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Unknown camelback english bike

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bairdco

I live for the CABE
Edit... figured it out. Its a 1950 Wearwell boys sports racer...

Got this today, no headbadge or stickers.

Odd parts. Has a Hercules B type 4, 3 speed hub, with a 3 speed freewheel and Simplex derailluer. So I guess it has 3 external, and 3 internal gears , which would make it a, uh... 9 speed?

Dunlop 26x1 3/8 EA-3 rims, Phillips front hub with wingnuts.

Cool lugged camelback frame, kinda on the small side, but, so am I, so it'd fit me.

"Guaranteed" leather saddle.

Under the bottom bracket it says "made in... (something I can't read."

Looks beat, but the tires hold air, and with a tune up will probably ride great.

Dunno what I'm gonna do with it, but for the price, and the hub and seat, figured I couldn't go wrong.

Any info?

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More pics...
 

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I am guessing it is a Franken British bike built or modified as time went on. From the hub it would be a Hercules but there are parts from a bunch of other British bikes on it. Yes it is a 9 speed. As a teenager I did similar things to my Hercules. 2 back sprockets, 2 front sprockets and the 3 speed hub made mine a 12 speed. It looks like it has part of a head badge so what does that say? Probably just someones toy of mixed parentage. Roger
 
the 6-digit serial number and stamp on the seat post should lead to something about the frame's origin...
 
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Been doing a lot of digging and I'm leaning toward it being a pre-raleigh phillips bike.

Chainring is standard phillips, it has phillips apollo pedals, phillips front hub and the frame lugs and headbadge lugged section looks phillips.

Hercules hub is 1952-3, pedals are early 50's, and other parts seem to place it all in the early 50's.

The frame seems to be pretty obscure. Searched thousands of photos and the only camelback design I've found is a phillips motorized bike, but it has rear facing drop outs.

The only decal left is a bike shop waterslide on the seat tube, but it's been damaged by the cable pulley clamp. Part of it reads "los angeles, california.

Gonna start tearing it down today. This type of bike isn't really my thing, but this particular one is pretty cool.

If anything, it should make the hipsters jealous.

Thanks for the replies. I was getting lonely. :)
 
things take time around here - don't always have the right answers at hand, but you're doing a good job and rest of us are enjoying it, too.
It's certainly easy to see a P in that seat post stamp.
I bet that will lead to serial number info...
 
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It's turning out to be more and more of a frankenbike.

Left crank is stamped "japan," right crank is stamped "phillips."

Brake calipers are stamped "crown. Made in japan."

I just hope the frame isn't japanese. Not that I'm bike-racist, I just want it to be english and rare, not japanese and junky.
 
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