Can you ID this prewar bike?

[RogerS]

My Dad bought this bicycle brand new to deliver newspapers in Ashtabula, Ohio in the mid 1930's for $13.00. He didn't remember the year but like a good Slovenian he remembered how much it cost.
Sadly the head badge is gone. In the late 60's my Grandfather gave it the lovely powder blue paint job, a new set of tires, and the white hand grips. I did a little light sanding on the blue paint and found it was black with white and red trim. It has a Morrow coaster brake on it and the chrome on the brake arm is absolutely spotless. It also has skip tooth chain and a front skip tooth srocket.
Believe it or not I also have my Mothers first 26" bicycle, also bought in the mid 30's brand new, it has a rear center stand and holes along the edges of the rear fender that they use to lace with string to prevent their dresses from getting into the spokes. It has its head badge and is a Mayfair.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[chipmcluk]

looks like a roadmaster to me. Cleveland welding company. I had a roadmaster and the frame was very similar, the forks look identical.

 

[RogerS]

Makes sense Ashtabula is just 50 miles from Cleveland. I don't think there was a lot of long haul shipping of bicycles back then.
Thank you for your help!

 

[uncle_punk13]

I don't think there was a lot of long haul shipping of bicycles back then.
Thank you for your help!

You'd be surprised... Bikes were shipped all over the country back then as well.
It does look to be clevland welding but without seeing it in person, or more detail shots, it is hard to say as that frame looks very similar to many of that era, including schwinn- which is what the chainring looks to be, but the forks are not. The forks could be columbia, or c.w., or huffman
Many times these identifyfing parts were changed, so really it's hard to determine from just that photo. though I am curious so I may dig through my archives of old bike literature to see if anything jumps out at me...

 

[JE]

1938 Shelby Flying cloud.I'm restoring one right now for my DaD.

 

[RogerS]

JE,
Wow that is very specific! Do you have any pictures of the one your working on? I would really like to see one of the head badge if its possible. As far as parts not being original, this bike was bought new by my father and was never altered other than tires, tubes, rim strips, and hand grips. It has been in his posestion until he gave it to me about 1 year ago.

 

[KilroyCD]

Definitely not a Cleveland Welding (Roadmaster) frame. The chainstays are not swept up at the rear dropouts. That upward sweep is a sure fire way to tell a Cleveland Welding frame at a glance. If you're not sure, see how the chainstay (bottom bar behind the seat tube) sweeps upward towards the rear axle in this photo of a CW bike: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z21/KilroyCD/My Bikes/100_1325.jpg
The chainring looks like a Schwinn, but the frame definitely looks like a Shelby, as JE said. It's very similar to my Shelby Traveler that is patiently awaiting its turn to be restored.

 

[RogerS]

From pictures I had found on the web my original gues was a Schwinn LaSalle.
Now I'm really confused.

 

[cruiser66]

This is what it probably looked like originally. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110291887250#ebayphotohosting

66

 

[JE]

Deffinitly not the bike in the E-bay ad. Shelby had three different chain rings they used back then all three are correct it just depened what was in the bin when they where assembling the bike.I've got a 37 airflow like the one in the E-bay ad I'll go take some pictures and post the differences.