Hukah

(I posted this in the vintage forum also)

Hello group.

This group looks pretty active. I like that.

I recently made what some may consider an "impulse" buy.

I seen the title; Hiawatha Shelby Arrow/AirFlow/Speedline" frame for sale. Probably 40's.

While I did say i would like a mens bike after having bought four women's bikes for their springer forks or other accoutrements that would bling up a cruizer (don't get this wrong; two of them had gotten into a fight with a curb and had lost. I salvaged these bikes from the scrap man.), I wasn't really looking for another bike right now. I knew those bikes were high-end but being so new to the hobby myself i didn't know how to tell the difference between a sought after frame and a run-of-the-mill frame yet but I had three days to bid on this frame that would be a nice addition to my collection, AFTER I put not a small amount of money into it.

So I bid, but I bid $95 (+55shp), $4 below the starting bid price of $99..

I knew this frame was worth more than I was bidding but I figured he might have had this frame for a while and my just be ready to get rid of it to the first person that has made on offer on it in months, ya know?


In the meantime I'm googling images with the search terms "hiawatha shelby arrow airflow speedline bicycle", just like the seller has this frame listed. The images coming back were bikes in beautiful and/or fully dressed frames.

I couldn't really tell from the images how the seat stays connected to the top bar and other important cues i have yet to learn.

I knew that guy wasn't going to sell me that frame for less than his asking price, so I didn't spend much more time investigating it; if I lost, oh well, nothing lost. If I win then I get an arrow/airflow/speedline frame for a greatly reduced price. right?


Well the guy accepted my lower bid.

I was happy but not really cause i'm buying a bike that I wasn't actually prepared for, but knowing what i bought and for how much I paid kind of soothed my hesitation.

I had been talking with a guy that owns a couple Arrows and I finally sent him a picture of what I bought.

He sent back a icture of a bare frame and immediately i could tell I had not bought what this guy owns.

Now I'm in a panic.

What did I just buy then?

Can I stop the sale still?

whose fault is it that I bought an item that was misrepresented? Mine for not doing more homework?

his for lieing about what he has?

All these questions are running thru my head.

Anyway so i post a picture to another group I haunt and another guy comes in and says the frame I'm buying is more rare than the shelby the other guy has. It's a Hiawatha made by murray instead, according to him.

well i feel a little better now and decide I'll go ahead and buy the frame.

Still I'd like to hear opinions about fault too.

Now I have to ask this group;

Does anyone here recognize this frame and can they tell me more about it/where to find out more about it please??


I need to know what I bought and it would be nice if I got a good deal on it but I want to know either way.
Believe me, I learned a lesson. I wont repeat it again, but it may turn out that it indeed is the more rare frame .


Thanks a lot for reading this long winded rant/plea.

I really do appreciate your sharing of your knowledge with us all.


Well I guess i can't upload images yet, maybe because I'm "new"? I try and get an "alert" warning and nothing loads.

If you type in the search words I gave above you can see the bare frame in the 6th row down in image page of google search.


Thanks again