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Hard Pedaling '59 Western Flyer

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I bet its this. Much less space on middleweight bikes with factory 26 x 1.75" tires to support balloon tires.
Without being there I'm leaning toward tire rub like the other guys think. Sometimes hard to detect. And oversize tires usually leave little or no room for error. As others also said, flip bike onto handle bars. Spin both tires by hand and watch if they make contact with frame or fenders or whatever. Should spin super easy by hand. If they don't, they must be rubbing or too tight cones like rivnut said. The wrench for the cones is commonly found on the thin multi bicycle wrench/tools available from a bike shop or probably Walmart.
 
I bought a 24" Western Flyer some time ago for the chrome wheels and a couple of other things. It came with a 46 tooth front sprocket and a 20 tooth rear sprocket for a 2.3 ratio. This coupled with 24 x 1.75 tires makes for an easy riding bike for a child.

You've yet to tell us how many teeth are on the chain ring. If there are more than 46 teeth, I'll give you the 46 tooth chain ring if you're willing to pay the shipping. I'll see if I can get the 20 tooth cog off the rear hub if you think that you'd want to go that far. My chain ring looks exactly like the one on your bike. The closer in number the teeth are together on each gog, the easier the bike will be to ride (like one to one.) Just don't expect to go very fast without rapid leg action.
 
Thanks guys. I have an update. After reading through this and talking with dad he was convinced the wheels that were with his bike were incorrect. (This bike I dug out from under his house. It was in a pile of parts in a garbage bag). He got under his house and finally found what is the original rear wheel to the bicycle. We don't know how the other one got there or where it came from or why it was with the parts from his bike. This "new" wheel has 20 teeth on the rear sprocket as you mentioned so we're going to be switching that and also going to get the correct size tires (and fenders) for the bike.

Also, he found his original fender mounted headlight, too! (1959 Western Flyer) so we'll be restoring it and putting it back with the bike.
 
Here are the photos of the wheel. Dad spent quite a bit of time cleaning the hub of his original wheel he found under the house. It has the 20 tooth sprocket on it. I'm curious to get some different opinions from you guys. The hub cleaned up amazingly well, especially considering how rusted the rest of the bike was. The hub is original of course and has an alemite to grease the hub as well as the original coaster brake arm. I can't decide whether I should put the hub into the new wheel or only change the sprocket. I know changing the hub would be re-spoking the wheel and I'm not sure how difficult that is. What is you guys' recommendation?

Also, is there a preferred place to buy the correct size tires and fenders? We think the same tubes will still work. We would really like to have an original set of wheels for the bike, but I'm not sure if those are possible to find in decent shape.

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Probably nothing wrong with the fenders. If you like the looks of the chrome wheels and chrome fenders, find an 80's era middleweight Murray bike - Murray built bikes for the big chain stores each of which sold bikes under their own brand. I had a nice older Hiawatha that had ratty wheels and tires, and needed a seat and a set of handle bars. I found a really nice 1984 Murray bike for $40 on FB marketplace. Took the wheels, tires and tubes, seat and handlebars and put them on the Hiawatha. Looks good, rides nicely, and was cheap to do everything that needed to be done. I actually found two that day. One I still have waiting to donate its parts to the next project.
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I I kept the chain, handle bar stem, chain ring and crank, all the bearings, and chucked the frame and fork into the dumpster.
 
To follow up with this, my father was able to find his original wheel under his house. That sprocket had 20 teeth. The wheel we had on his bike before had 18 gear teeth. We swapped the sprockets and it made a huge difference. The bicycle pedals with a normal amount of effort now.
 
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