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WINGBAR - Silver King vs. Wards Duralium Silver Streak?

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Just saw this pic posted up elsewhere. Good boy protecting his rare Delta torpedo Hornlite...and possibly his blue face Clipper speedo stem?
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Congratulations! Now here's a titbit that may enlighten you when speaking about your Silver Streak. The name "Wingbar" was not a factory generated name, but instead, one that was coined by a person I believe you're familiar with; Leon Dixon. In the 70's- 80's, Leon was one of the most knowledgeable bicycle historians and prolific bicycle collector. He also gave us the "HEXTUBE" and “The World’s Fair” names. Unfortunately over the years, Leon's shenanigans and unscrupulous deals has sour many collectors and he has been ostercised from the bicycle community for far too many reasons.

My intentions of this contribution is not to begin a diatribe or a discussion about Mr Dixon (please reserve your comments or park your thoughts elsewhere on the many relevant posts). Instead this nugget of information should be inserted into your "knowledge bank" whenever you are showcasing your beautiful bike.

BTW look again, carefully at the pic in the 1937 Wards catalog...note the shape and the stamped pattern of the stem...it suspiciously looks like the Torrington deco stem with hex handlebars and not the coveted Monark "wing" deco stem. But why get anal now...it's yours to enjoy...relax and congrats again!View attachment 940587


I dealt with Leon and corresponded with him quite a bit back in the 1980's. He was/is a wealth of knowledge and a true character.
 
"Congratulations! Now here's a titbit that may enlighten you when speaking about your Silver Streak. The name "Wingbar" was not a factory generated name, but instead, one that was coined by a person I believe you're familiar with; Leon Dixon. In the 70's- 80's, Leon was one of the most knowledgeable bicycle historians and prolific bicycle collector. He also gave us the "HEXTUBE" and “The World’s Fair” names. Unfortunately over the years, Leon's shenanigans and unscrupulous deals has sour many collectors and he has been ostercised from the bicycle community for far too many reasons.

My intentions of this contribution is not to begin a diatribe or a discussion about Mr Dixon (please reserve your comments or park your thoughts elsewhere on the many relevant posts). Instead this nugget of information should be inserted into your "knowledge bank" whenever you are showcasing your beautiful bike.

BTW look again, carefully at the pic in the 1937 Wards catalog...note the shape and the stamped pattern of the stem...it suspiciously looks like the Torrington deco stem with hex handlebars and not the coveted Monark "wing" deco stem. But why get anal now...it's yours to enjoy...relax and congrats again!"

Thanks for your tidbit, @fordsnake.... I started out collecting vintage bikes in LA in the late 1970s. My knowledge bank goes back farther than I'm willing to admit; I knew guys like Gary Bang, Leon Dixon, Steve Castelli, Clavon, Kenny Blackburn, Tony Henkels', Steve Thomas, Gertrude, Mike Leebolt.. all the old guard ... and the list goes on... I'm well aware of the many nicknames Leon Dixon has coined, don't worry, he won't let you forget it either ;o)

For the record, I've known Mr. Dixon since the early 1980s and never personally experienced any shenanigans or unscrupulous deals with him; regardless of my opinion of the man, it's not really fair to agree with that characterization of him in a public forum. 'nuff said.

Re; stem... my approach for this bike is art directing, not that anal quest for "correctness". For sure the Wards Silver Streaks never sported that winged neck, as far as I know they only came on the first iteration of the Silver King M137 as seen here, but it was the best choice for this bike while staying close to the design intent of Monark, I don't really care for the two-piece putter type or Torrington deco stem that are seen in the ads for this bike, nor did I want the clunky speedo console stem, so this neck works best for my bike.

Trust me when I tell you, I'm plenty relaxed about this bike.. especially since they made it legal in California... I'm enjoying just sitting here staring at this thing.. all I need is some Popcornopolis to much on... damn, I'm getting hungry!

