The Carolina Rambler
Finally riding a big boys bike
Hello everybody. I've been wanting to show yall this for a while, and I have finally managed to pull together all the missing pieces I need to do a complete restoration. I can't imagine that there are too many of these still left around. This is a very early "tank bike", one of the earliest I have seen. It is a circa 1917 Montgomery Ward Deluxe Flyer. I think this is pre "Ward's Hawthorne", and from what I have been able to tell, bikes with this badge and model remained in production in some form until about 1923. This one has a number of the earlier features, so I recon it is probably from about 1917 give or take a year or so.
I actually was turned on to this bike here on the CABE, and when no one locally bought it after a couple of months, I arranged to buy it and had it shipped. As bad as the bike looks now, it looked a lot worse when I got it, if that says anything about its condition. It has rust out in places, including the frame, was missing half the parts, which are found, and the tank will need a lot of work and probably a patch. It is a really early tank, appears brazed or soldered together, with a really neat looking large door. The bike has trace remains of original orange paint and striping, so in doing the restoration, I will see to it that it remains as an orange bike in some fashion. In doing the numbers, it's looking like between buying the bike, finding parts, and completing the restoration, it will cost $1000-$1100 plus at least 150 hours of time to finish it. Hopefully I can manage to finish it before 2022! I can tell this bike will have some real speed behind it once it gets going!
Any information or comments you have with regards to this is greatly appreciated, and may help in making decisions during the restoration. Thank you, and have a nice day!
I actually was turned on to this bike here on the CABE, and when no one locally bought it after a couple of months, I arranged to buy it and had it shipped. As bad as the bike looks now, it looked a lot worse when I got it, if that says anything about its condition. It has rust out in places, including the frame, was missing half the parts, which are found, and the tank will need a lot of work and probably a patch. It is a really early tank, appears brazed or soldered together, with a really neat looking large door. The bike has trace remains of original orange paint and striping, so in doing the restoration, I will see to it that it remains as an orange bike in some fashion. In doing the numbers, it's looking like between buying the bike, finding parts, and completing the restoration, it will cost $1000-$1100 plus at least 150 hours of time to finish it. Hopefully I can manage to finish it before 2022! I can tell this bike will have some real speed behind it once it gets going!
Any information or comments you have with regards to this is greatly appreciated, and may help in making decisions during the restoration. Thank you, and have a nice day!
