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I need the year for a JC Higgins bike

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Yes. Well. In this case you are correct for a date of manufacture... but not necessarily a model year date.

Just remember that the chart you posted is not the chart... it is just a chart that somebody found and re-adapted. It was never intended to be used as DIY-ers are doing on the internet today. Never intended for J.C. Higgins...and what may be true in some circumstances for certain bicycles is not true for anything and everything that Murray-Ohio made. One size does not fit all.

Please yank those pedals and save them from destruction. They deserve preservation. Also the front Wonderide "bee-hive" fork in your pics has been re-assembled with the pivot clips backwards. EEeeeek! It was never designed to operate like this and will ultimately fail if continuously ridden this way by a present-day adult. Full turning force and suspension stress is now concentrated on the shoulder bolts. Suggest you put it back to original if riding.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
NBHAA.com
Thanks Leon. This bike was a box project that I bought because the bike was really cool to me. Amazingly all the parts were preserved in that box to complete the reassembly. I guess you are telling me to flip the pivot clips 180 degrees and reattach to the beehive? Thanks for catching my incorrect assembly. I also appreciate the terms you're giving me to learn so I don't sound like a rookie. I haven't ridden it very much since I put back together. Tell me what's special about the pedals?

Philip
 
Yes. Well. In this case you are correct for a date of manufacture... but not necessarily a model year date.

Just remember that the chart you posted is not the chart... it is just a chart that somebody found and re-adapted. It was never intended to be used as DIY-ers are doing on the internet today. Never intended for J.C. Higgins...and what may be true in some circumstances for certain bicycles is not true for anything and everything that Murray-Ohio made. One size does not fit all.

Please yank those pedals and save them from destruction. They deserve preservation. Also the front Wonderide "bee-hive" fork in your pics has been re-assembled with the pivot clips backwards. EEeeeek! It was never designed to operate like this and will ultimately fail if continuously ridden this way by a present-day adult. Full turning force and suspension stress is now concentrated on the shoulder bolts. Suggest you put it back to original if riding.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
NBHAA.com


This is what I started with. After going out and looking at the bike I'm unsure what to change. You mentioned the front fork so I believe the pivot clips are where the front where attaches. It there a picture you have that could show me?
For Sale JC Higgins before.jpg
 
This is what I started with. After going out and looking at the bike I'm unsure what to change. You mentioned the front fork so I believe the pivot clips are where the front where attaches. It there a picture you have that could show me?
View attachment 1838765
The pivot clips here are exactly backwards... and dangerous to ride this way.

For Sale JC Higgins after 1.jpg
 
Generally speaking, Sears applied manufacturer codes to their merch, since sourcing parts would be pretty difficult without! Bikes usually followed this, 501 = Westfield/Columbia, 502, or more commonly 'MOD 502' was Murray. 503 was typically for imported bikes, although I may have seen it on a Monark built JCH. 505 is Huffy, if I'm remembering correctly.
 
Generally speaking, Sears applied manufacturer codes to their merch, since sourcing parts would be pretty difficult without! Bikes usually followed this, 501 = Westfield/Columbia, 502, or more commonly 'MOD 502' was Murray. 503 was typically for imported bikes, although I may have seen it on a Monark built JCH. 505 is Huffy, if I'm remembering correctly.
The numbers referenced here were certainly not "manufacturer codes" but were in fact prefixes for Model Numbers. And this is exactly what Sears called them. Manufacturer indication is coincidental, not intended as primary information.

Most (at at least many) model numbers coincidentally may seem to have indicated a manufacturer. But this is not a hard and fast fact. One needs to know the time period and several other factors. Otherwise, using a model number to indicate a manufacturer will merely lead you on a merrie chase in some cases to what may be and incorrect conclusion.
 
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