# What year is my monark?



## The Professor (Jul 26, 2014)

Hi. I'm new here and need help identifying an old monark/firestone that I recently dug out of a man's yard.this bike has no identifying plates, badges or #s. I'm almost positive it's a monark and the headlight is a delta rocket Ray, but I'm not sure as to the exact year or model. Can anyone help. Also, this was yard art, but I plan to use as much as possible on a firestone super cruiser frame. I will first build a rideable rat then build a finished rat bike.  Yes I know it's rough, but I love the process of resurrecting something that others call dead.if anyone can help, please, your input is much appreciated.


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## 10~18kustoms (Jul 28, 2014)

Think I remember reading somewhere that the 1948 was the only year that had the rear bumper under the teardrop taillight.  But I'm not for sure.


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## The Professor (Dec 14, 2014)

Thanks. I have searched the web and got several opinions and I believe it is a 1948 super deluxe. Leon Dixon identified it as that as well...right before he added me to his poop list.Lol. I have started the teardown and repair of this bike. I will post a new thread documenting this amazing story and extensive restoration. I was told this is one of the Christmas contest bikes from 1948 and I'm excited to bring this piece of history back from ruin.


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## Freqman1 (Dec 14, 2014)

A '48 Super Deluxe would not have had a Rocket Ray on it, rack is not correct, and seat may not be either. Not to rain on any parades here but a true, full on resto for this bike will take at least three times what the finished product is worth. The Super Deluxes are probably the most common model of deluxe ballooner available. The correct pedestal light alone will probably be at least $350. I would probably either pass on this one or do a rat bike. Good luck no matter which direction you go. V/r Shawn


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## Wayne Adam (Dec 14, 2014)

*Monark year*

I have professionally restored some of the worst, rusty, bikes you could imagine, but in my opinion, this one cannot be saved. It would make an exceptional piece of 
garden art, but as far as a resto goes, Shawn is correct, it would cost at least three time what the finished bike would be worth.
I have attached some pictures of my unrestored 1949 Monark Super Deluxe to show you the correct light, seat & rack. Yours is also missing the chrome head shroud and fender rocket.
I think that buying the missing parts alone would cost you about $700. 00 or more.
 I picked this bike up about three years ago as you see it for $450.00

   This is all just my opinion, and good luck in what ever you choose to do..........................Wayne

Bicycle Larry has some beautiful Monarks, maybe he could post some pictures also.


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## bicycle larry (Dec 14, 2014)

*monark bicycles*

thanks wayne for you com. the black and cream one till has org paint same as the red and black one .i have done up more but no pictures . yes shawn is right it takes a lot of money to build thees bikes up .its is a labor of love. wayne thats a super nice org. monark you have !!! i like .  from bicycle larry


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## jacob9795 (Dec 14, 2014)

I'm in the process of restoring a '48 Super Deluxe myself. I just love these bikes. Your saddle looks like the shell of a Lobdell Emery (I've seen these with vinyl or leather covers) and original to the bike. However, I just don't know if it's possible to re-cover these saddles because they have an unusual metal staple stitching underneath the pan. I've only seen the split-crash rail saddles and fender rockets on later model years. The correct rack shows up often on eBay and since you're going full resto, a rack that needs work will be more affordable (maybe around $50-$75). 

I bet those fenders could be rolled if you remove the braces. The braces won't be too hard to re-shape (they were originally painted anyway). The rivets weren't painted either so the bolt on style rivets will work great. The fork unit is straight and original. The wheelset won't be hard too find (there are two styles common to these bikes, both being chrome). Finding a pedestal light is a setback. I just bought an original for $330 (for the '48 model). I just sold one with some reproduction parts for $160.00. The pedestal light for Wayne Adam's beautiful '49, and those that have an Aluminum top, are the rarest and most expensive of them all. 

Has the head tube been repaired on your frame?

Also, the tank won't be too difficult to find and may cost you about $150-$200 for an original (with the horn). The reproduction tanks have a small hole on each side of the horn button. The originals will have the two small holes to the left of the "horn button".

