Classic & Vintage - Gas station promo bike

Picked up a fascinating bike today, fascinating because it's from a simpler time in the American Upper Midwest when many small-town kids got their bikes at places like the Western Auto [parts] Store or the Holiday Gas Station. Holiday Gas Stations range across the Northern Teir States from Da U/P and Wisconsin to Spokane, Washington and as far south as perhaps the old US-20 corridor.

The bike's not light, fast, or high-tech nor will it wow anyone because of having elitist European componentry. But I think it's neat just by being such an oddity. Every day there're discussions on here about JC Higgins and other "store" bikes but I can't say in the year or two I've followed C&V that I've encountered mention of a gas station brand bike.

This guy's a HOLIDAY GAS STATION bike with their logos and lettering style. The 3-spd rear hub is a S/A AW dated 67 8 and is shifted by a twist-grip shifter (I doubt this shifter was one of S/A's prouder moments). The rims are steel 26X1-3/8 and are stamped RIGIDA. It has a couple of tires made in Sweden and they're likely much younger than the bike. The one decal that might have mentioned the manufacturer's name is pretty well scratched away. With a one-piece crank my first guess'd be it's American.

Tried rubbing a small spot with a polishing compound and found the red has a latent gorgeous gloss. Standard brake cables will work on it (they're not double-enders) so it should be pretty inexpensive to make useable and presentable. A keeper for sure.
alf

Man thats cool. Just a guess but , columbia built? I had a pepsi bike made by columbia and have seen a few other types of branded bike built by columbia.

Nice find! It certainly looks good to me! The twist grip was probably not one of SA's better ideas. I have one bike with it and it is neat, but does have it's issues. You could probably swap the twist grip out for a normal SA shifter if you really wanted to.

Aaron:)

That is neat. You mentioned Western Auto, that made me think of my first ten speed, a bright orange OTASCO (Oklahoma Tire and Supply Co.) branded bike from the very early '70's. And as far as gas station promo's, I've still got a steel (no plastic on this baby!) Texaco tanker truck model that my dad got me when I was five or six. No telling how much Texaco gas he had to buy to get that for me! It's cool, big enough for a small child to ride on top of it and the front wheels turn so it will steer-

Bumping this up with some more info that'll hopefully give someone a clue to it's manufacture.

Disassembled the entire bike today as prep for cleaning it up and making it into a rider. I found that the one-piece crank is built kind of strange (at least to me) in that the right side bearing cone is not threaded onto the crank, it is merely slip-fit onto the crank along with the chainring which is held in place by a machined shoulder on the right side of the crank. The only threads on the crank are for the left side bearing cone and lock nut.

An additional oddity (again to me) is the mounting method of the rear fender to the seatstay bridge. The bridge has an ell-shaped bracket welded to it which slips into a slot in the top of the fender. The welded-on bracket is drilled for a self-tapping screw used to attach the fender to the bracket. The oddity to me is that I've always seen the ell-shaped bracket riveted or welded to the fender and held by the rear brake bolt to the bridge.

Because of the one piece crank and the use of SAE hardware I do believe the bike is of American manufacture, hopefully someone here will recognize its heritage for me.
alf

Huffy built, they used the star chainwheel.

Nice Opaque Blue Schwinn in the background, too.

I'm amazed at how many mint condition 3 speeds are popping up.
And there are plenty of ridable but dirty old shimano 3 speeds too.

Huffy built, they used the star chainwheel.

Nice Opaque Blue Schwinn in the background, too.

Huffy chainring, thanks for that ID, RK.

The Schwinn's a 1974 Speedster Sturmey Archer 3-spd with a 22" frame. For now it got hung up in the garage trusses till I decide what to do with it; I'm not a fan of the Schwinn Opaque Blue so it really doesn't scream out, "Build me!".

And mastershake, yep I'm noticing the same about 3-spds seemingly popping up everywhere, kinda neat I think.
alf

Cool Bike, congrats on getting it!

I am fond of 3 speeds and have several, none are mint however! I enjoy riding them! My observation is that in East Tennessee there are more womens 3 speeds than mens. I would love to find a mint men's Raleigh Sport in my size!

Enjoy that bike and thanks for sharing the pics!

Al

We had Holiday Village (then Holiday Plus) grocery stores in Minnesota...Holiday Stores started selling stuff in the 1960's...Holiday bought Burger Brothers in the mid-1990's(?)...all Holiday Stores (sporting goods) were converted to Gander Mountain stores in the late 1990's/early 2000's...

that's all i know about this

I have the S-A twist-grip shifter installed on my '88 Schwinn Le Tour 3-speed conversion and I've had NO problems with it. Shifts like brand new. Well, just don't grip too tightly when, say, riding uphill or something because it might want to shift itself.

That is neat. You mentioned Western Auto, that made me think of my first ten speed, a bright orange OTASCO (Oklahoma Tire and Supply Co.) branded bike from the very early '70's. And as far as gas station promo's, I've still got a steel (no plastic on this baby!) Texaco tanker truck model that my dad got me when I was five or six. No telling how much Texaco gas he had to buy to get that for me! It's cool, big enough for a small child to ride on top of it and the front wheels turn so it will steer-


OTASCO . . . now there's a memory. I grew up in Oklahoma and remember their stores well.

OTASCO . . . now there's a memory. I grew up in Oklahoma and remember their stores well.


Yep, we had'em in Arkansas as well. One was within walking distance of our house, and there were many times I'd head up there thinking, "maybe Otasco's got it!"- :)