Hiawatha is it a Shelby and or a CWC

[saladshooter]

Not sure how anyone could possibly argue with a 1939 dealer catalog showing the shockEase as an option, - when there is no bonified way of dating these bikes (yet). What's the point of contention with going along with the dated material?

Just trying to provide accurate information here and not spread individual theories is all. Sorry for the offense Pete.

There is debate seen here on the Cabe in other threads whether the Shock Ease was actually made available in 1940 or 39, and that 39 was the advertisement year and patent year but not so sure about actually delivering a bike with one in 39. Somewhat unclear, just like the numbers.
While your claim may or may not be true about the exact minute the shock-ease fork landed on a bike/frame displayed on a dealer floor,
it is not the most relevant piece of the puzzle or discussion regarding Shelby frames and serial numbers sir Saladmaster! Many shockease forks are on many frame types with many different serial number letters. I have this info on my more complete list. It may or may not help crack the code. Add your bikes to the list!
AS. Interesting manipulation/interpretation of the Swank guess..

 

[SKPC]

I'm with ya SS, no offense taken! Could be 39 for the se fork, and your dated paper ads certainly suggest this. Not opposed to a paper ad proving your point. The more important question to ask in terms of narrowing down the serial number mystery has to look deeper than what fork style was originally on the bike. The shock ease fork may not decode the mystery I believe but may give us clues for sure. It has to be based on a combination of numbers and letters that are determined by many (or not) different factors. If a fork was added to a frame then put on a list, it could pollute it with a bad info. I've been making notes as to the originality of the bike paint, fork and badge in my spreadsheet as I add new bikes I run across. I do have pics of each bike) on the list. The restored higher end more rare tank bikes could be amalgams and pieced together, but maybe not. Hard to tell, but the labor would know. Listing the bikes that always have had the fork on it will/may help, but difficult to do to begin with. Polluting the list with bad data is very possible so trying to avoid that.
@saladshooter We all know the springer was 39-40 to start with on Shelby's, but it may not tell the whole story about the serial number question. No one really "knows" much yet about the numbers, only good guesses, which is a great long-running story! Are yours on the list yet?
Not even Biden or Trump know anything about this unsolved mystery.