Those are some beautiful bikes posted above!

Best Wishes,
Jake


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## The Professor (Dec 14, 2014)

Lol. Jake!!! I'm the guy who bought you pedestal light!!!


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## jacob9795 (Dec 14, 2014)

Hi ya Pal!!
Hey, I have a shroud w/o the badge if you need one. Let me know if you're interested and I'll put it in the box (a badge from a girls shroud will fit). I'm curious, is your chainwheel original? Does it have something to do with that Christmas promotion you mentioned above? 
Also, I need a few parts for my Monark so if you have anything extra, I may be interested in trading. Are you looking for any other parts?


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## The Professor (Dec 14, 2014)

Lol. I love this. O.k. im on a laptop and not my phone so i can be a little more thorough. please excuse my typos and punct. errors. Lemme do some backstory here. I had been on the ground searching for Shelby Airflos or flyers, when my bicycle hunting eyes caught a glimpse of some kind of tank bike in the front yard of what appeared to be an eccentrics house. in a spotty lightning and rainstorm i ran to the front door and knocked on it. The guy answered and had been drinking and didnt look friendly. he said that he bought this house from a man named Bucheit who recieved this bicycle on christmas morning when he was a kid, after it was delivered christmas eve by the msk co as part of a contest prize. the bike was put under the porch in the 70s and stayed there till 90. the man who bought the house (he calls himself Wildcat.) said he put it in the garage thinking it was neat. the garage then burned to the ground where the only thing left standing was this bike. wildcat took the bike to a local garage and they removed the shroud and welded the headtube back on backwards. they painted it this weird red, then wildcat cemented this bike into his frontyard and strapped his mailbox to the luggage rack. 25 yrs later a drunk drives his car through the front porch. again this bike is left standing, but it did get hit in the rear. after working out a deal, i repaired two of his sons bikes in exchange for this bike. here is Mr Wildcat the day we dug the bike out of the yard.


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## The Professor (Dec 14, 2014)

*I love everyones input!*

Thank you everyone. I too noticed that the luggage rack was not right and i was informed by Leon Dixon that the Delta rocket ray headlight never was paired with monark from the factory. however I straightened and sanblasted that one and it will like again. 
Purchased on ebay;
1 luggage rack with tail light $40 it doesnt have the cheese grater, its blank, but we will get to that later.
1 frame with shroud, head badge, seatpost and bolt, sprocket and crank for $60
1 set of new departure hubs with acorn nuts. $25
1 pedastal light with repop parts...priceless ($160)
Free from a columbia rat bike i bought for $148 (wait till i show you that one!)
1 set of new departure wheels 
1 stem 
1 set of handlebars.
1 set us royal whitewalls from 1955 traded for labor. 
So I have all the parts to rebuild minus the original vin plate. Jake Im so glad you id'd the seat. what did you think about that bid on the light. that was an odd number huh.  I got a lot of work ahead of me. Ive broken the bike down and started hammering out the fenders. ive sandblasted the seat and some other miscelaneous parts. I have the bike in rough mock up from. I found the rest of the stuff for good pricing through memory lane classics. I will rechrome what i can, re cover the seat and repaint it in an original 1948 color. 
The rough part. I figure since its missing some crucial metal it is a prime candidate for some stretching and geometrical changes. Im an adult. I dont plan on selling this bike and i want to size it for me. Im going deep into my pocket on this one, but it is a labor of love. I also strongly believe this to be one of those christmas contest bikes. yes jake, i think that sprocket is different because it was built for that contest. however i have no proof and am reaching out to anyone who can help. im so in love with these bikes. thank you everyone for the info. im happy as hell to hear from the msk community.


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## jacob9795 (Dec 14, 2014)

LOL!
That picture of Wildcat is worth a thousand words! Poor bike's been through hell. Why did they flip the headtube? Anyway, that head shroud is just held in place by the top headtube bearing cup (I guess it's now the bottom cup, lol). Just mount the shroud on the frame and set the cup in. That's a neat story!


