1964? Huffy Galaxie Value?
07-03-20, 08:45 PM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
1964? Huffy Galaxie Value?
My friend just picked up this old Huffy Galaxie. They were pretty excited to find it, it's their first really old vintage bike.I believe it's a 1964 based on the vin/serial number 411493175. It looks pretty original to me, minus some added reflective tape to the fenders. 26 x 1.75 Good Year Wing Foot Tires (would those be original?). Last license on it is from 1980. Looks to be about an 18 1/2 center/seat tube. So a small to medium woman's bike I would guess. It is missing the headbadge., and both rims really need to be trued/tuned. They are wondering what an old Huffy like this would be worth? Should they replace the tires or leave them as is if they're original? Also would the front light have a place for batteries somewhere and if so, how do you access it? What kind of bulbs would it take? Thanks in advance for your wonderful advice.
07-05-20, 06:23 AM
#2
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That is pretty nifty! Those lights are basically flashlights. It looks like the chrome front section needs to be removed to install batteries, figure out what they are, likely 4 D batteries. As to the bulbs... are the sockets threaded? If so you need something like this, but exactly which one will depend on the size and number of batteries.
If it is the type that requires some sort of retainer and the hardwars isn't there you may not be able to install them at all
As to value....Would your friend have paid $20 more for it? I am not positive but I am not sure this has much collector value and it best value may be in actually enjoying it.
Are both hub shiners there?
If it is the type that requires some sort of retainer and the hardwars isn't there you may not be able to install them at all
As to value....Would your friend have paid $20 more for it? I am not positive but I am not sure this has much collector value and it best value may be in actually enjoying it.
Are both hub shiners there?
__________________
“One morning you wake up, the girl is gone, the bikes are gone, all that's left behind is a pair of old tires and a tube of tubular glue, all squeezed out"
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“One morning you wake up, the girl is gone, the bikes are gone, all that's left behind is a pair of old tires and a tube of tubular glue, all squeezed out"
Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk
Last edited by Bianchigirll; 07-05-20 at 08:39 AM.
07-05-20, 08:20 AM
#3
Newbie
It looks pretty clean in the pics, the tires could be original, but I think Goodyear tires were made up into the 1970's. Unless the tires are date coded in someway, at best all one could say is that they're period correct.
Middle weight bikes don't hold the collectible value that balloon tire bikes do, and being a girls model, it hurts its collectibility even more. Most collectors I know have always used the ladies models as parts bikes since they tended to be less abused.
Huffy was an entry level brand at best, even in the early 60's. Although nostalgia is strong driving force when it comes to old bikes.
Even so I'd say $100 would be about top dollar on a bike like that, unless you find either someone who needs the wheels, tires, or other parts off it for another bike.
About 5 years ago I bought a trailer full of all decent looking ladies bikes off a local collector who was getting up in age, he just wanted to make some room to display his 'good' bikes. I hauled away over 100 ridable ladies bikes and a dozen or so damaged men's middleweight bikes of various brands after he failed to move a single one on Craigslist individually. I gave him $250 cash and promptly stripped them for parts disposing of the ladies frames to save space.
Middle weight bikes don't hold the collectible value that balloon tire bikes do, and being a girls model, it hurts its collectibility even more. Most collectors I know have always used the ladies models as parts bikes since they tended to be less abused.
Huffy was an entry level brand at best, even in the early 60's. Although nostalgia is strong driving force when it comes to old bikes.
Even so I'd say $100 would be about top dollar on a bike like that, unless you find either someone who needs the wheels, tires, or other parts off it for another bike.
About 5 years ago I bought a trailer full of all decent looking ladies bikes off a local collector who was getting up in age, he just wanted to make some room to display his 'good' bikes. I hauled away over 100 ridable ladies bikes and a dozen or so damaged men's middleweight bikes of various brands after he failed to move a single one on Craigslist individually. I gave him $250 cash and promptly stripped them for parts disposing of the ladies frames to save space.
07-05-20, 10:18 AM
#4
Member
Thread Starter
Yes both shiners are there. it has the twist in bulbs. I did find a video on youtube on how to take apart the "tank" to get at the batteries. I'll do that the next time I'm over there.
