Intro and some questions.....please.

[TJAugie]

My name is Augie, I live in NJ, I have a problem (and am just admitting it...lol).
For 2 years in a row I bought a bicycle of sorts at a town wide garage sale in Belmar, NJ.
Last year was a Trike (I "restored" it for my wife's grandmother).
From this:

To this:

And then this year:

The head-badge is as follows:

The fork is bent, the bike is rusty, but I was able to ride it that day. From what I have found, the serial number is R59349, and in my research I have figured that it fits into 1950 or 1951 Columbia.
However, I cannot find an original picture, or even a bicycle with this particular striping anywhere I have looked. The guy I bought it from has the front fender in his garage somewhere, he took my Aunt's address and will walk it to her once he finds it. In fact, I had 2 people come up while I was walking it home saying that he would do that too, they knew the bike (made me feel good about the purchase too). ANYWAY, I was wondering what the original handlebars/stem/chainguard would be, or any information towards figuring that out. I would like to restore this to the best of my ability to original-ish, and I need some assistance.

Thank you all in advance,
Augie

 

[Adamtinkerer]

First of all, welcome to the forum! Nice work on the trike! Your new project was made by the Westfield Co., makers of Columbia. Sterling was another brand back in the teens that Westfield bought out along with Miami and Rambler. They reused the names periodically. The frame 'darts' differed from name to name. I would suggest looking in the archives at Nostalgic Net, the gallery here, and member Mr Columbia's site for og pics and ads. I'm thinking your bike likely had the "half" chainguard, derived from the deluxe RX5 5 Star Superb chainguard that encircles the chainring.

 

[TJAugie]

Thanks for the trike comment, Nana LOVES it, in fact the entire family does it's the cool bike at the shore house...lol. I learned so much on that, it pains me to know that she lets her younger grandchildren ride it (7 and 9 years old), they beat on it unmercifully.
Anyway, I have found a few things like you mentioned as far as the Miami bike, what was throwing me off was those darts/styling. I am going to see if I can find information on the Rambler now. This being said, is there no real definitive way to tell what this started life as for the most part? So I wanted to, I could take some liberties in putting the "upgraded" parts on if I like them? For example, if I could find the chainguard and the struts (saw it in the 1948 Columbia Westfield catalog), I could do that and not have it so "untrue" from the original?
Thanks again,
Augie

 

[Adamtinkerer]

...is there no real definitive way to tell what this started life as for the most part? So I wanted to, I could take some liberties in putting the "upgraded" parts on if I like them? For example, if I could find the chainguard and the struts (saw it in the 1948 Columbia Westfield catalog), I could do that and not have it so "untrue" from the original?
Thanks again,
Augie

Sometimes, it's easy to tell if a bike had a tank and rear rack, but if it's a lesser known badge, like yours, and there aren't any original examples to compare to, or any og literature, you're kind of on your own! I'm sure it came with a chainguard, so no worries there, but I wouldn't feel bad about derssing that ol' roller up some! Also, that's a balloon tire bike, middleweights weren't introduced until 1954.

 

[TJAugie]

Also, that's a balloon tire bike, middleweights weren't introduced until 1954.

Oh no, I'm in the wrong forum!
Thanks Adam, I appreciate it. I took it apart today and there were no real signs of anything missing except the front fender. I can always get it to where I like it and then slowly add if I want and can find parts..... I missed wrenching on SOMETHING, didn't realize it until today.

 

[Adamtinkerer]

Oh no, I'm in the wrong forum!
Thanks Adam, I appreciate it. I took it apart today and there were no real signs of anything missing except the front fender. I can always get it to where I like it and then slowly add if I want and can find parts..... I missed wrenching on SOMETHING, didn't realize it until today.

I keep forgetting to mention it looks like the fork is bent, aka "BFD, bent fork disease"! But replacements are easy to find.