Bicycles in the 50's

[labworm]

Thought this may generate a bunch of great posts from the kids of the 50's.

My Uncle loved his tea and loved playing illegal numbers with the local bookies. One day his number came in and he won roughly $2,000 (In 1957 that was a huge chunk of change).

I always dreamed of having a brand new bike and realized it just was never going to happen.

Until my Uncle and I walked to the Schwinn store roughly 1 1/2 miles and he purchased this for me at the age of 11.

He purchased a few accessories for me also, battery operated chrome horn, pink tassels hanging from the grips and two rocket tail lights which attached to each side of the hub. I was in heaven, I had a jewel which I was in love with.

Many miles were put on with the bike, fishing, playing baseball, going to the beach and just cruising around with the gang. Even some of the young gals for once noticed me

That was 55 years ago, and I haven't forgotten one detail of this event.

OK, now I want to hear your little story about that bike you drove around in the 50's.

 

[snowman]

Mine was very much like yours. A little different color frame, no hand brakes, had one of those little generators for the back wheel which operated the headlight, and a speedometer/odometer(!). I rode that thing a lot of miles.

Oh, mine was a two-speed; you changed gears by turning the pedals backward a little bit, then continuing to pedal. Was yours the same way?

Andy

 

[labworm]

Mine was very much like yours. A little different color frame, no hand brakes, had one of those little generators for the back wheel which operated the headlight, and a speedometer/odometer(!). I rode that thing a lot of miles.

Oh, mine was a two-speed; you changed gears by turning the pedals backward a little bit, then continuing to pedal. Was yours the same way?

Andy

You remember Andy Although I had the 3 speed with hand brakes, to shift also peddle backwards.

 

[Mike McLellan]

Mine had a fake gas tank and "crash bars" on the rear to offer protection when sliding on it's side.

 

[V-35]

Bikes

labworm,

When I was growing up in the late 40's-early 50's, only the 'rich kids' had bikes like that. Ours were cobbeled together from wrecked bikes. The only 'accesary' we had was a 'motor' made of playing cards flapping on the spokes, secured(?) by clothes pins on the fender rods. (They seldom ever lasted a mile though). We thought they were really 'neat'. (This was before anyone ever heard of something being 'cool'.)



Art

 

[Tam 3]

A racing green Raleigh three speed that I could exceed the speed limit on Sewart AFB. 1956 and my last pedal driven bike until I got a folder in 1984. The Raleigh was pure class. I now drive an Schwin AyrDyn.

Regards,

Tam 3

 

[feralmerril]

About 1954 I bought a 1946 whizzer motorbike. I remember paying $45s. They had a 2.5 hp engine and it was mounted on a schwin "cadillac" bicycle. Had a springer front end. Belt drive and you pedaled to fire it up. Slip clutch. Used to carry a tube of belt dressing in my overalls.
I tore both knee`s up different times. That slip clutch could grab when you were makeing a U-turn and the bike flew out from me several times. She would do about 50 mph and supposedly get about 90 miles a gallon. I dont think I ever got that but that were good.
Some outfit came out with them again about 25 years ago for awhile.
The wonderful old Whizzer Motorbike

 

[jlrhiner]

In the early 60's, Dad and I were in a Western Auto and I found a beauty. It was metal flake blue, had a banana seat, sissy bar and a STEERING WHEEL!!!!

I was soooooooo cool.

 

[rburg]

Well, my succession of bikes started with a cobbled together 20" mixed breed. It was blue, caused by a few layers of blue paint over whatever was on the metal before. It was a clunker but I had no pride. But then about 1960 I was 12 and wanted/needed a bigger bike.

But what my dad did was inexcusable. He bought a brand new "Rollfast". It was a dog of a machine and one I was embarrassed to ride in public. It took a lot of effort to pedal and the only advantage of that was it didn't stop, so you weren't tempted to get going very fast. The brakes were Bendix brand, but defective at best. It always announced my arrival by screaming like a wounded cow the instant I tried to apply them. By spring I just parked it, refusing to ride it. And I got all kinds of grief from my dad about how much it cost. And I got punished for saying he could have bought a real bike for that much. I just found other things to do when my friends took off on an expedition. Then one day my older brother laughed at me and took the bike for a ride. Almost killed himself. Brought it home, parked it, and had a chat with my dad.

So suddenly we were all in the family car, going for a ride south of town. And I can't remember what Ralph's last name was, but we went to his house. He was in our 4-H club. His dad had died and when he turned 16, he got his drivers license out of necessity.
His bike was surplus, and it was great. An older Schwinn green, and what we called a balloon tired bomber. I may have been a scrawny kid, but I was really proud of the great bike I'd lucked into. I took it for a ride. It pedaled easy and stopped better than I'd imagined possible. My father was a beaten man. So just to prove it to himself, he took the Rollfast for a short ride. Came back and parked it, then took the Schwinn for a spin around the "block". We didn't have those, but you could make a circle of maybe a mile. He came back, agreed with my assessment of the bikes. Nothing else was said. And it proved once you learn to ride a bike, you may get rusty but you can still do it. It was the only time I ever saw him ride a bike, too.

I can't remember what happened to it, either. Probably after I got a drivers license and my buddies did, too, I always had a way around with more dignity than pumping.