07-06-20, 03:08 AM
#5
Full Member
The hardest thing to find will likely be the headlight lens. If it were a higher dollar brand like Schwinn, there's repro parts out there but not so much for Huffy. You will probably have to make something yourself. I've seen people cut lenses from Plexiglass, clear packaging plastic (blister pack), and even drop ceiling lighting lenses.
Value wise, like mentioned above, as a woman's model it won't get the attention that a men's bike would.
I'd have to agree that somewhere around the $100 mark would be top dollar on that. Its likely worth more in parts then as a whole bike as someone trying to restore a men's model may be willing to buy it for the wheels or fenders.
Value wise, like mentioned above, as a woman's model it won't get the attention that a men's bike would.
I'd have to agree that somewhere around the $100 mark would be top dollar on that. Its likely worth more in parts then as a whole bike as someone trying to restore a men's model may be willing to buy it for the wheels or fenders.
07-07-20, 05:36 AM
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There is an ebay seller: shawnmathiesen , of Camas Washington USA that is well respected and has a great reputation (100% ebay rating) who reproduces many parts for tanks, including light bezels and lenses, and housings, and decals, as well as frame decals and fork decals and seat tube decals....
I do not know this person and I have never purchased items from this seller, but before the pandemic, sometimes I did do a monthly Saturday morning 18 mile ride with a large organized group of cruiser folks who ride mostly single speed , made in the USA antique cruisers from the 1930's to about 1966, although sometimes bikes as old as 1912 have completed the nine miles out and nine miles back ride which travels exclusively on a now paved former railway line. They welcome anyone on anything new or old that can respect the relatively slow pace of the pack and maintain an orderly ride. Sadly, most of them still refuse to wear a helmet on these rides. It is the idiotic mindset of those members that don't ever want to look like a "roadie" which is just stupid because some members are "roadies" that ride slow cruisers too. A couple of the regular "cruiser club" members bring along various bikes and then tell everybody the story of how they got the bike and how they restored it or built it to their own wishes. One particular club member spoke highly of this ebay seller's reproduction parts and it was plainly visible to me that though the bicycle was a mid sixties middleweight women's bike that probably had minimal value compared to others------------------the bicycle looked great and this was one of several among this club member's collection that though not particularly valuable was treated in the restoration process as if it was. That sort of sums up the enthusiasm of that select group of old baby boomers and WWII era babies, who just really dig the process of collecting and building ancient cruisers to ride. Just as with antique automobiles, the restoration quality is often far superior to the original in terms of the quality of the paint and other details, just because they can and want to, as they say its only money and you can't take it with you and though it is more than you could recover (sunk cost...) from reselling it-----------------------it is a hobby and it's all about having fun, and wife doesn't concern herself so much with what brand or what era or what the mkt resale value of the bikes that she will ride from our collection..................the most important thing to her is that it looks cute and everything looks perfect and new even if the bicycle was made in 1938 or if it was made in 2018................she likes the process of building/custom restoring an ancient bike from the perspective of the paint colors and the paint scheme and choice of seat, seat color, material, pedals, decals, tank, rear rack, front basket, handlebar grips, cable housing color, tires and sidewall colors/markings etc...........she doesn't care about the budget because it is fun.......... some folks love the original weathered patina of the antique cruisers and that is certainly great as about 70% of the members of the cruiser group see it that way, but others, including most of the female members and wives prefer that their own antique and vintage rides look really nice if not better than original.
