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Hardware Store Badged Bikes.

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This is my Schwinn Phantom with “Ace” badge.
etsaie.jpg


These phantoms are known as the “Contract Schwinns”.

In 1924, uniting their Chicago-area hardware stores to increase buying power, Richard Hesse,
E. G. Lindquist, Frank Burke, & Oscar Fisher forged the beginning of ACE Hardware.

This is a 1938 Monark Built with ACE badge:
2e67ket.png

Monark with “ACE” badge:
j8ma2o.png


And this is my Schwinn with “ACE" badge:
205zh9y.jpg

(when I bought this bike, the guy had sprayed the entire tube, including the badge with red
spray paint. I wanted to choke him.)

Schwinn also had contracts with others companies.
I have a Schwinn with B.F.Goodrich. badge.
 
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This is my Schwinn Phantom with “Ace” badge.
etsaie.jpg


These phantoms are known as the “Contract Schwinns”.

In 1924, uniting their Chicago-area hardware stores to increase buying power, Richard Hesse,
E. G. Lindquist, Frank Burke, & Oscar Fisher forged the beginning of ACE Hardware.

This is a 1938 Monark Built with ACE badge:
2e67ket.png

Monark with “ACE” badge:
j8ma2o.png


And this is my Schwinn with “ACE" badge:
205zh9y.jpg

(when I bought this bike, the guy had sprayed the entire tube, including the badge with red
spray paint. I wanted to choke him. But luckily, I got most of it off.)

Schwinn also had contracts with others companies.
I have a Schwinn with B.F.Goodrich. badge.
I don't think the schwinn ACE was ACE Hardware sold from the shop....the reason I think this is because it still says Arnold schwinn made in Chicago on it as all the other hardware stores ect had badges without the Arnold schwinn stuff on it... my main reason for thinking this is because BF goodrich badges, prewar and early postwar say nothing schwinn on them. That was probably schwinns biggest account ....or I could be utterly wrong lol...ACE did start in Illinois so maybe it would be the same ...so maybe it was more of a local landmark ect badge like Pullman ect....

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
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I don't think the schwinn ACE was ACE Hardware sold from the shop....the reason I think this is because it still says Arnold schwinn made in Chicago on it as all the other hardware stores ect had badges without the Arnold schwinn stuff on it... my main reason for thinking this is because BF goodrich badges, prewar and early postwar say nothing schwinn on them. That was probably schwinns biggest account ....or I could be utterly wrong lol...ACE did start in Illinois so maybe it would be the same ...so maybe it was more of a local landmark ect badge like Pullman ect....

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

You’re right.
I couldn’t say for fact that Chicago Schwinn made the Ace for the Ace Hardware in Chicago.
I just happened to notice reading about the 1938 Monark Built Ace Hardware bicycles.
And perhaps there was a similarity with Schwinn doing the same.
Unless someone discovers some paperwork or invoices in an old filing desk, we’ll never know for sure.! ;)
 
I'm about 150 miles s/sw of Chicago... In my memory of 1950s and 1960s Peoria, there was a large ACE hardware store, also, a Blue Star Auto store, on South Adams street...about 4-6 blocks from courthouse square. [This Ace hardware was not like today's Ace hardware stores]. On the main floor were table-top units with closed storage underneath, about 5-6 feet wide and 10 feet long; and, they were butted against each other lengthwise with aisles between each long row of tables. When I went there with my Dad, I was looking @ bikes, and the tables with bike accessories. Reflectors, mud flaps, mirrors, bells, horns, seats ,pedals, kickstands, streamers, fox tails, YOU Name It! They sold ACE badged bikes built by Schwinn and maybe by other manufactures, too... I had a friend, Danny B., who had a straight-bar 1952 Schwinn with ACE badge, from that store; and, when we visited his house, I often rode that bike. I haven't seen Danny since the mid-1960s. However, in the early 1990s Danny's Dad gave that bike to my retired Father, who was 'fixing-up bikes' for a missionary to give to needy children. It was a rusty mess, more so than my Dad desired to fix; but, because I had ridden that bike I traded Dad a bike easier to fix for that [schwinn] straight-bar... and I have it today. SORRY, no provenience or other paper proof.
 
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