Mercian
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Hi All, Jerry @42 Columbia MG
This is to add some more information to Jerry's thread.
Recently Kerry, @Sportyworty located another one of these USMC bicycles, and successfully identified it using information from this thread.
I have done some more research for him, during which he has sent me further detailed pictures of the bike, and I have located another. So now we have three known examples of this model.
So, Sportyworty's bike first turned up here in Post 23 : https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/sundays-show-and-tell-12-1-24.251219/page-3#post-1727254
He has kindly supplied photos
Bike as found
Badge rubbed by the basket. Luckily no serious damage, but it does show nicely the USMC Forrest green and undercoat under the blue.
This is also the first use by Huffman of the separate Truss Rod bracket seen on the Westfield G519. Prior to this Huffman used separate bracket arms welded to the fork legs.
We can see that it has been painted blue, and civilianised with a chainguard, basket, different handlebars and different wheels. The wheel change is a real pity since the correct USMC hooked heayweight wheels and tires are difficult to find. It is possible the wheels were changed due to the difficulty of finding replacement tires.
It should also be noted that this bike does have the same heavy duty Persons saddle seen on the G519 and USMC MC bikes, but other survivors and the one known period photo show the Messinger saddle, of the type occasionally seen on G519 Huffmans.
Also, this bike retains the wood block Persons pedals seen on all other survivors, and a few Huffman G519, (instead of Torrington 8's).
Huffman usefully stamped dates on their Military bicycles. This is one way of knowing that it is a Military bicycle.
From the listing of WW2 military and civilian survivors I've compiled, we can see that these USMC bikes were made at the start of 1943.
From known serial numbers there is a 171 frame gap between these two survivors.
Looking round for more information, I came across a third example, with unknown serial number at the Dahlquist Cycle Works website : https://www.dahlquistcycleworks.com/1943-dayton-military-bicycle.html
Image : Dahlquist
Does anyone know the owner, or have access to the serial number of this bike?
There is a fairly well known wartime image of this bicycle type (and so far the only wartime photo known). This was a 1943 exhibition of Huffman wartime production.
I suspect the one in the picture is a prototype, since it is not quite the same as the three above.
It has a side stand, and perhaps larger tires, making me think Huffman used off the shelf G519 parts to build the concept bicycle, then the USMC specified the different wheels and stand.
The MC Columbia bikes were still a year away, so these bikes were the first to be specified with those wheels, tires and drop stand.
Following the research, Kerry very kindly allowed me to purchase the bike from him, a gesture I appreciate a lot.
I would welcome any more information, photos as well as leads on the correct wheels and/or tires. Luckily, the bars are currently ubiquitous, so easy to replace.
Best Regards,
Adrian
This is to add some more information to Jerry's thread.
Recently Kerry, @Sportyworty located another one of these USMC bicycles, and successfully identified it using information from this thread.
I have done some more research for him, during which he has sent me further detailed pictures of the bike, and I have located another. So now we have three known examples of this model.
So, Sportyworty's bike first turned up here in Post 23 : https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/sundays-show-and-tell-12-1-24.251219/page-3#post-1727254
He has kindly supplied photos
Bike as found
Badge rubbed by the basket. Luckily no serious damage, but it does show nicely the USMC Forrest green and undercoat under the blue.
This is also the first use by Huffman of the separate Truss Rod bracket seen on the Westfield G519. Prior to this Huffman used separate bracket arms welded to the fork legs.
We can see that it has been painted blue, and civilianised with a chainguard, basket, different handlebars and different wheels. The wheel change is a real pity since the correct USMC hooked heayweight wheels and tires are difficult to find. It is possible the wheels were changed due to the difficulty of finding replacement tires.
It should also be noted that this bike does have the same heavy duty Persons saddle seen on the G519 and USMC MC bikes, but other survivors and the one known period photo show the Messinger saddle, of the type occasionally seen on G519 Huffmans.
Also, this bike retains the wood block Persons pedals seen on all other survivors, and a few Huffman G519, (instead of Torrington 8's).
Huffman usefully stamped dates on their Military bicycles. This is one way of knowing that it is a Military bicycle.
From the listing of WW2 military and civilian survivors I've compiled, we can see that these USMC bikes were made at the start of 1943.
From known serial numbers there is a 171 frame gap between these two survivors.
Looking round for more information, I came across a third example, with unknown serial number at the Dahlquist Cycle Works website : https://www.dahlquistcycleworks.com/1943-dayton-military-bicycle.html
Image : Dahlquist
Does anyone know the owner, or have access to the serial number of this bike?
There is a fairly well known wartime image of this bicycle type (and so far the only wartime photo known). This was a 1943 exhibition of Huffman wartime production.
I suspect the one in the picture is a prototype, since it is not quite the same as the three above.
It has a side stand, and perhaps larger tires, making me think Huffman used off the shelf G519 parts to build the concept bicycle, then the USMC specified the different wheels and stand.
The MC Columbia bikes were still a year away, so these bikes were the first to be specified with those wheels, tires and drop stand.
Following the research, Kerry very kindly allowed me to purchase the bike from him, a gesture I appreciate a lot.
I would welcome any more information, photos as well as leads on the correct wheels and/or tires. Luckily, the bars are currently ubiquitous, so easy to replace.
Best Regards,
Adrian
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