There is one bicycle that one woman rides regularly in that monthly cruiser group ride that is very close to if not exactly like your blue Huffy Galaxie. It is a Coast to Coast hardware store chain rebadged Huffy, brand called COAST KING, CUTLASS model. I recall seeing it on the JAN 2020 ride, and I had the opportunity to test ride this bike for about 6 miles of that 18 mile ride back in Nov 2017. It was the original BLUE paint exactly like yours and the frame, handlebars, handlebar grips-white exactly the same type.................I might be mistaken but I remember measuring the frame and taking notice of the single speed gear ratio ( 44 teeth on front crankwheel and there was 20 teeth on the rear wheel sprocket, if I recall correctly). The one thing that I seem to recall is that there was approximately 22 inches between the frame tube where the seat post mounts and the headtube where the handlebar stem inserts. The frame size was 18.5 inches from center of the one piece crank and top of seat post clamp. It rode great and the coaster brakes functioned perfectly. I can't remember but it wasn't a BENDIX unit, but the maker with the funky symbols, N%K made in japan (Nankai). Sometime immediately after that Nov 2017 ride, possibly in early Dec 2017, I gave them 7881 SCHWINN handlebars with perfect chrome and a near perfect pair of German made SCHWINN bow pedals from an early Seventies Suburban which were improvements. The original equipment Huffy (Coast King..) pedals probably made by Wald or somebody else were typical sixties era pedals which were not very attractive and were not as good as the Schwinn Suburban ones. I think the 7881 SCHWINN handlebars were possibly a slight improvement in hand placement, but the huge improvement is chrome quality and my opinion is the 7881 bars are more attractive in shape and comfort although the originals did ride fine. She didn't re-use the original white grips..............she bought a nice new white pair of white , replica Schwinn type grips without schwinn name markings which I installed with golfclub griptape and lighter fluid.
Obviously, if you can, with any coasterbrake only bicycle, you will want to steer clear of taking any steep downhill roads......... yeah it might have been fun when you were ten years old but you can't take that risk today. Coasterbrake beach cruiser bikes are as fun as any bicycle out there but just as you might WALK IT up a steep hill, you'll want to avoid STEEP DOWNHILL streets or maybe walk the bike down.
Try to look at the reason for wearing a bicycle helmet, logically, instead of worrying about whether you will look too stupid while wearing it or it that it will mess up your hair. You might think that you'll never crash or fall off the bike, but if that does happen, you'll wish you had been wearing a helmet.
The other thing to remember is that you don't want to ride on ancient tires. Some idiots that collect antique bicycles go too far in keeping original equipment tires.. Yes, that is fine for a bicycle in a museum display but if you're gonna ride it, especially with a group of other cruisers on a slow ride, get decent tires that aren't 45 years old and that aren't badly cracked and rock hard. Yes, you might complete the ride okay but you're taking a big risk and you're putting others that are riding along at risk if you crash in front of them, or pieces of tire litter the road behind you as you begin to crash........ Yeah it does sound cool that your bicycle has the prewar era GOODYEAR tires from 1937 that are original to your bicycle but eighty year old tires, or even forty year old tires are a very bad idea if you're gonna ride on them......just remember that so much is riding on those tires...............you !!
I do not know this person and I have never purchased items from this seller, but before the pandemic, sometimes I did do a monthly Saturday morning 18 mile ride with a large organized group of cruiser folks who ride mostly single speed , made in the USA antique cruisers from the 1930's to about 1966, although sometimes bikes as old as 1912 have completed the nine miles out and nine miles back ride which travels exclusively on a now paved former railway line. They welcome anyone on anything new or old that can respect the relatively slow pace of the pack and maintain an orderly ride. Sadly, most of them still refuse to wear a helmet on these rides. It is the idiotic mindset of those members that don't ever want to look like a "roadie" which is just stupid because some members are "roadies" that ride slow cruisers too. A couple of the regular "cruiser club" members bring along various bikes and then tell everybody the story of how they got the bike and how they restored it or built it to their own wishes. One particular club member spoke highly of this ebay seller's reproduction parts and it was plainly visible to me that though the bicycle was a mid sixties middleweight women's bike that probably had minimal value compared to others------------------the bicycle looked great and this was one of several among this club member's collection that though not particularly valuable was treated in the restoration process as if it was. That sort of sums up the enthusiasm of that select group of old baby boomers and WWII era babies, who just really dig the process of collecting and building ancient cruisers to ride. Just as with antique automobiles, the restoration quality is often far superior to the original in terms of the quality of the paint and other details, just because they can and want to, as they say its only money and you can't take it with you and though it is more than you could recover (sunk cost...) from reselling it-----------------------it is a hobby and it's all about having fun, and wife doesn't concern herself so much with what brand or what era or what the mkt resale value of the bikes that she will ride from our collection..................the most important thing to her is that it looks cute and everything looks perfect and new even if the bicycle was made in 1938 or if it was made in 2018................she likes the process of building/custom restoring an ancient bike from the perspective of the paint colors and the paint scheme and choice of seat, seat color, material, pedals, decals, tank, rear rack, front basket, handlebar grips, cable housing color, tires and sidewall colors/markings etc...........she doesn't care about the budget because it is fun.......... some folks love the original weathered patina of the antique cruisers and that is certainly great as about 70% of the members of the cruiser group see it that way, but others, including most of the female members and wives prefer that their own antique and vintage rides look really nice if not better than original.
