John2021

What is the value of my Vintage Western Flyer Men's Cruiser Bike?

A vintage Western Flyer men’s cruiser style bicycle. Made in the 1970s, it is painted red and features a 26’ frame and whitewall tires. It also includes the original faux-leather seat and handle bar grips. The handle bars also sport an aftermarket horn.

Western Flyer was an American private label brand of bicycles, tricycles, scooters, play wagons, and pedal cars and tractors, and roller skates, sold by the former Western Auto stores. The trademark brand was first used in June 1931, and the brand of bicycles was sold until 1998. Western Auto had other companies manufacture the bicycles.

cb400bill

Pic Assist - https://www.bikeforums.net/g/picture/23302411

Vintage Schwinn

Its a nice clean ruby red/garnet color but as I understand it, the hey-day period for bikes like that ended around circa 1965, so there is likely to be little or NO collectible value for your very nice but plain Middleweight Western Flyer. It will have some value as a clean coaster brake rider alternative to the similar current day Wallyworld & TarJay Chinese Huffy Cranbrooks, but not much else. The Cabers on the C.A.B.E (classic antique bicycle exchange) can give you specific details on which manufacturer produced your Western Flyer.......I can't tell for sure, but many times the unique style design of the front crank's chainwheel is the giveway and it isn't readily visible in that other side view that is provided in the photo......they were all produced by one of the second-class manufacturers:Murray,Columbia,Huffy,AMF,..... The only really clean nice plain Middleweight bicycles that have even moderate value from the mid sixties through the seventies are Schwinns. This certainly does not mean that it isn't a good enough bicycle, as it is probably really decent for what it is, but zero collectibility, and thus only fair value for a common bicycle with no real premium for being vintage or made in the usa.
https://thecabe.com/forum/
Sadly, that awful looking graphic decal of Western Flyer that WESTERN AUTO product marketing design people chose to use on that era/year model's seat tube near the bottom bracket really lets down an otherwise great looking color and fender pinstripe scheme. One has to wonder just how ugly the chainguard decal design from the same W.A. product marketers is. Otherwise a really cool looking color and it is really clean and nice & you know the Western Auto only grip design, on the handlebar grips was a really really cool molded design made only for Western Auto. Those grips were popular too. Western Auto sold them as well in individual replacement aftermarket grip pairs in a bunch of really cool colors from at least 1970 through at least 1975 as I remember. (they were marketed as X-52 grips, or X-something and were really popular replacement grips for bikes back in the day! )
It is so weird that the old bike doofuses will largely bypass and overlook something like this really nice ordinary one from the Seventies and go beezerk over essentially the same bike from 1958 or 1962 that looks beat to hell, with a bolted on tank with built in horn and headlight and two-tone paint. I don't know why and have no explanation for this. I'm not sure that the c.a.b.e.r.s. know for sure, as they just go with the flow and follow the market, just like stock market people tend to do. Cabers can't really understand why, and cabers generally don't try to go against the trend. Thus vintage near perfect women's bikes are almost always have no value and are simply cannibalized for parts for the men's bikes, and post 1965 coaster brake, beach cruisers, other than chicago Schwinns have no value!

Deal4Fuji

I'd thought about posting this DUMP FIND Western Flyer "Galaxy Flyer" on this thread but didn't want to hijack....and since Vintage Schwinn has now been good enough to offer some info I'll add my pics of a bike I literally pulled out of the metal recycle bin at my trash drop-off site. The reason it was thrown away is probably because the cranks turn without the Bendix hub turning, but in doing some research on RJ's site this is not uncommon for old hardened grease to cause this. I did the clean up 1st before tackling disassembling the Bendix red band RB-2 rub but unfortunately I had a run-in with a table saw blade and it will be while before 2 badly cut fingers are ready to start the hub overhaul.

I have fond memories of Western Auto as there was a store two blocks from my home growing up. Some questions - were the grips you describe as popular made by Hunt Wilde like these original? Any idea of the age & possible value of this one? Probably no different especially since it's a girls frame but I'm looking forward to getting it up and running as a neighborhood bike. Pics:

wrk101

Not a mixte, but nice condition! If you are in a large urban area or a college town, could have some value, maybe $100. Everywhere else, less. Where I live, $25, $50 max if you get really lucky. Exact year has. zero bearing on value.

I'd do a google search of Huffy and Murray bike serial numbers.

Deal4Fuji

Thanks ! I'm not looking to sell it, just curious - how is a mixte different than a girls bike? I thought they were basically the same thing.

ClydeClydeson

Deal4Fuji A mixte has three sets of stays in the rear triangle - top seatstays and lower chainstays like a standard 'step through' girls' bike, but also a set of stays that extend from where the top tube ends at the seat tube to the rear dropouts. I believe this is to stiffen up the4 rear triangles as regular step through frames tend to be pretty flexy.

