Westfield Wednesday! Show Your Bikes Here.

[bikeyard]

I did - unique bike

I was told it was a 41 when I purchased it and provided with a catalog photo. However the catalog photo has center pull Philco brakes on it like yours. I'll have to run the numbers to determine the year. The brakes look original to the bike and I believe they are. Its a keeper bike

 

[SirMike1983]

I was told it was a 41 when I purchased it and provided with a catalog photo. However the catalog photo has center pull Philco brakes on it like yours. I'll have to run the numbers to determine the year. The brakes look original to the bike and I believe they are. Its a keeper bike

I'd wager they are original - they seem to be the special type that clamps to the seat stays and the fork blades, rather than bolting through the bridge and the fork crown. The Philco works sort of like a cross between a center pull and a cantilever brake, but there did exist traditional side-pull calipers as well. Your seat stay bridge and fork crown may be drilled in such a way that they cannot mount brake bolts, so that clamp-on type caliper would be necessary and would be period correct for that era.

The bottom bracket serial will be the give away. Mine has an "E" series serial.

The shifter looks like a later type. The most common shifter in 1941 was the top-tube quadrant, though there was a long-arm handle bar type with embossed face plate. The earliest handlebar shifters from the 1938-48 era would be something close to this:

 

[bikeyard]

I'd wager they are original - they seem to be the special type that clamps to the seat stays and the fork blades, rather than bolting through the bridge and the fork crown. The Philco works sort of like a cross between a center pull and a cantilever brake, but there did exist traditional side-pull calipers as well. Your seat stay bridge and fork crown may be drilled in such a way that they cannot mount brake bolts, so that clamp-on type caliper would be necessary and would be period correct for that era.

The shifter looks like a later type. The most common shifter in 1941 was the top-tube quadrant, though there was a long-arm handle bar type with embossed face plate. The earliest handlebar shifters from the 1938-48 era would be something close to this:

They do clamp to the seat stays and forks, not bolt through. It also came with a quadrant shifter, although I can't really tell where one was bolted on previously.

 

[SirMike1983]

They do clamp to the seat stays and forks, not bolt through. It also came with a quadrant shifter, although I can't really tell where one was bolted on previously.

It's possible to carefully clamp them on without chipping the paint, and some bikes don't have the telltale "stripes" where the clamp was because either the clamp was taken off years ago, or the paint didn't fade that much. Somebody really wanted an upgraded lightweight here though - it has the rider-friendly features you would want to tackle hills and stop better than a single speed coaster brake.

 

[Bozman]

1941 Westfield

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[hoofhearted]

Not my machine .....

 

[rustjunkie]

Some Westfields from Wednesdays that went by the wayside

 

[birdzgarage]

 

[cds2323]

Made some adjustments by switching to these braced scout bars instead of the 30" wide bars I'd been using and adding the missing taillight.

 

[pedal_junky]