dasberger
I live for the CABE
Pull it!!! Let's see those stamps! Great bike BTW
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Pre '33 AS&CO Serial Number Project
- Thread starter dasberger
- Start date
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Archie Sturmer
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
The rear fork ends on your bicycle look to be the pre-war style which @chitown once had indicated did continue for a short time post-war.
The 196,000 serial number is not that small (compared to zero), thinking maybe as late as 1923 (estimate), based on the other A&S-built Mead bicycles with lower serial numbers, yet with a Mar. 14,1922 patent printed on the seat tube mast decal.
We should be careful, in a serial numbers thread, to state that the date is based on a serial number alone; when we are really comparing those numbers to other actual bicycles with confident dates— from which a list might someday be shared.
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Archie Sturmer
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
The A&S Excelsior with a 455,000 serial number might be a 1930-1931, based on @rcole45’s post #30 (page-3) in the Hibbard thread previously referred to, with two 1930 bicycles with 443,523 and 443,601 serial numbers.
Your bike is only ~22,500 off from a “serial” sent to @dasberger on a 1931 bike.
I just aquired my first really old bike - Hibbard badged Schwinn? | Antique Bicycles Pre-1933
Thanks fordsnake! Great old Hibbard article! Thanks for the great photos! Now to find a rear fender and a sweet tank/toolbox like yours.....looks great!!! Just curious what your serial number is on your bike? Just fun seeing how far apart they are.
thecabe.com
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dasberger
I live for the CABE
Now we're getting somewhere. The point of this thread is to be able to establish a collection of bikes with both confident dates of manufacture and those without as well as supporting literature, etc. so we can start filling in the blanks.
As for my bike being a '31? @rcole45 told me though his research he determined it to be a '27... Here are the serials of known bikes he sent me that were used to determine that. One of them you mentioned above
"Serial number on your bike is 404860. Serial numbers were 6 numbers till about 34 then one letter and five numbers. In my search I FOUND BIKES 1931/478513 1930/443601 1927/362230"
Archie Sturmer
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
Oops, my mistake!
I thought that maybe he had sent you the whole bicycle(s), and you mentioned having more than one.
I had visions of a “helpful thread” by the @the tinker on how to send serial numbers, (similar to “removing head badges easily” thread).
So, it seems that your 1927 bicycle with the 362,000 serial may have been the same one posted in the Hibbard thread by member @tech549?
We notice that the 1931 bike (not yours), has a 478,000 serial which does not align to the old list which indicates 1933; more than two years off? I suspect the old list is off.
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dasberger
I live for the CABE
I misread that bit about the 1931 serial I didn't realize you were referencing a previous discussion... my mistake. So anyway like I mentioned the Lincoln is well documented and seems to be a '27. I got confirmation today there were no markings on the original crank and the bike was parted here on the CABE in 2012 after there were no takers. Only the frame is original to the bike at this point....
I do have more than one I just started with the Lincoln. I haven't had a chance to pull the crank on the second but as I understand it there are no markings on it and third I need to pick up but it has been well documented as well....
Let's see those Meads!
Archie Sturmer
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
We hope that this thread should not become a Mead thread. And I agree that both known and unknown confidence examples of Pre-1933 A&S bicycles should be welcomed.
Below is a what I had thought was a 1922 Girl's Junior (24") Mead Ranger in honey-brown built by A&S; serial 141,531 from Long Beach; (I also received a boy's frame from the same person four years ago).
I figure that it could be slightly later since it has the Mead decal on the seat tube mast showing "Mar. 14, 1922" among several patent dates. The font of the serial numbers does look peculiar.
No crankset came with this project frame only, and it accommodates balloon tires in the rear; the front fork is not original.
When looking at Mead catalog pictures, many of the Ladies/Girls bicycles appeared to have curved down tubes; maybe the Juniors' models did not receive such style improvements(?).
Make this one uncertain; but it still does exist, (in one form or another).
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dasberger
I live for the CABE
Is it possible AS used a different batch of serials for Mead that ran at the same time? Say starting at 100,000? Or did the frames just come off the line at the same time and were stamped as they came off. The font above does look strange... much thicker than others I have seen
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