There is one bicycle that one woman rides regularly in that monthly cruiser group ride that is very close to if not exactly like your blue Huffy Galaxie. It is a Coast to Coast hardware store chain rebadged Huffy, brand called COAST KING, CUTLASS model. I recall seeing it on the JAN 2020 ride, and I had the opportunity to test ride this bike for about 6 miles of that 18 mile ride back in Nov 2017. It was the original BLUE paint exactly like yours and the frame, handlebars, handlebar grips-white exactly the same type.................I might be mistaken but I remember measuring the frame and taking notice of the single speed gear ratio ( 44 teeth on front crankwheel and there was 20 teeth on the rear wheel sprocket, if I recall correctly). The one thing that I seem to recall is that there was approximately 22 inches between the frame tube where the seat post mounts and the headtube where the handlebar stem inserts. The frame size was 18.5 inches from center of the one piece crank and top of seat post clamp. It rode great and the coaster brakes functioned perfectly. I can't remember but it wasn't a BENDIX unit, but the maker with the funky symbols, N%K made in japan (Nankai). Sometime immediately after that Nov 2017 ride, possibly in early Dec 2017, I gave them 7881 SCHWINN handlebars with perfect chrome and a near perfect pair of German made SCHWINN bow pedals from an early Seventies Suburban which were improvements. The original equipment Huffy (Coast King..) pedals probably made by Wald or somebody else were typical sixties era pedals which were not very attractive and were not as good as the Schwinn Suburban ones. I think the 7881 SCHWINN handlebars were possibly a slight improvement in hand placement, but the huge improvement is chrome quality and my opinion is the 7881 bars are more attractive in shape and comfort although the originals did ride fine. She didn't re-use the original white grips..............she bought a nice new white pair of white , replica Schwinn type grips without schwinn name markings which I installed with golfclub griptape and lighter fluid.
Obviously, if you can, with any coasterbrake only bicycle, you will want to steer clear of taking any steep downhill roads......... yeah it might have been fun when you were ten years old but you can't take that risk today. Coasterbrake beach cruiser bikes are as fun as any bicycle out there but just as you might WALK IT up a steep hill, you'll want to avoid STEEP DOWNHILL streets or maybe walk the bike down.
Try to look at the reason for wearing a bicycle helmet, logically, instead of worrying about whether you will look too stupid while wearing it or it that it will mess up your hair. You might think that you'll never crash or fall off the bike, but if that does happen, you'll wish you had been wearing a helmet.
The other thing to remember is that you don't want to ride on ancient tires. Some idiots that collect antique bicycles go too far in keeping original equipment tires.. Yes, that is fine for a bicycle in a museum display but if you're gonna ride it, especially with a group of other cruisers on a slow ride, get decent tires that aren't 45 years old and that aren't badly cracked and rock hard. Yes, you might complete the ride okay but you're taking a big risk and you're putting others that are riding along at risk if you crash in front of them, or pieces of tire litter the road behind you as you begin to crash........ Yeah it does sound cool that your bicycle has the prewar era GOODYEAR tires from 1937 that are original to your bicycle but eighty year old tires, or even forty year old tires are a very bad idea if you're gonna ride on them......just remember that so much is riding on those tires...............you !!
