Belknap Bluegrass-What do I have?

[bikeboy1340]

Looking for info on my Belknap Bluegrass balloon tire bike. I know that Belknap Bluegrass was a hardware distributor and had a few different bicycle manufacturers make their bikes. I am wanting to know the manufacturer and year. The bike appears to be all original. It still has the "Belknap Balloon" 26x2.125 tires on it. The serial number is located on the bottom bracket and is 3H263277.

 

[bikeboy1340]

More Pics

More pics of the Belknap Bluegrass.

 

[OldRider]

Huffman was building bikes for Belknap, the letter H in your serial number signifies Huffman. The first digit is a 3, if I am correct that would mean either 1943 or 1953. Your dropouts are rear facing so I'd lean more towards 1943. Nice bike you have there, I love the Huffman built bikes

 

[bikeboy1340]

Thanks

Thanks for the info Oldrider.

 

[m_s_terry]

Awesome bike. I'm looking for one now. The closest I have found is an incorrect girl's version. From what I have been told by an old curmudgeon around here, Belknap also distributed a few bikes with simply a "Belknap" badge, sans "Bluegrass" for those in the city of Louisville who...objected to the Lexington connotations of it. Don't know how much of that was fact and how much was fancy, but I love the stories from those old knife-traders.

 

[RMS37]

Your bike is from 1953, that pattern for decoding Huffman serial numbers does not apply to prewar bicycles and that frame style did not enter production until 1948.

 

[bikeboy1340]

Thanks

Thanks for the responses. Any idea of value?

 

[ram.1950]

Belknap

I've been working on removing the corrosion from my Belknap Badge that came on this 1936 Snyder Built Bike - I have accidentally erased some of the surrounding paint doing it. The first three pics below are mine and the rest are the same badge on bike pics I found on the internet. This is by far the sharpest looking badge I have. Robert

 

[fordmike65]

That last pic looks like a Mercury.

 

[Jody22baker]

How about this one guys? Serial number is too hard to read.