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Cleveland Welding S/N Project...See Page 58 Post 576 for chart
Curious about CWC in the 40's, 'how many bikes built in 1940?', I stumbled on a bit of data so, I stole it (Screenshot) to put here: Dr Tomas D Mueller, son of The Vice president of CWC; Homer L. Mueller. Citing that, in 1940, Homer would brag of having 50 different head badges on his desk ("Place cards") for all the different makes and models they produced. And that in 1940,the whole bicycle market was split 3 ways: Schwinn, CWC and the rest. Finally an end to when CWC croaked off into AMF: 1953. And a few more tid-bit factoids. 'Popular Mechanics' Aug 1996.
I am glad I found this thread I had no idea who made my bike until now. I'm not sure if the springer forks, crank and chain gaurd are original? Looks like there is a similar fork on what I believe is a CW made firestone bike so maybe its original?
Any clues to what what I have and approximate year (47is?)would be appreciated. It's a cool bike and I can't wait to ride it.
This recently popped up from I don't know where but, this later 1948 with a CWC and numbers above 48-51 doesn't seem right because nobody's found 48-51 numbers following the Cw mark wit 48-51. 52-55 yes but, otherwise no go. yet, the earlier 47 and below does.
this would mean, IF IT'S CORRCT THEN, yours would be; Dec 46- Feb 1947. . And the way yours appears, given all the data in this thread; it's pretty close too.
Think yours would be an 46-47 but the chart I just posted above doesn't confirm that. In fact it doesn't have a G with Cw mark , but. it's no different than the bike posted above, prior to yours too. Except it's a girls bike but the drop out looks identical. So, wild guess is it's 47 and that chart doesn't know it all. Potentially, the Cw stamp began in 47 verses 48. And for the front sprocket [chain ring] it's a Roadmaster, [see article above your post] CWC's own brand.
This recently popped up from I don't know where but, this later 1948 with a CWC and numbers above 48-51 doesn't seem right because nobody's found 48-51 numbers following the Cw mark wit 48-51. 52-55 yes but, otherwise no go. yet, the earlier 47 and below does.
this would mean, IF IT'S CORRCT THEN, yours would be; Dec 46- Feb 1947. . And the way yours appears, given all the data in this thread; it's pretty close too. View attachment 696858
I think I've posted this earlier but Phil is very knowledgeable on CWC dating.....
The key to dating your bike is the Cw symbol stamped after the end of the serial number. CWC ran through the same serial numbers several times from 1935 through 1956 and for postwar bikes the key to dating them is to first recognize the features that define them as postwar frames and then look for the symbol that follows the serial number. Bikes with the Cw stamp were from the second postwar run through the alphabet and the first bikes in this series rarely have the Cw stamp. By the time “D” was reached the suffix stamp became quite commonplace, probably to begin separating the series from the first wartime or postwar “D” serialed bikes. My best data-modeled estimate is that the Cw series was produced from 1947 through 1949. The exact transition from the first series to the second series is still debatable so I have slid the scale a bit several times to try to align it with actual bikes, ads, and other factors to come up with the most likely scenario. The second postwar serial number series bikes were produced with serial numbers ranging from A00001 through J99999, assumedly in sequence. A bike with a “D” serial number would, following this logic, have a build date in approximately mid 1948.
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