Military Bike

[johan willaert]

See the excellent website on the attached link and you will get much of the information you need on these bikes and will get you started in your research.

http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm

Thanks for linking to my site!! Appreciate it..

As for this bike... What strikes me is that a frame in the MG120xxx region would still have the curved front tube while up to now my research has shown that the transition from curved to straight happened somewhere much earlier
Also the frame welds seem pretty nicely done for a wartime Army frame...

Not implying it isn't original but if I came across this one, I would have to check further to be sure as there are many civilian bikes restored as lookalike Army cycles out there...

Are there any other marking/stampings above or below the frame number?

I'd say value is about 1500-2500 IF original....


Merry Christmas!

Johan

 

[2WheelWonder]

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[johan willaert]

I am not saying that it isn't an Original Army issue bike, just that I am not sure....

About 90% of the 'Army' bikes you see are actually civilian models that have been altered/painted OD and have had military parts and accessories added to resemble an Army model
People do this for several reasons, the main one being Original Army bikes are RARE!!!!!!!!! and expensive whenever they come on the market... This goes right up to adding or changing frame numbers to look the part!

Early bikes had a curved lower front tube on the frame while later ones had a straight tube... I have 39 different Original Westfield Columbias on files and the highest number with a curved frame is rather low while the lowest straight tube frame is still tens of thousands below yours.
So logically I would expect MG120xxx to have a straight front tube, not curved...
The weldings on the frame of midwar MGs are generally very crude and not well cleaned up... Again this is something I would expect to see on MG120xxx

The only really rare items on genuine WW2 US Army bikes are the frame, the front and rear hubs... The rest is either straight off the shelf civilian parts or easily available online...

I have been researching these for over 25 years and have come across 39 Columbias and 12 Huffmans with genuine military history worldwide... I'm sure I don't have all of them on file but it does tell us something about the rarity of these bikes...
Yet, you see at least one at every show nowadays...

Finally, yours may be OK and I do hope so, but the curved tube makes me wonder...

 

[Craig Johnson]

The only thing that I see from the photos is the pump is not correct. This doesn't really say anything about the bikes originality just pointing that out. The seat is probably a recovered seat. No big deal either. It looks like the bike was repainted with the tires on so the only way to tell if it is original would be to sand some paint away and look for the original color. A can of paint is cheap at about $7. Sand below the crank at the serial number and take some pictures if you find green paint. There should be rust in the numbers. This is kind of hard to fake. The original owner probably did no sandblasting so that in my opinion is the only way to tell if it is an original bicycle. Recently a bike that was suspected of being fake and was missing many original parts sold on EBAY for $1800. An original was for sale at the same time and didnt meet its reserve at $1600. It just amazes me on what people will pay for things on EBAY with a vague description. Military bicycles are getting just as bad as WW11 painted helmets. It is really hard to tell the difference anymore. Military collectors have been looking for the bicycles since the late 70,s including me. They are few and far between. The internet has dragged them out of the woodwork. Please take some time and proves its authenticity. There are to many fakes out there. I hope it turns out to be an original.



From my experience this is an original pump.

 

[DJ Bill]

Definitely listen to the last two posters. They are true experts on the military bikes. An original bike is pretty hard to find and with all the new paint yours could be original or.....it could be a fake.

 

[2WheelWonder]

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[milbicycleman]

Cool bike! Its a real shame that it was "restored" before you bought the bike considering its only original once. Also you would know for sure if it is a real WW2 bicycle by the paint and all of the accessories that came with it originally. The serial number sounds correct for a WW2 Columbia, but since Johan pointed out the inconsistencies with the serial number and the curve in the frame means that you might not know for sure. Good luck with your research, you have a very rare and cool bike if it turns out to be a real WW2 Columbia bicycle.

 

[jkent]

Is this bike still for sale? Sent you a PM.
Please reply
Thanks, JKent