Vintage Schwinn

Yes, Hunt-Wilde was the manufacturer of the handlebar grips.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255243626407
That is just a random example of one of those then popular Western Auto "western flyer" exclusive handlebar grips.......with golf ball dimples & western flyer molded in, and popular jello type colors. I seem to recall that these were more squishy than the run of the mill grips of the '50's, 60's & early '70's, almost as if they were partly silicone or something. I don't think they were expensive and Western Auto at that time had a large selection of bicycle accessories, replacement seats, pedals, and grips & the vinyl style of bar tape that was most like what came on the Varsity/Continental back then.
Just a quick look on the bay at Western Flyer and it does appear that there are also a bunch of other fairly ordinary Hunt-Wilde grips that probably date from the '50's & early '60's that have a w/a raised logo on them. Most store labeled bikes didn't have their own logo, or brand molded into the Hunt-Wilde grips, but Western Auto did seem to the most often in the sixties.

Western Flyers were good basic bicycles. The balloon tire models of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's are very valuable. Late Fifties & Sixties era bikes with two tone paint and the most useless doo-dads like tanks and the functionally worthless - do nothing, springer forks are super popular with the really old farts with 40+ inch waist lines and little desire to change that. Bikes are fun, no matter how old you are and no matter how old the bicycle is. For many in that particular group, chasing down the ancient proper year part(s) and removing 65 years of rust, and finding a useable 65 year old tire is more important than actually riding it. There are plenty of folks that do often ride such ancient bikes but they are smart enough to know that modern-fresh tires are supremely important. Still some treasure riding on some 70 year old US Royal tire that has more open cracks than a Philadelphia sidewalk, because the tires are the same age as the bike. It is cool that the old bikes are getting back to rideable condition thanks to the efforts of many but remember this when you will take it out for a ride, That So Much Is Riding On Your Tires !........that person is YOU....don't trust your physical health to just Luck, because you don't want to be out on a ride and the ancient tire lets go and the moment that happens, you utter Aw rhymes with Luck before your body hits the pavement. Ride ancient, ride often, but please ride smart, with fresh enough modern tires and/or not severely rusted may pop chain, or stone hard brake pads if the bike has hand brakes. Wear a helmet too because it might help if you do fall. Better to have that bit of protection than to later wish that you had been wearing a helmet.

Deal4Fuji

Thanks ! I'm not opposed and probably will look to put new tires on this bike when I have the hub fixed, although these 26 x 1.75 Trelleborg tires ( a brand I've never heard of ) look to be in pretty good shape, so if they will clean up a little better I might be able to use them.



Another brand question, were Troxel saddles like this one ( pic made before the clean-up ) highly regarded by collectors ?

Vintage Schwinn

A half century ago, a classmate of my brother, who also lived in the really ancient Techwood dorms, the oldest & worst at GA TECH, was a Troxel. While visiting Atlanta with my girlfriend and two of her friends to see The Who, we were eating out and partying before the show with my brother, Troxel, and another Ga Tech student friend of theirs. One of the girls says " Troxel, like the bicycle seat, and where the hell is Moscow Tennessee anyway"? Troxel said it is near Memphis. He knew that. Nobody asked any further questions about the seat maker, so I'm not certain if he was related to the company in some way or not.

https://www.troxel.com/about


You might be surprised that SOUTH CAROLINA is leading state in the US for TIRE MANUFACTURING, as it surpassed Oklahoma a few years ago.
--MICHELIN
--BRIDGESTONE
--CONTINENTAL
--GITI
--TRELLEBORG

Michelin and Bridgestone have multiple manufacturing plants in SC. South Carolina has those five TIRE MANUFACTURERS.


Trelleborg appears to make those gigantic tires for earth moving equipment and large construction equipment.

Once upon a time, long ago, they made tires for bicycles.
Here is on Ebay a TRELLEBORG BICYCLE TIRES Trade Advertisement from a magazine dated August 1966
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233156481459

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...org-tires.html

https://www.rubbernews.com/article/2...acility-in-s-c

https://www.tyrepress.com/2020/03/tr...ence-to-tyres/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trelleborg_(company)

https://www.trelleborg.com/en/wheels/about-us




Those 45 year old TRELLEBORG bicycle tires on your Western Flyer show no signs of cracks anywhere, they look really good, almost as if they were only four or five years old. You definitely won't have to resort to the typical SHOE GOO & FLEX SEAL RUBBER solutions that a few C.A.B.E. people use to keep their severely cracked and fossilized original ancient, same year as the bicycle is, tires rolling.

Vintage Schwinn

Here is Press Photo from 1972 of a classic mixte frame bicycle being ridden by a cute young lady.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/294461074699

Deal4Fuji

Thanks Vintage Schwinn , you are a wealth of info !!

67doka

I have a vintage Western Flyer cruiser with the ID of F25109. How can I find a source on this site to find out the year of this bike??