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Jc Higgins date help

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Aaron1979

On Training Wheels
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Aaron:
Looking at Sears catalog reprints, your bike appears to be a 1950 or 1951 "J.C. Higgins Semi-equipped Bicycle." In the 1951 Fall-Winter catalog, it is instead labeled "J.C. Higgins Regal." The rear rack, chain guard, truss bars, saddle, and chain wheel match. However, the catalog indicates a front headlight and a maroon frame with gray or ivory trim. So, does your front fender have holes where a headlight had been? Has the frame been repainted?
 
Aaron:
Looking at Sears catalog reprints, your bike appears to be a 1950 or 1951 "J.C. Higgins Semi-equipped Bicycle." In the 1951 Fall-Winter catalog, it is instead labeled "J.C. Higgins Regal." The rear rack, chain guard, truss bars, saddle, and chain wheel match. However, the catalog indicates a front headlight and a maroon frame with gray or ivory trim. So, does your front fender have holes where a headlight had been? Has the frame been repainted?[/QUOTE





Andy A. It does have 2 holes n front fender for a light. Is it shown with a tank? What kind of light? Thank you very much for the help.
 
Aaron:
Forget what I wrote about the Regal model; it had no rear carrier. However, the "Semi-equipped" models in the 1950 Spring-Summer and the 1951 Spring-Summer catalogs both show rear carriers like yours. The corresponding models of the more expensive "Equipped" bikes of those years were basically the same bikes as the "Semi-equipped" but they had tanks (with three exhaust rings!) and different rear carriers (with two jet tubes!) "Equipped" bikes had dark gray frames with vermillion and light gray trim. So, the paint remains a mystery. Headlights on all are torpedo style.
Have fun, Andy
 
I just picked this bike's sister - 1952 by Monark. Besides being a girls bike, it too is missing the tank. The only year to year change that I can see is the mounting bracket for the truss rods.
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I have the Collectable [sic] Elgin - JC Higgins - Sears - Hawthorne bookk of collected catalog pages. I'll try to post a picture of the picture and write up of the 51 or 52 bike so you can look at a picture. In my mind, the tank will have the "zoomie headers" decals on it.
 
Not the greatest pictures - taken with my smart phone with the catalog sitting on my lap - but you can get the idea. Your paint scheme is incorrect but the rear rack is correct. The picture of my bike shows the paint scheme. I took some rubbing compound to some the rear rack's Vermillion, and it's now closer to red than orange. I found a repo tank for mine at Bicycle Bones. I'll get a detailed report picture of the headlamp for you tomorrow. Here are two pictures. One of the bike; another of the text that goes with it.
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Here's a picture from the web. Looks like the description, except this one dosen't have the correct rack or headlamp (should be vermillion too.) Yours has the correct rack.
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@Aaron1979
Check out the Murray serial number thread; MOS-Q may indicate 1951. Oh, and your Sears 502 bike was built by Murray Ohio.

Murray tanks are much more available than for a Shelby.
 
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When I picked mine up, I thought that once I get it home, I'll be able to decode the Murray stampings and decode the year and model. WRONG. I found out mine was a Monark built bike. Serial number, etc is stamped into a plate that has been riveted to the BB. Someone else dated it for me. No clue how to read this plate.

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