# What was your best old Bike find???   Here's mine



## nomadman1956 (Nov 12, 2010)

So what was your best old bicycle find?    Mine happened even before I was even collecting old bikes and 20 some odd years later havent come close to topping it.  ( topping it hell...aint even came close to matching it!!!)

In 1983 I was a junior In High School and had been dating my soon to be wife a couple of years already, She had a part time Job as a waitress at the Lemon drop, a 50's  style diner that had been in our town since 1953.

I would always take her to work and pick her up each day she worked just to get to spend time with her and on the way home one Saturday the short cut home took us by way of some not so great neighborhoods!  We spotted a rummage sale and ya know how you have a way of scoring a rummage sale as to whether your even gonna stop or not. Well a 1/2 a block away we had decided No way and I blew right on by with the top down and as we passed I happened to glance up in the rear view mirror and seen a old bike leaning against the fense. 

I couldnt get parked fast enough!  I ran over to find the coolest old bike I had ever seen but had no idea what it was????  It was missing the name plate.  When I asked how much the wanted for it and they said $40.00 

Well for a kid my age with only a parttime job at Micky D's and trying to date and feed my S.S. 396 convertible (which I still have) 
they might as well have tacked on about a dozen Zero's behind it.

However...growing up around old bikes I knew this thing was off the cool chart !!!!   it was orginal, complete, and pretty darn nice other than the name plate.

I told them we'd take it, knowing my grandfather or soon to be father in law would want it because I had never seen anything near that cool in their collections or any of there trading buddys collections.

I zoomed to the closest pay phone ( yes pre cell phone days..lol) .  I called my grandfather excited as can be but when he found out it was missing the name plate he had no interest.   He had been out of the old bikes for a couple years by this point and just about done with the modern bikes. All the kids in the neighborhood were my age or older and had no uses for his bikes or services anymore.

My second choice was my father in law, and after describing the bike he broke all land and speed records getting there  and bought it.

It was a 1939 zep with the glass reflector in the tank.  He found a 1940 name badge and put on it  and it remained in his collection until the late 80's

At this point he decided to dump some bikes to help fund building a garage so we went to the Ann Arbor show and auction. He had planned on running it through the auction how ever it wasnt out of the trailor any time at all and he got a $2000 offer on the bike. He was in shock and as he has making the deal I spoke up and intervened. I said my finders fee for finding the bike would be getting to ride it around the show at least 30 minutes. I has in heaven those 30 minutes!!!  No doubt I was the coolest dude there!!! lol

I rode back to the gentleman standing there waiting and never saw it again.   Since getting back in to the hobby I have asked several guys how hard these are to find. One guy said he has seen 1 in 20 years.   ( why is it I like the rare and $$$ stuff???)     

I searched the web and found a photo of this one which won best of show in Ann Arbor in 2001 and owned by Harry Ward. Its identical to the one I found.  I contacted the bike show email to get contact info for Harry Ward to see if it could be the same one but the said he had died several years ago.  If i recall correctly the guy that bought it was from Arizona.

Well Guys here's my best find...and yes it too got away...lol


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## JOEL (Nov 12, 2010)

Great bike! Great story!

My best scores over the years:
Lady's Silver King Wingbar from the thrift store a few weeks ago.
34 Schwinn model R track bike, found while at a yard sale, not for sale but sitting in the garden with freshly planted ivy around it. 
80s Gios road bike with full Dura Ace and custom paint by CyclArt (thrift store)
Pair of original 38 Shelbys with matching accessories and consecutive New Orleans license plates (estate sale)


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## PCHiggin (Nov 12, 2010)

My best lately is a '68 Breeze with a Yellow Band 2 speed hub. I found it a few days ago @ the local Thrift Store.It was marked 50% off from $39.95 . It rides and shifts perfectly. The hub alone is worth more to me than the $21+ change for the whole bike. It has a nice set of silver chubby grips  too. Thanks.

Pat


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## jwm (Nov 12, 2010)

I got the old bike bug sometime in the late '70s, but I searched for years without finding anything. One morning in the fall of 1980 I stepped out my front door just in time to see an old guy ride up on  (what I would later learn) was a 1956 Starlet. Except for the seat, the bike was 100% intact, but had been brush painted bright red, right down to the spokes, chain, seat, and tires. The bike had a huge basket on the front, and they guy was using it to gather aluminum cans out of the trash. I bought it on the spot for $50. That was my first tanker. 