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## The Professor (Dec 15, 2014)

Hey Bicycle Larry, Im glad to see some of your bikes. in researching mine ive read a lot of your threads and followed a lot of your advice. can you tell me more about the two restored bikes you have pictured. (my question mark button doesnt work.lol.) I really like that bottom pic. do you do rechroming on your restos and how much does that generally run. Shawn (ive read a lot of your post and followed your advice as well)and Wayne I agree that the cost of this will be astronomical, but im in it now and i dont back out till i have no other option.  Also anybody have recommendations on fender rolling. Ive got them back into shape but if i could get them rolled it would make my body work a lot easier.


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## HARPO (Dec 15, 2014)

Am I the only one hearing "Dueling Banjo's" in the background?.......


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## HARPO (Dec 15, 2014)

HARPO said:


> Am I the only one hearing "Dueling Banjo's" in the background?.......




Concerning the Wildcat photos.....


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## Freqman1 (Dec 16, 2014)

Chrome has been averaging about $1200 for a deluxe ballooner for me. Paint and materials for a two tone about $150. V/r Shawn


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## The Professor (Dec 16, 2014)

Hey Shawn. $1200 is in my price range. So when you put $1350 into one of these bikes do you ever recoup your $ when you sell them or do you just hang on to them? I saw a restored bike on eBay for $1700 and it was very kit bashed and had aftermarket parts. These bikes are great but they aren't really worth that kind of $ are they? Btw. I'm just doing this to have one, not to sell it, but I'm curious. For instance, in ten years will these bikes be worth what we put into them?


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## Freqman1 (Dec 16, 2014)

The only bikes worth doing a full resto on are the high dollar bikes that really need it. Otherwise consider it money gone. My initial post alluded to this. I've seen some pretty decent original Super D's go for less that a $1000 here fairly regularly. BTW chrome and paint are just part of the costs. Usually you have to run down parts and replace tires/tubes/grips/get a seat recovered, etc... If you have someone do a show quality paint job you can probably figure an easy $700-1000 more. V/r Shawn


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## bicycle larry (Dec 16, 2014)

*what year is my monark*

shawn is right you can put a lot of money in to thees bikes and when you sell it you do not get the money out of them .its a labour of love . i like shawn have done a lot of makes of bicycles up .and ejoyed doing them up i have a real weekness for the monark bicycles. i can hardly wait to do the next one up . its a great hobby to be in to . from bicycle larry


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## jacob9795 (Dec 16, 2014)

Here are the pictures of my project you requested Jake. I'm going to go with the original red and white Monark paint job. All I need is the saddle and the rear bumper guard (If anyone has these items, let me know). It's a model 4408.


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## The Professor (Dec 24, 2014)

Thanks for the info guys. All of these are beautiful bikes.

My donor frame is a 4400 C. Does anyone know what year that is? It has a skiptooth chain ring on it and it looks to have an original black color. 

I look forward to hearing everyone's input as this build progresses!


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## The Professor (Mar 13, 2015)

*Update*

I've been collecting parts, cleaning up what pieces I could salvage, and mocking everything up on a donor frame since I last posted here. This is where I'm at so far. I realize that the bike's not 100% accurate or complete, but in my opinion it's starting to look a hell of a lot better  I've decided that this isn't a good candidate for a restoration, as some pointed out... however it is a good candidate for a custom. At this point I've borrowed some pieces from my Firestone project and seeing it in this rough form should give everybody some idea that this bike will be back on the road at some point. I'll be sending the original frame out in the next couple of months to have it sized to me and have the rust repaired. Thank you everybody for your input, I'd love to hear what others think. 






I'll probably move this thread over to running projects... just because that's where it should be, and that way I can list a better detailing of this project there. 

Thanks!


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## rollfaster (Mar 13, 2015)

Hey it's coming along. Hopefully you'll have it in riding condition in time for the first river city retro ride on this season. Probably the first couple of weeks in April. Rob. Rivercityretro.org


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