Tanks do not fit 26-X frames.
Ahhh. The photos were not enough?
Yeahhhhhh... I knew the minute I mentioned this and showed the photo that would be someone alllllllll set and ready to argue about it. The internet and today's criteria makes everybody an "expert" on whatever they think they are an "expert." Unfortunately one needs to have vision that is not limited by today's clique rigidity or appetite for arguing. In the 1970s, I couldn't give a 26-X away– no matter how many may be salivating over them in 2022! All people wanted back then was what many of them were calling "Schwinn fanthoms" (yesssss, that's how they said it). And the few people who got a 26-X were all begging for tanks. You think this didn't happen?
WHY is arguing about stuff by people who were not even around and not doing this stuff back in the day such a silly pastime here today, 40-50 years after the fact?
I can very well assure you, these tanks were hung under the top two bars of a 26-X and there were several that were around with dangling tanks in the 1970s-80s. I used stainless steel strapping, fashioned similar to Monark Super-Frame boy's tanks straps- only longer at the rear. Monark-Silver King, Inc. used a similar procedure on
Monark Super-Frame models,
Spiegel Airman models,
Montgomery Ward Hawthorne models and others. Some even had metal insert panels. Like it or not. Of course you would need to know this history and have the original literature to know these facts. So... "do not fit 26-X"? Please. It was a custom thing that people wanted– for whatever reason. Or to use today's parlance, "rat-rod"...
40 years ago, few people on this planet even knew what a 26-X was. And nobody back then or today is in position to tell me what happened back then or what fits or does what with 26-X. I was the first collector to own one and the first to have several of them. Long before there was any knowledge or a real hobby or Silver King collectors. And yes, I still have my mint original, complete, unmolested 1939 Silver King 26-X that I got around 1975 (now you'll want me to prove it).
I had many Silver Kings well before that time. And yes, I already told you earlier here that
Sears and
Western Auto sold these tanks... so obviously these were shown in the store and mail-order catalogues. Of course I have
Sears catalogues going back to the 1800s and
Western Auto catalogues going back to their beginnings (
both Western Autos). Been collecting these since the 1950s too– and have thousands today. And I was also collecting Elgins, J.C. Higgins and Western Flyers back when... well ... nobody was collecting them either... but no matter, huh?
Here is my nice original 26-X (pardon the CCM Flyte next to it... had that over 40 years too). The Elgin Falcon in the background is all original unmolested and was won by a kid who got it by attending the Chicago World's Fair in the 1930s (I've owned it over 45 years and I am 2nd owner).
www.nostalgic.net