And then 2 years ago my wife and I were walking at a local antique show. It was one day a month, the 4th Sunday. I saw and didn't buy a Schwinn tricycle. I have no idea how much. But the following show it was there and I was too. Bought it before the show even opened to buy it. Then I gave it to my then 4 YO grandson. He took it for a spin and announced it was way easier to pedal and steer than a "Big Wheel". I knew that. With any luck, his little sister and even smaller brother will get good use out of it.

 

[Zebulon]

My first Bike was a Schwinn Mustang, as I recall (maybe not well....) and I got it in about 1954.....I must have put 700,00 miles on that bad boy before my Dad made some serious money (Ha!) and bought me a new Royce-Union "Middleweight" in Chrome and Candy Green, with Whitewalls!!. Then it started....Mudflaps, Cards and Balloons in the Spokes, Grips with Streamers (we used to beg Dry Ice from the Ice Cream guys and put it in our handlebars for "Smoke"). and Headlights....I was ruined! haven't been able to leave a car stock since then.......Great times......Zebulon

 

[Bert Man]

As a kid in the mid 50's I lusted after a Schwinn Corvette. Spent much of my waking hours pouring over magazine and comic book ads drooling over the pictures and plastering my nose to store display windows admiring my "dream bike." (Didn't know what a "grail" anything was back then.) Despite my desire to throw a leg over one of those beauties it wasn't to be. They were quite expensive and my parents, struggling to support a young family, just couldn't afford it. Instead, one Christmas I did find a new bike under the tree. It wasn't the object of my affection but a somewhat plain vanilla J.C. Higgins from Sears. It turned out to be a pretty decent ride and it took me anywhere a kid of 9 or 10 had any business going. Rode it for several years adding a few "custom" touches along the way (bobbed fenders and decals from my model car kits) and, yep, did the old playing card clothespinned to the spokes for that, yes, "neat" motor sound.

I didn't realize it at the time but had learned that what we want is not always what we need.

 

[ACP230]

I had a single speed, fat tire, red/orange J.C. Higgins at the tail end of the late 1950s. We shipped it as household goods and I rode it most on a Pacific island. It was left there for one of my friends to ride when we came back stateside.

I must have been made of sterner stuff then. I sometimes rode that bike six miles into town on roads made of coral to get to school. Then
after the last bell liberated me, I sometimes rode it home. Sometimes
I'd take the boat across the harbor and just ride through town to school.
In the afternoon I'd ride it home.

Once I came down the hill to our house by the ocean. I let the bike
coast and almost hit the cistern when the wheel struck a crab hole and
abruptly stopped. I went over the handlebars and missed the
concrete cistern by a couple of feet. Came down the hill
a bit slower after that.

Not fancy or fast but I do have fond memories of that bike.

 

[sheepdawg]

No telling how many baseball cards worth good money today I ruined on my first bike. Yup, clothes pinned them to the metal piece besides the spokes on the wheels to get the motorcycle sound. I seem to recall was a J.C. Higgins. Sure did sound good back then though. The light hooked up to the generator on the tire was a big deal too.

 

[CW Spook]

I also had a Schwinn Corvette, but mine was black. My folks made a deal with me and my brother, that if we'd continue to take piano lessons, they'd put that same amount of money into a savings account each week, to be used for purchase of new bikes. Took us a year or so to save up enough, but we each got new Corvettes. I had that bike well into my college years.

 

[Marshwheeling]

That Schwinn cantilever frame may be the best looking bicycle frame ever. I never had one as a kid. My first bike was a Hercules my dad handed down when he got a Raleigh to ride to work.

In my thirties, I finally got a Schwinn, a genuine Black Phantom I found in a barn. It had been painted orange with a broom. I got all the orange paint stripped off, but my big plans to restore it were sidetracked by sloppy bushings in the springer fork. I eventually turned it into this:


It has a Sturmey drum brake on the front, and a 3-speed coaster hub on the rear. It gave me years of excellent service as a winter ride. Not quite as cool as the Corvette, but still a lot of fun.

The Herc saw plenty of hard use, and was faster than all the Raleighs in the neighborhood. I rode it all over town with my buddies, and on several occasions took long day rides with my dad. He was not a bike jock, and sometimes had to call my mom to bring the sag wagon on the return leg.

That Hercules is long gone, but a few years ago I had the chance to buy a bike from a friend who was moving out of town. I could only take one of the two she had. The smart money would probably have gone with the Rudge, but I took the Hercules for sentimental reasons:

 

[rimfired]

Got a black Schwinn Racer for Christmas 1959. Had the Bendix 2 speed rear. Half back pedaling shifted it from low to high.

 

[GKC]

He purchased a few accessories for me also, battery operated chrome horn, pink tassels hanging from the grips and two rocket tail lights which attached to each side of the hub.

Hmmm...in the 50's in Texas, any guy riding a bike with pink tassels on it would have gotten beat up!

 

[labworm]

Hmmm...in the 50's in Texas, any guy riding a bike with pink tassels on it would have gotten beat up!

Not this kid

They did look great on the bike.

 

[reddogge]

In Baltimore in the mid 50s I had to have an "English" bike, a Raliegh. I got a bike for Christmas that year but it wasn't a Raliegh. I can't even remember what it was. It was a 3 speed though.

 

[labworm]

In Baltimore in the mid 50s I had to have an "English" bike, a Raliegh. I got a bike for Christmas that year but it wasn't a Raliegh. I can't even remember what it was. It was a 3 speed though.

Maybe a Phillips, a dead look alike.