Shelby? Ross? CBC?

[MBL]

Howdy all. TI'm here. I was wondering about a bike is saw. It was JC Higgins branded bike, but it looked like it could have been either made by CBC like a mod 50s Ross, but at the same time, it appeared as though it was quite similar to a Shelby after AMF purchased them.

In looking at these catalog pages, the Shelby looks an awful lot like the Ross.

Does anyone have thoughts on this one?
Thanks
Tim
MBL

 

[ThegoodThebad&Therusty]

The JC Higgins line of bicycles was a Sears department store brand manufactured by the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company

 

[MBL]

Typically yes. But there where a handful of Higgins bikes not made by Murray. This one I saw was definitely not a Murray build from what I can tell.
Tim
MBL

 

[Archie Sturmer]

If you post pictures of the bike which you said that you saw, then that might be helpful for those who do not know what you saw.

Note the details of the truss bar. On the Chain/Ross and Higgins, the two top tubes are almost parallel and touching close together at the seat tube, both top tubes join to the seat tube. Shelby had two similar but different designs, (I have seen both, but do not know which is the older versus newer). One design had the truss bar about 2" below the top bar at the seat tube juncture (1" gap); in another design (in pictures of 1st post) the two top tubes formed a "Y" (wye) about 4-5" forward of the seat tube. So it seems that the Chain/Ross design is in-between those of Shelby, wrt the truss tube. [It looks like a Chain/Ross tank might be fairly close to one version of a Shelby tank]. There was a time (1950's?) when Murray had labor-relations troubles, so Sears needed to find alternate manufacturer(s) for their J.C. Higgins bikes.

 

[MBL]

Here's a pic.

 

[GTs58]

Chain guard sure looks identical to the Ross bikes in that catalog.

 

[ThegoodThebad&Therusty]

I poached this off another bicycle website -

'After the war, Murray became known as a manufacturer of low-cost bicycles, and placed its own brand on some products. Since the 1930s, Murray had been producing bicycles that, while stylistically different, imitated designs by other U.S. manufacturers, including Schwinn and AMF. This occasionally brought Murray into legal conflict with competitors, as when Schwinn filed against Murray for duplicating a Schwinn knurling and machining process on its rims.'

I suspect that JC Higgins for sale in your photo is a Murray Ohio knock off of the Ross X26T bicycle in the first advertisement above. It looks like they even copied the V graphics on the tank logo. I haven't come across any archival information indicating Ross made any bikes badged as JC Higgins or any JC Higgins badged bikes were manufactured by anybody other than MO with the exception of some bikes that were manufactured and sold in Germany.

I don't know about Shelby but by comparing images of the Airflow Standard Tank in the add to the bike that's for sale in the photo, their is only a general resemblance in design.

If you want to solve the riddle once and for all you'll have to check the bottom bracket for manufacture/model number stampings.

 

[PCHiggin]

Here's a pic.

View attachment 1030266

Looks like parts of a Ross, made by Chain Bicycles. I cant tell, the frame might be Murray? Frankenbike? News to me, I’ve only seen Higgins bikes made by Murray

 

[MBL]

Found this Ross pic, and it seems to have the same crank...so I'm thinking CBC manufacture. The bottom bracket does not have any Murray markings.

So I suppose this is for sure not any relation to Shelby.

Thanks for the input!
Tim
MBL

 

[ThegoodThebad&Therusty]

This discussion in this thread sheds some light on the subject - https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/jc-higgins-regal-deluxe-monark-built-ballooner.22639/