CeeBee
Finally riding a big boys bike
I'll chime in as "the guy who got it from the guy who got it out of the attic".
The bike belonged to the seller's wife's aunt when new. The gentleman and his wife still lived in the family home where her mother and aunts were raised on property that has been family owned for generations. The man told me the bike has been in the attic since he and his wife moved into the family home as a couple in the 80's. I asked the wife about her knowledge of the bike and her answer was that "It's just always been in the attic since I was a kid." These were not "bike people" and had no significant knowledge of what they were selling other than a brief google search where they mistakenly were searching for "1950's Shelby Bicycle". When they could not find an exact reference to get a real value, they advertised the bike on Facebook as an "old bike" at way to cheap of a price to have been passing off a "forgery", so I assure you the bike has not been modified by an unscrupulous previous owner.
Shawn and I discussed multiple possibilities of the anomalies of what may be incorrect by catalog standards and side by side references, but the final analysis is that the bike is a legit late production assembly of parts. I'm not going to get in a pissing contest over how many Shelbys I have owned, but I will say that I have owned several originals (including a late production unmolested long tank men's with a significant list of "mysteriously wrong, yet obviously untouched" parts) and I will stand by Shawn's assessment.
The bike belonged to the seller's wife's aunt when new. The gentleman and his wife still lived in the family home where her mother and aunts were raised on property that has been family owned for generations. The man told me the bike has been in the attic since he and his wife moved into the family home as a couple in the 80's. I asked the wife about her knowledge of the bike and her answer was that "It's just always been in the attic since I was a kid." These were not "bike people" and had no significant knowledge of what they were selling other than a brief google search where they mistakenly were searching for "1950's Shelby Bicycle". When they could not find an exact reference to get a real value, they advertised the bike on Facebook as an "old bike" at way to cheap of a price to have been passing off a "forgery", so I assure you the bike has not been modified by an unscrupulous previous owner.
Shawn and I discussed multiple possibilities of the anomalies of what may be incorrect by catalog standards and side by side references, but the final analysis is that the bike is a legit late production assembly of parts. I'm not going to get in a pissing contest over how many Shelbys I have owned, but I will say that I have owned several originals (including a late production unmolested long tank men's with a significant list of "mysteriously wrong, yet obviously untouched" parts) and I will stand by Shawn's assessment.