JWM


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## bud poe (Nov 12, 2010)

My best so far doesn't come close to the thread starter but here goes...
Last year a friend of mine who is mildly interested in old bikes gave me a call to tell me of a bike he saw.  It was amongst a pile of old clothes and other random junk in a vacant alley behind a pub.  He had driven by but could only make out that it was an old cruiser but it was mostly covered by the junk and his wife wasn't into stopping to check it out.  He wanted to give me the "heads up" because he knew I'd probably go check it out at least.  It was only about a half mile from my house the girlfriend and I headed over there in the Subaru wagon.  
I located the pile of rubbish and saw the back of the bike, green frame, kind of surface rusty.  As I dug it out I began to realize I had something pretty cool, a framestyle I had never seen before, and aluminum rear fender.  It was (I would later learn from the helpful folks on this site) a 1936 Columbia Twin Bar, in OG paint, OG tires still on the rims (missing front fender, tank and correct bars).  I was so stoked!  
I have since traded it, and I realize that I might never have another score quite like that one.  It still lives in town, about a mile from where I found it actually, in the cramped basement of a fellow collector among over a dozen other incredible pre war bikes.  The decision to trade it away was a difficult one, but I figured easy come easy go, and it went to a good home so... I hope Karma will bring me some good scores in the future...


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## nomadman1956 (Nov 12, 2010)

Since getting back into bike collecting a couple of months ago. I have landed 3





this is the rarest a 35 elgin black hawk


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## militarymonark (Nov 12, 2010)

1940 schwinn autocycle with double duty fork


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## redline1968 (Nov 12, 2010)

went to a swap meet in washington and this dude dropped a pile of bikes and in the pile was a hoppy missing the tank for 50.00 and at a garage sale for 25.00 the 20in hoppy 10 yrs latter.


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## bairdco (Nov 13, 2010)

i've had a lot of great scores on old bikes in my life, but one of my best was just last year.

i went to look at some old bike, and the seller decided he was gonna keep it, but he offered me an early 40's 24" Colson, all complete, but very rusty, for $75. plus, he delivered it to my house.

at first, i wasn't that into it. i mean, it looked cool, but it looked so beat that i wasn't sure if i wanted to keep it.

i started cleaning it up, and with some WD40 and elbow grease, got the original "patina" to come out. then i really started digging the looptail rear end.

you may call it blasphemy, but my plan was to slap a chinese motor kit on it, and that's what i did. (without any permanent alterations, of course. it can still be put back to stock.)

one thing i had to change, though, were the rims. when i pumped up the tires, the back rim split apart from all the rust. 

here's where the best score comes in...

i was taking a break in a park about 10 miles from my house one of my other motored bikes, and an old guy comes up and we start chatting about it, and he's telling me about his old whizzer, how he sold it about ten years ago after restoring it, and then he tells me he's got a set of 24" Worksman Wheels he bought new 10 years ago sitting in his garage that he couldn't use because his whizzer was a 26.

so i tells him i just scored an old Colson 24, and he says i can have the wheels for 50 bucks.

NOS, bendix coaster, front Atom drum, 11g. spokes, and a tiny bit of surface rust that came right off...

it's one of those stories where ya get lucky and find exactly what you're looking for (without actually looking) exactly when you need it.

(oh, and i got the Brooks B66S for $1.75 off ebay)


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## halfatruck (Nov 13, 2010)

Got this 1946 Schwinn from a guy that asked me to please get it out of his backyard.....I changed it to a 3 speed and have since added a correct 9 hole carrier to the completed bike (second picture)........


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## patrick (Jan 19, 2011)

I've only been collecting bikes for a year or two but recently made a rare find.
A Manton and Smith tanker. I even got the locking fork to work. I'm guessing its Late 40's- Early 50's. I bought it for $350 in a package deal with two other bikes and a box of parts.


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## MaxGlide (Jan 23, 2011)

Well i've only been doing this for a year and half or so but i've loved old bikes for years. 

My best finds were an X53 for $300 and an Elgin Twin Bar 40 for $500. `````


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## npence (Jan 23, 2011)

Here are my three greatest finds that all happened last year. 
1936 1/2 Elgin Bluebird


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1941 Colson Firestone Super Cruiser


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1941 Mercury


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## partsguy (Jan 23, 2011)

Slim Pickin's here lately...so not too many incredible finds. The best find would be my black Huffy Cruiser from 1963 All original and bought it for $2.00 (YES THE DECIMAL IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE!)


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## partsguy (Jan 23, 2011)

Geez, Nate! where do you find that stuff! Oh, when are you avaible to pick up the Hercules?


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