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Just saw this pic posted up elsewhere. Good boy protecting his rare Delta torpedo Hornlite;)
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DUDE! It's got my chain guard on it, the one from the "dress up your bike" section of the catalog, and the finned front hub too! And no rack... it's set up like mine, I'd love to see the neck he was running... Great photo, thanks for posting!
 
To quote a term only familiar to us "fossils" is shoctobogus as a term of an incorrect part on a bike Leon used on occasion. The guy was a card/legend. I still have pics of his "Cuda" and rare hub cutaways, shaft drive Elgin etc. stamped with his name and copyright in one of my albums.
 
After a full year of waiting my Wards Silver Streak finally came in. The saga of getting this bike is epic, and I don't wish it on anyone, but I will always appreciate the bike more for what I had to go through to get it. A big shout out and huge thanks to @New Mexico Brant and @fordmike65 along with others for making it happen!

The first two pix are how I received it yesterday, then I spent hours last night fiddling with it, and I think I like this configuration the best, it's the closest I can get to the catalog ad for now. The rack I believe is a repro, and since the Silver Streak seems to have come standard without it I had no problem taking it off. The fenders have a great deal of original paint, and are very straight; the rack only served to hide that rear fender, and took focus from the back of that frame with the "tail fins" at the axle slots. And now the teardrop tail light looks like it's floating all by itself back there. I like the paired down look quite a bit... every bit of focus should be on that frame.

I also removed the speedo/gooseneck console. It could be original, or a repro, I don't really know, but they weren't offered on any of the wing bars, nor show up in the catalog as even an accessory, so off it goes! Removing it de-cluttered the head set, and again makes the eye go to the main event, those wings molded in the aluminum (er, duralium). I also put the winged, deco stem found on the first iteration of the M137 on it, and it brings together the deco elements on the headlight and wings on the main bar too. I really like the horizontal top line of the thing, it really streamlines the bars and headset.

Even changing out the grips to correct ones lightened things up a bit up front. The wheels are original and in really fine shape, and the bike is overall very nicely preserved and original. Everything is now correct/original equipment except the seat has been redone, and the grips are repro. It even has the neat, original cast front hub with hi-lo cooling fins. I'm told these cracked and failed quite often and that few are found actually in service on bikes.

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VERY nice. I kinda like the carrier on it, but any way you spin it, it's a KILLER.
 
2c I had an all orig from a non collector girls plain jane SK badged bike with the T deco stem on it...I think Monark was pretty loose about what they used.
Does the sliver streak ad with the deco torrington neck also have hex truss rods? Love the position of the horn button....
 
To quote a term only familiar to us "fossils" is shoctobogus as a term of an incorrect part on a bike Leon used on occasion. The guy was a card/legend. I still have pics of his "Cuda" and rare hub cutaways, shaft drive Elgin etc. stamped with his name and copyright in one of my albums.

Ha! Yes, I remember "schlocko-bogus"... as I remember he was talking mainly about Steve Thomas' bikes when he said that, and even Steve used to laugh at that comment, he was almost proud of it and would repeat it often when talking about bikes. I remember Leon pulling into the Pomona swap meet in a 70s Cadillac convertible with the top down, and the rear springs bottomed out from having the back seat piled so high with bikes. I remember him wearing white cotton gloves to unload the bikes too... Thems were the days.
 
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VERY nice. I kinda like the carrier on it, but any way you spin it, it's a KILLER.

I do actually like the rack on these bikes too, they are quite beautiful and unusual in cast aluminum; they balance out these little bikes too, so you can imagine my dilemma... but in this case there were just too many reasons to remove it... I mentioned I wanted to showcase the back of the frame, and show off that straight, orig. paint fender, but the thing is a repro, plus I didn't mention one of the stays got snapped in shipping, so not only a repro, but now a broken repro... then the Wards bike in the catalog - they're shown right there just like this with no rack... so in the end it was an easy decision I'm quite happy with, but don't think I didn't twist a bit about it... were this an SK M137, I would definitely have left it on.
 
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