restoration although the frame problems would clearly make that a labor of love over common $ sense.


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## scrubbinrims (Jan 8, 2012)

*soft spot*

Phil, 

Did you see my new acquistion over in the Project rides at:
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?21973-Deconstruction-time-again...
No keylocked forks...that is cool, but a neat collar seatpost clamp and fender paint pattern in empire blue and cream.
Gotta score some point for originality though!

QUESTION Can I call it a "Zep" without the upgraded features?

Chris


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## RMS37 (Jan 8, 2012)

Hi Chris, I noticed your posting this morning. Virtually everyone in the hobby calls these frames “Zeps” which is a compliment to Montgomery Ward’s advertising department. The problem I see is that it doesn’t do justice to the actual 1937 Hawthorne Zep which is a fairly rare, top of the line bicycle.

H.P. Snyder probably produced well over 300,000 of these frames between 1935 and 1940 and probably only around a thousand or so of those were actually true 1937 Zeps.

The other problem is that Montgomery Ward migrated the Zep name for roughly three years over three distinctly different bicycles, so calling all of these bicycles “Zeps” clouds those differentiations and the significance of bikes like your 1939 Twin Bar Zep.

Still, we love nickname monikers in the hobby and railing against the overuse of the “Zep” name is as much of a joke for me as it is a true crusade. It doesn’t appear that Snyder themselves had a singular published name for this very unique frame design so I chose the unwieldy “Snyder Fastback Sport.” That name is based on the manufacturer, the extreme fastback nature of the design, and the Sport designation which actually appears in several advertisements of bikes with this frame, including the one for the bike you just purchased.

Your new acquisition is a 1936 Hawthorne, it is unnamed in the catalog but is referred to as “Wards new sport model Hawthorne” Your bike looks like it is only missing the chain guard to finish it out as these bikes were not heavily accessorized in stock form.

The paint pattern is the typical 1936 pattern which was also used on the 1937 Sport model (by that time the sport was positioned two models below the new Zep.)

My guess is that your bike is from mid to late 1936 because it has the large formed steel nut adjuster for the seat collet and it looks like the spacing between the top tubes is large enough to accept the tank that will not fit the earliest Sport frames which have more closely positioned top tubes. The earlier frames also used a smaller nut to tighten the seat collet. One other variation of this frame (which is likely the earliest) retains the Tribar seat cluster of the earlier Snyder Tribar and Speedline frames, with seat stays that flow past the seat tube and merge into the top tube rather like a Shelby Airflow frame,

Most bicycles were produced in batches, usually with small and sometimes large changes made between those runs. There is always a lot of research necessary to try to uncover all of the variations of any bike produced and then a lot of speculation required to put them in chronological order. Catalogs are like snapshots of the family taken twice a year; between those secessions the subjects typically grow and change hairstyles many times that are not documented.  For instance there appear to be at least 4 distinct variations of the actual 1937 Hawthorne Zep for which production probably began in late 1936 and ended in late 1937 or early 1938. of those only the latter two are shown in the catalogs.


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## catfish (Jan 8, 2012)

RMS37 said:


> I've followed this frame-fork for a while and it is being advertised on the Ratrod site for sale:
> 
> http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=50671&p=485805#p485805
> 
> I have a soft spot for actual Hawthorne Zeps and I hope this goes to someone who would attempt a correct restoration although the frame problems would clearly make that a labor of love over common $ sense.




Nice to see the locking fork. That's what's worth buying this bike for. I've only seen one other.


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## halfatruck (Jan 8, 2012)

*Zep/1936 Hawthorne*

Phil,

What are the differences between my 1936 and a Zep?
Thanks


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## Aeropsycho (Jan 8, 2012)

*Thanks Phil!!!*

Thank You for the heads up!

I needed this bad!


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## fordsnake (Jan 8, 2012)

> Nice to see the locking fork – I've only seen one other.




Well, make that two! Here's my Zep...or should that be three locking forks? Because I have another locking fork (but without a key)


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## Aeropsycho (Jan 8, 2012)

*It figures...*



fordsnake said:


> Well, make that two! Here's my Zep...or should that be three locking forks? Because I have another locking fork (but without a key)




You probably have a two headed coin to make thous special deals too uncle Leon...


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## catfish (Jan 8, 2012)

fordsnake said:


> Well, make that two! Here's my Zep...or should that be three locking forks? Because I have another locking fork (but without a key)




That would be three. I owned one years ago. And the two that are posted here. Mine was in real nice original paint.


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## fordsnake (Jan 8, 2012)

> That would be three. I owned one years ago. And the two that are posted here. Mine was in real nice original paint.




Catfish,..both of the locking forks were purchased on this site from two respectable CABE members, neither forks had the original paint.


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## Jose (Mar 8, 2014)

RMS37 said:


> Hi Chris, I noticed your posting this morning. Virtually everyone in the hobby calls these frames “Zeps” which is a compliment to Montgomery Ward’s advertising department. The problem I see is that it doesn’t do justice to the actual 1937 Hawthorne Zep which is a fairly rare, top of the line bicycle.
> 
> H.P. Snyder probably produced well over 300,000 of these frames between 1935 and 1940 and probably only around a thousand or so of those were actually true 1937 Zeps.
> 
> ...




NOW this is what I needed to know. You the man....Thanks for the 411


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## mrg (Feb 11, 2015)

*fork lock*

good info on the fork lock, any info on the zeps frame mounted fork lockhttp://thecabe.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=195649&d=1423434763http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/asset.php?fid=154350&uid=7288&d=1423434763


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## mrg (Feb 11, 2015)

*fork lock*






good info on the fork lock, any info on the zeps frame mounted fork lock


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## mrg (Feb 11, 2015)

sorry for bringing up this old thread, didn't realize it was in ebay & cl, oh well, cant move it


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