MTD/Western Flyer/Firestone Hi-Lo/Vagabond 16" Take-Apart Bicycle Thread

[Squiggle Dog]

My roommate and I had fun riding the Hi-Los at the GoodGuys Car Show & Swap Meet in Scottsdale, Arizona. It made it faster and less tiring.

The funny thing is people there thought they were made recently. We got asked from what store we bought them. One lady commented about mine, "Oh, look, he's trying to make his look retro with whitewall tires." My roommate was negotiating with a guy selling an "Australian" (actually Norwegian) take-apart bicycle, who was asking $300 for it. When my roommate said that we paid less than $100 for each of our bikes, he responded, "Yes, but this is a CLASSIC! Bought new in 1970. A guy earlier told me it's worth $600." We told him ours were from the 1960s and he said he didn't believe it and they looked "too new". People are funny. My roommate ended up talking the guy down to $150.

There were a few other old bikes for sale, priced at retail or above. Boy, those Wal-Mart Black Friday Sting-Rays sure haven't lost their value...

 

[Squiggle Dog]

The Bicycle Museum of America has an MTD version with Bendix Overdrive in the basement!

 

[ricobike]

I picked up a beat up Hi Lo at Memory Lanes last year. It was missing its seat post. Small problem, right? Um, not so fast. It's 15/16" in diameter. I can't find any seat posts this size. Even tubing is hard to find in this diameter. It's always something.

Nice job on restoring your bike and especially that seat. Where did you find that material?

 

[Squiggle Dog]

Hmmm... I know that the handlebar stems were made in Japan, so it's possible that the seat post could be a metric size equivalent of 15/16" (24mm). Or maybe someone just tightened up the seat post clamp without the seat post in there. I wish I could find my calipers so I could check the one on mine.

I found new old stock seat material on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-NO...lted-Tufted-Bicycle-Seat-Cover-/291689780927? . Also, I imagine this would work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191819570475?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT .

 

[ricobike]

Cool that someone makes that kit for the seat. I'm pretty sure this bike had a seat on it that looked just like yours did.

I'm not exactly sure what the seatpost size is because I don't have a good caliper here. I just have the cheapo pointer kind. But I can tell you, the seatpost is bigger than 7/8" and less than an inch, so it's somewhere in there. And it is not an easy size to get. It'll work fine with a 7/8" post if you just want to put a bolt on it and squeeze it together. And you could shim it too. But if you want it to work the way that it should with a quick release, you gotta have that in between size. I'm looking at buying some 15/16" tubing to see if that will work. The bike will be a rat so I don't really care what it looks like as long as it functions.

I had to replace the gooseneck too and had no issues there. It took almost anything I had in the box .

 

[Squiggle Dog]

Pretty neat that the original material from the closed-down Persons factory was found by that eBay seller. I really lucked out there. He also has new old stock crash rails for the seat. Hopefully you'll be able to find a 15/16" seat clamp for the seat if you find the tubing. On my bikes, the seatposts taper to 7/8" or something at the top. I'm upset at myself because when I put the bike in the back of my trunk, I lowered the seatpost all the way down in the frame instead of just removing it. The seatpost ended up with gouges from the frame. The whole reason I didn't use the shiny original one that came on it was because it was gouged from when it was slid all the way into the frame by the seller. I need to get a hone to deburr the inside of the seat tube. And you're right--I have a 1" hone that I attempted to fit inside the seat tube on the frame, and it didn't fit.

I found a new old stock handlebar stem on eBay for the one I ride. The seller said it's made in Taiwan, but it's extremely well made and could pass for American (it's not one of the cheap stamped ones, either). I bought it solely because I prefer the drop forged look over the one it originally had. It worked out, too, because the handlebar stem on my roommate's was rusty with horrible chrome and the brazing up by the wedge bolt head broke. So he got the nice one that was originally on mine.

 

[ricobike]

Well, what I did wasn't pretty, but it accomplished the task. I took a thinwalled piece of 15/16th tubing that I stole from a paint roller extension pole I had and stabilized it with a 7/8th inch piece of thickwalled tubing that I cut out of a piece of medical equipment. I sleeved them together with the 7/8th tubing sticking out of top so the seat could be attached. The 15/16th tubing was too big for the seat clamp. Then I took a spare seatpost clamp and clamped them together at the top toward the seat so that it distorted both tubes so they couldn't twist. Problem solved. There's always a way...

 

[Squiggle Dog]

Creative! Spare parts for these bikes are certainly nearly impossible to find (one of my bikes is missing a chainguard, doubt I'll find another without having to buy another bike), but who would have thought a seatpost would be so difficult to find in the correct size?

On a different note, I'd love to see what type of paperwork these bikes came with new (brochure, owner's manual, etc.).

 

[ricobike]

I know what you mean about spare parts. The only reason I bought the one that I'm working on now was to get one of the rails and one rear fender strut that were missing on a blue Vagabond I have that I bought years ago. And this bike didn't have a chainguard either, but a 26" Schwinn wingtip guard with the front bracket removed works nicely. The Wald replacements would probably be fine too until you can find one. Plus you get the added benefit of not having to remove the chainguard to fix a rear flat. The Wald guards also come with a bracket that you could use on your seatpost tube to attach the guard so you wouldn't have to deal with the missing bracket.

You have the most documentation I've seen on these bikes by far. I copied all of them so thanks for posting them .

 

[decath6431]

I found a couple of these at a garage sale 2 weeks ago...anyone know a relative value or if any members on here are looking? Also I presume that the hub is a Sachs 2 speed? Thanks.