Can you tell me the year of this Hiawatha/Gambles?

[PaulWR]

Thank you again Leon. My father would have bought that bike around 1965. But I swear the original colors were black on the frame and fork and Flamboyant Red on the rack, chain guard and tank. Of course the graphics were much simpler than the other, only two unequal stripes on the top of each side of the carrier (as shown in the one picture), very plain white darts on the fork, another wider white dart on the tank and a very basic design with the word "Hiawatha" on the chain guard. You can see one just like it, except for the top tube, on YouTube under "Vintage Hiawatha Bicycle???" by Slimy Green Garage. That is what it looked liked, as near as I remember anyways. But as I take off the paint from the lousy spray bomb job, that does seems to be the way the original color scheme was.

Thanks for pointing out that someone did do some big time butchery to the carrier to fit a larger tire under the fender. I don't know, maybe it was my little brother years ago. Oops, I looked at the ugly gap for years and that modification never dawned on me. This will be made right.

Good advice on the graphics, so I will hold off on painting them. Maybe another knowledgeable reader can point me in the right direction on these. Gee, if it is on the internet, then it must be true. Just kidding. You know maybe they should just throw away that year identification chart that has been floating around, but we all know anything put on the internet is there forever.

Thanks again for providing me with detailed, more importantly the correct information, on my two Hiawatha bikes. I am glad you saw my post. By the way, I did buy a real Murray seat post today. Hah.

 

[NBHAA]

Thank you again Leon. My father would have bought that bike around 1965. But I swear the original colors were black on the frame and fork and Flamboyant Red on the rack, chain guard and tank. Of course the graphics were much simpler than the other, only two unequal stripes on the top of each side of the carrier (as shown in the one picture), very plain white darts on the fork, another wider white dart on the tank and a very basic design with the word "Hiawatha" on the chain guard. You can see one just like it, except for the top tube, on YouTube under "Vintage Hiawatha Bicycle???" by Slimy Green Garage. That is what it looked liked, as near as I remember anyways. But as I take off the paint from the lousy spray bomb job, that does seems to be the way the original color scheme was.

Thanks for pointing out that someone did do some big time butchery to the carrier to fit a larger tire under the fender. I don't know, maybe it was my little brother years ago. Oops, I looked at the ugly gap for years and that modification never dawned on me. This will be made right.

Good advice on the graphics, so I will hold off on painting them. Maybe another knowledgeable reader can point me in the right direction on these. Gee, if it is on the internet, then it must be true. Just kidding. You know maybe they should just throw away that year identification chart that has been floating around, but we all know anything put on the internet is there forever.

Thanks again for providing me with detailed, more importantly the correct information, on my two Hiawatha bikes. I am glad you saw my post. By the way, I did buy a real Murray seat post today. Hah.

Hello...

Again, you are most welcome. Always happy to help.

My comments on the mods done were not regarding the rear carrier... which appears bolted on correctly. My comments were on the horizontal fender brace re-location. This brace should attach at the same bolt as the one holding the vertical legs of the rear carrier. Murray-Ohio frames like this never got drilled after the serial number stamping was done. Someone drilled extra holes in the frame ears and re-attached the horizontal rear fender brace lower and farther rearward– thus pushing the brace rearward and creating a big gap. This has usually been done to clear fatter balloon tires (which should never be mounted on these bicycles).

As I pointed out. the style you have with that model number debuted in 1965. I did not go deeper into the numbers. However, this model was made for years thereafter. And color changes were certainly possible– especially with the ad hoc way that Gambles and associated retailers did sale and promotional Hiawatha models. They would have some kind of sale and come up with a sales promotional model that had slightly different things about it. So keeping track of all this is no way easy– even with records at hand.

One other thing difficult in dealing with Hiawatha bicycles, especially in their latter days is that they often used a model number over several years and one needs to know what the suffix letters mean in the model number. AND... some serial numbers were good for two years rather than one. YES. And serial numbers assigned to model numbers did not necessarily follow a linear progression! These are all factors that make it nearly impossible for one to guess their way to an accurate answer.

Can't go to 3rd party links to see something that is the "same thing only different" kinda thing. I would have to see a screen shot or actual photo of whatever is on that video.

Hope this helps.

Leon Dixon
NBHAA.com

 

[PaulWR]

Hello...

Again, you are most welcome. Always happy to help.

My comments on the mods done were not regarding the rear carrier... which appears bolted on correctly. My comments were on the horizontal fender brace re-location. This brace should attach at the same bolt as the one holding the vertical legs of the rear carrier. Murray-Ohio frames like this never got drilled after the serial number stamping was done. Someone drilled extra holes in the frame ears and re-attached the horizontal rear fender brace lower and farther rearward– thus pushing the brace rearward and creating a big gap. This has usually been done to clear fatter balloon tires (which should never be mounted on these bicycles).

As I pointed out. the style you have with that model number debuted in 1965. I did not go deeper into the numbers. However, this model was made for years thereafter. And color changes were certainly possible– especially with the ad hoc way that Gambles and associated retailers did sale and promotional Hiawatha models. They would have some kind of sale and come up with a sales promotional model that had slightly different things about it. So keeping track of all this is no way easy– even with records at hand.

One other thing difficult in dealing with Hiawatha bicycles, especially in their latter days is that they often used a model number over several years and one needs to know what the suffix letters mean in the model number. AND... some serial numbers were good for two years rather than one. YES. And serial numbers assigned to model numbers did not necessarily follow a linear progression! These are all factors that make it nearly impossible for one to guess their way to an accurate answer.

Can't go to 3rd party links to see something that is the "same thing only different" kinda thing. I would have to see a screen shot or actual photo of whatever is on that video.

Hope this helps.

Leon Dixon
NBHAA.com

Yeah, I meant to say the horizontal rear fender brace rather than the rear rack/carrier brace. You mean you cannot get it on a YouTube search? It's the first one just by putting in that title. I give up since I don't know how to attach it, maybe someone else can. I am tired of trying. Yeah I used "it's the same thing only different" so freakin' excuse me.