Seiberling Road King Help

[Keebo]

Guys
I bought this Seiberling Road King and I am new at this so pleeeeeze help. Im having a heck of a time finding any kind of resources about this bike and would love to know the correct year and what this bike looked like originally. Not many pictures of this on the internet so if anyone could share some that would be great. I did find a couple of pics and they show it with a tank and i hope to find a tank for this. if anyone could help i would appreciate it and i will quit crying now

 

[RMS37]

This bike was manufactured by Cleveland Welding (CWC) for distribution and sale by the Seiberling Rubber Company. It is essentially a standard issue CWC bike using the second series post-war CWC 3-Gill pattern frame and the serial number places the build date in 1947, probably near the middle of that year. While the basic bike is common, the Seiberling badging is one of the less common badges that were used on these bikes.


The CWC/Seiberling badged post-war bikes I have seen were built to fairly standard CWC specifications. High specification versions of the bike would feature a headlight strut mounted to the fork crown so this bike was probably originally a mid-level or base-spec bike. The rear fender should have a central ridge which it does not appear to have. If there is no ridge then it is a replacement and not original to the bike. The chain guard is correct as is most of the rest of what is present. The bike may or may not have originally been tank equipped. If so equipped it would use the standard (year appropriate) postwar CWC 3-Gill tank.

 

[cds2323]

The bike was made by Cleveland Welding co.. The serial # indicates being made between 12/1946 & 2/1947. There is a serial # thread for Cleveland Welding on this site. I can't tell from what is left of the bike if it originally had a tank or not.

 

[RMS37]

The bike was made by Cleveland Welding co.. The serial # indicates being made between 12/1946 & 2/1947. There is a serial # thread for Cleveland Welding on this site. I can't tell from what is left of the bike if it originally had a tank or not.

It appears you are using the ABC reproduced Western Flyer booklet to date this bike.

The caution is that those numbers and dates are likely transcribed from Western Autos distribution records by the distributor for Western Autos and not necessarily complete or accurate for the non-Western Flyer badged bicycles or necessarily supplied directly by the CWC factory. The dates may actually be order dates or delivery dates to the distributor and not factory production dates, unfortunately the source document does not explain specifically what the dates signify.

The other factor is that there are two different sequences for early Postwar “A” serialed bikes; those with the Cw suffix and those without. It appears that an initial series of bicycles were produced without the Cw stamp (around the dates you mentioned) and then the stamp was added a bit later (mid-1947 ?) and the serial counters were reset to zero. As a Cw bike, I believe it dates to a period just after the one you have noted.

There is just not enough factory documentation available in the public domain to dial in the true production dates for CWC produced bicycles so I generally give my best estimate based on several sources (including the ABC booklet, it is very helpful) and try not to round closer than about a half year window.

 

[Keebo]

Guys this is really good information and thank you for the response. I do not have the peaked fenders as mentioned. i did get a matching ladies bike that does have these but they have holes in them and are rough but i would like to find these and buy them. You menitioned a couple of things and could you suggest how i might ask or look for these items since when i do a search specific to "Seiberling Road King" not much appears or if i put CWC, everything appears?
such as:
Gil Tank- would this be a specific tank as mentioned ((year appropriate) postwar CWC 3-Gill tank)? you commented on a cwc3 gil tank below and would that be the same style of tank (hope so cuz it groovy)?

http://host2.ministrycrm.com/~ratrodbi/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=44512&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

headlight strut mounted to the fork crown
Peaked/ridge fenders
I also have an offset cranks (on the other bike) i was told were possibly original to the bike. I will post these. Thanks again!

 

[Rookie]

The first bicycle that got me started in the hobby was badged a Seiberling Road King.

 

[Keebo]

More Pics please. awsome.. careful, may have many questions.

 

[Keebo]

 

[Keebo]

here is some wheels and hopefully spare part that i can use? ?=help...again all input is welcome.

bueno

peaked

 

[Andrew Gorman]

I like the branch growing through the wheel!