1955 Shelby Golden Eagle

[Jeff54]

I got this from the Googlebooks website, from their on-line back issues of Boys' Life (Boy Scouts of America). Hopefully this is large enough to read the fine print. Interesting that this shows the color to be darker, even though it's supposed to be scanned from the same issue. I don't know where the variation comes from.

View attachment 1240844

Wishfull thinking but the paper is aged almost making it look copper like yours. .

IDK But maybe it's Donald duck yellow.. Here's another 1955 ad, yellow and blue;

Yet, I ran across this on ebay today and it sure looks yellowy gold:

 

[Jeff54]

And,

I got this from the Googlebooks website, from their on-line back issues of Boys' Life (Boy Scouts of America). Hopefully this is large enough to read the fine print. Interesting that this shows the color to be darker, even though it's supposed to be scanned from the same issue. I don't know where the variation comes from.

View attachment 1240844

they're on faceTook, ( Your identy and pawned it off)

https://www.facebook.com/ShelbyCycl...gNp4JFgk11gqx0QFBqnZ8ItDo&fref=nf&__tn__=kC-R

I don't do facetook. But can see, practically, the whole danged town. If these folks don't know what a golden looks like then, tell em to walk away.. Stop selling T-shirts, close the museum and walk away. If they say, copper is gold then, let em know I got chunk for sale, special numb-nuts clearance only; $100 an ounce..

They're posting a few years of annual parade, U should watch em, see if yours and or gold rides.

Maybe yours has its own special name too B/C I ain't finding Shelby copper anywhere as well.

Photos of your fork crown ; it's strange. Fender is dropped by fender bracket, big space in-between. And, try cleaning the grease and dirt all the paint then, get few shots it in bright sunlight and see what happens.

Let us know what they say, eh.

 

[Oilit]

And,

they're on faceTook, ( Your identy and pawned it off)

https://www.facebook.com/ShelbyCycl...gNp4JFgk11gqx0QFBqnZ8ItDo&fref=nf&__tn__=kC-R

I don't do facetook. But can see, practically, the whole danged town. If these folks don't know what a golden looks like then, tell em to walk away.. Stop selling T-shirts, close the museum and walk away. If they say, copper is gold then, let em know I got chunk for sale, special numb-nuts clearance only; $100 an ounce..

They're posting a few years of annual parade, U should watch em, see if yours and or gold rides.

Maybe yours has it's own special name too B/C I ain't finding Shelby copper anywhere as well.

Let us know what they say, eh.

Thanks for the link! I hadn't heard of the Shelby Cycle Historical Society. It sounds like Shelby Cycles was just about the biggest thing in town, until AMF bought them and moved them to Cleveland. Oh well...

 

[Rivnut]

Post #17
Second bulleted item: • "Slim new balloon tires.........."
Looks like they hadn't quite figured out the middleweight nomenclature.

 

[Oilit]

And,

they're on faceTook, ( Your identy and pawned it off)

https://www.facebook.com/ShelbyCycl...gNp4JFgk11gqx0QFBqnZ8ItDo&fref=nf&__tn__=kC-R

I don't do facetook. But can see, practically, the whole danged town. If these folks don't know what a golden looks like then, tell em to walk away.. Stop selling T-shirts, close the museum and walk away. If they say, copper is gold then, let em know I got chunk for sale, special numb-nuts clearance only; $100 an ounce..

They're posting a few years of annual parade, U should watch em, see if yours and or gold rides.

Maybe yours has its own special name too B/C I ain't finding Shelby copper anywhere as well.

Photos of your fork crown ; it's strange. Fender is dropped by fender bracket, big space in-between. And, try cleaning the grease and dirt all the paint then, get few shots it in bright sunlight and see what happens.

Let us know what they say, eh.

The fork and fender is the same as AMF used on the middleweight 1955/56 Roadmaster Flying Falcon, which had 2 speeds and a front caliper brake. The bracket usually mounts to the back of the fork and the fender angles up under the fork crown, which closes up the gap in the front. Comparing it to my 1954 Flying Falcon (balloon tire single speed), you can see the difference, but I haven't gotten around to changing it yet on the Shelby. As to why they put a fork to mount a caliper on a bike without one, your guess is as good as mine.
But you're right about the paint, I need to clean and polish it and then see what it looks like. I would look under the head badge, but it's riveted on.

 

[Oilit]

Come to think of it, I think @GTs58 said that the early Schwinn middleweights all had frames set up for caliper brakes, even though the single and two speed bikes didn't use them, so maybe that was the only thing available.

 

[Jeff54]

Come to think of it, I think @GTs58 said that the early Schwinn middleweights all had frames set up for caliper brakes, even though the single and two speed bikes didn't use them, so maybe that was the only thing available.

Yeah but no, Schwinn had fork with mount hole and without yet randomly on single speed and or, manual 2 speed, you might find either.
Although unrelated by 25 years or so, this holds true in the 78-81 Schwinn cruiser group. You might get a hole in fork to mount brake in single speed or not.
These forks on your 2 are not the same as Schwinn's too, that gap on yours is huge in comparison. So, those forks are, in the least, taller than Schwinn's ..

 

[Oilit]

Yeah but no, Schwinn had fork with mount hole and without yet randomly on single speed and or, manual 2 speed, you might find either.
Although unrelated by 25 years or so, this holds true in the 78-81 Schwinn cruiser group. You might get a hole in fork to mount brake in single speed or not.
These forks on your 2 are not the same as Schwinn's too, that gap on yours is huge in comparison. So, those forks are, in the least, taller than Schwinn's ..

The gap does look big. I'll have to shift the bracket back and see how much difference it actually makes. It looks like when AMF started building middleweights they just put smaller tires on the same rims, so maybe that's the difference.

 

[Jeff54]

The gap does look big. I'll have to shift the bracket back and see how much difference it actually makes. It looks like when AMF started building middleweights they just put smaller tires on the same rims, so maybe that's the difference.

Maybe not as huge as I was thinking and perhaps, it's both tires and fender in your copper and a lot closer to Schwinn on the green bike.

I forgot, over 5 year ago, I'd taken this photo of a 55 Schwinn corvette fork. The Brackets mount on back side verses yours front but, the gap looks much like your green bike has.

 

[Oilit]

Maybe not as huge as I was thinking and perhaps, it's both tires and fender in your copper and a lot closer to Schwinn on the green bike.

I forgot, over 5 year ago, I'd taken this photo of a 55 Schwinn corvette fork. The Brackets mount on back side verses yours front but, the gap looks much like your green bike has.

Yeah, I shifted the bracket to the back yesterday evening and it rotated the fender back and up a fair bit. Although it still looks like it has a little more clearance than the Schwinn. Maybe they needed it because of the shape of the fenders?