What do I have, here?

[hatz4katz]

Purchased this bike as a basket case from a friend. Replaced the tires, tubes, chain and grips. Lots of elbow grease and clean up.
Bike has Excelsior head badge, Schwinn chain guard and Schwinn serial number of 1953 date. It looks pretty much original but I have a couple of questions:
1. Is this a Schwinn badged as Excelsior? If so, what is the story on that?
2. Are the handlebars original? They look pretty wide and swept back. No markings or stampings on the bars.
3. The rims are wide like S2 but are not knurled or marked S2. It looks like they are marked Lobell or something like that. Anyone have info on these rims?
4. What bolt on kickstands were used in 1953? It has a Miller kickstand but it needs to be replaced and doesn't fit all that great, anyways.
I still need to do some detail work on it such as adjusting the seat angle and rear rack and final cleaning, but after that, it will be a good beach cruiser.
Thank you in advance for your answers.

 

[unregistered]

Very nice bike! All I can say is that it should be older than a ‘53, those dropouts are prewar.

Schwinn badged/branded many different bikes for models and distributors. Excelsior is one of the more common ones.

Enjoy!

 

[robert bell]

1941 schwinn model BA97. original flat lobdel rims.want to sell, I'm your man!!

 

[John G04]

Looks like a 40/41. Beautiful bike! The lobdell rims are correct as the s2’s weren’t prewar. Lmk if you ever want to sell the rims my bike needs a better set!

 

[barneyguey]

Beautiful bike!

Miller is the correct kickstand for your bike. Those grips are for a post war bike like a Panther or Phantom. You need the prewar black chubby Schwinn grips. Barry

 

[Archie Sturmer]

1. A common path of industrialists was parts, bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles, then bankruptcy. Such was the case for Excelsior when A&S bought the company - in order to dabble in motorcycles. A&S did not need more Chicago bicycle manufacturing capacity and sold off what continued as Excelsior Cycle. Both companies A&S and Excelsior used the name on their bikes. And then there are the English Excelsior cousins, from England.

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

cool bike, my favorite color combination.

is that a proper rack for that bike?

 

[robert bell]

41 only chainguard, late "H" serial number painted fender struts, 41 only springer. curious has no fork stop tube on frame for the springer that all original springer bikes had. even ladies bikes in 41 had frame fork stop tube/rubbers.

 

[hatz4katz]

Evidently, I received incorrect info concerning the model year. Serial number is H58044.
Thank you all for the information. As far as I know, that is the correct rack for the bike. I'll also change the grips to be period correct (I thought it was a '53). What was the fork stop tube for the springer fork? If it was made of rubber, it probably disintegrated years ago. My understanding is that this bike sat in a garage for over 40 years.

 

[hatz4katz]

Looks like a 40/41. Beautiful bike! The lobdell rims are correct as the s2’s weren’t prewar. Lmk if you ever want to sell the rims my bike needs a better set!View attachment 1073799

My rims looked like yours at first. I soaked them in Evaporust and cleaned them with 0000 steel wool. Not shiny but not rusty, either.