1915 to 1919 Sears Chief - Documentation & Bike Thread

Balloontyre · Oct 5, 2013

1917 Locking Stand?

1917 spring summer catalog

This description clip is opposite the full page color Chief ad. The Master bike also shows this locking drop stand in the B&W description photo opposite of it's color ad page.

Gary Mc · Nov 2, 2013

1915 Sears Catalog #130 Spring & Summer Chief pages

1915 Sears Catalog #130 Spring & Summer Chief pages from my collection.

Gary Mc · Nov 2, 2013

Just noticed the Chief text page is not legible, I'll take a better pic & repost later today.

dmk441 · Nov 3, 2013

Sears Chief and Master project bikes

Just picked up these two bikes this weekend. One Chief and one Master, they need some TLC, but should be fun riders eventually. Over the winter I'll look at repainting them. Anyone have a good image of the Master bikes paint schemes or color options? I also need a badge for the Chief, Thanks.

Chief has the coaster brake corbin rear hub.

Dave

Nickinator · Nov 3, 2013

lucky man! nice finds!

Nick,

dmk441 said:

Just picked up these two bikes this weekend. One Chief and one Master, they need some TLC, but should be fun riders eventually. Over the winter I'll look at repainting them. Anyone have a good image of the Master bikes paint schemes or color options? I also need a badge for the Chief, Thanks.

Chief has the coaster brake corbin rear hub.

Dave

bricycle · Nov 3, 2013

Yea, some great finds there!!!!!

dave the wave · Nov 3, 2013

great score dave,but the master looks different than other masters i've seen.it looks to be davis built with the lugs on the frame.it should look like the bike below.but it still could be a master of a different year.the headbadge looks to be original to the bike.

dmk441 · Nov 7, 2013

Sears Chief and Master project bikes

Thanks guys, these are definitely fun bikes. The chief is getting disassembled tonight to get ready to paint. I've seen a couple of restored bikes, but the yellow seems to vary among them, anyone have any insight on the correct shade of yellow? Someone also mentioned the spear length varied on the years, I wonder what year my chief would be...

I'm still trying to figure out more on the Master bike. I wonder if it would have a similar paint and spear pattern to a chief, just with black and green as the color combination?

Also, I'm still looking for a Chief badge, have a few good trade options for people.

Gary Mc · Nov 7, 2013

dmk441 said:

Original colors for the Chief were ivory & rich cherry red only for all years. The yellow color you commonly see on these is yellowing from almost 100 years of oxidation of what was originally ivory in color, almost white in color. Same with the brownish red. When I removed the orange house paint from parts of mine it revealed fairly good original color that had obviously been painted on long ago before the yellowing/aging you commonly see could occur. Yellow would be incorrect if you are looking to go back original.