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Calling all prewar Elgin guys, need info

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Glenn Rhein

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Pick up this all original TOC Elgin , any thoughts on the year ? Very cool crank and great original paint rims. 26 inch rims
Thanks...
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Excelsior Michigan City made some bottle-cap/button fastener head-badged Elgin bikes for Sears.
I have seen photographic examples today of Excelsior MCI bikes with 8-point Reading Standard like chain rings, often found on Great Western Mfg. bikes, but GWM was also in Indiana, too. Serial numbers really do help; I believe GW used letters, while MCI did not.
 
Excelsior Michigan City made some bottle-cap/button fastener head-badged Elgin bikes for Sears.
I have seen photographic examples today of Excelsior MCI bikes with 8-point Reading Standard like chain rings, often found on Great Western Mfg. bikes, but GWM was also in Indiana, too. Serial numbers really do help; I believe GW used letters, while MCI did not.

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Sometimes wider-angle and unobstructed pictures of the seat post cluster, and bridges between the main stays and seat stays are helpful; they seem to be blocked in the pictures(?). [In later years, perhaps as early as 1931, Excelsior may have started to use alphabetical codes, perhaps after they were acquired by Snyder Mfg. Not sure if "A" was for a 1931 Snyder-Excelsior Mfg. bike, (seems late for a bottle cap); but GWM was gone by then and Snyder started using that 8-point chain ring design]. Not sure if GWM codes have been figured out. The shallow fenders and badge look more at Teensish, perhaps about when Sears reintroduced the Elgin product line for Sears bicycles. Indiana bike?
 
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Pick up this all original TOC Elgin , any thoughts on the year ? Very cool crank and great original paint rims. 26 inch rims
Thanks...
The sprocket looks like what Great Western Mfg. called the R.S. design, from Reading Standard, (after GWM acquired the Pennsylvania company).
The sprocket was shown in the 1924 Sears Catalog.

So, maybe the "A" serial number would indicate 1924.
 
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