Roadmistress

REcently at a garage sale I ran across a Huffy sportsman. From the frame shape I put it at mid-80s
(I used to do the work on a schwinn LeTour from that era) and was rather impressed at the condition it was in. I gave the woman twice her asking price ($10) because I liked it so much.

Not one nick in the paint, all parts present and in working order (possible exception of the generator, which I haven't tested yet), chain is nice and limber, not a speckling of rust anywhere. There is a sticker of some sort on the seat post, but it's turned mostly to dust and is crumbling of, so I have no idea what it used to say. I havne't gotten to take a really close look at the headplate yet. The make and model I got off the chain guard, where they are lined in white against the green...all decals have long since gone the way of the dodo, although it looks like the sticker on the seatpost and one centered on the top bar that had or has an eagle of some sort are the only ones.


I googled this thing, then Asked jeeves, yahoo'ed, dogpiled, lycos'ed and came up with remarkably little, and no pictures to give myself a frame of refrence.

It seems they were originally made in cooperation with Springer Sewing, most of the mention of them I find is in hte early fifties, and I canot find a single mention of them dating later than 1970. (Wow I bought it to be a little road bike...do I have a show antique here?)


Ok...the stats...

It has coaster rear brake, a front sidepull caliper brake, some sort of internal gearing system INSIDE the rear hub (one handlebar twists to control this), the rear wheel generator I mentioned, along with a bullet-shaped headlight on the front handlebars. The frame tubes are perfectly straight and rather thin, making the whole frame suprisingly lightweight. It's a sturdy little thing, though, feels quite solid.
It also has a pair of simply lovely fully chromed fenders, with what I can only describe as 'crest' lines in them.

Think of it this way, when you look at a normal fender end-on, the profile is a very shallow U shape.

On these, the borrom of the U is cut out and pulled up slightly, with two hard right angles on each side of the raised section. On the front fender, there is even a 'figurehead' like peak, remniscent of the tailfins from cars of the 50s.

I've never seen fenders this exquisuitely formed. They are simply lovely...I would have bought the bike for the fenders alone.



I also mentioned the chaingard, but I can't think of anything especial about this that might indicate age.


Do I have a 1980's bike posing as a 1950's, or did I stumble on something with real age? I've never seen one of these kinds of shifters, nd I very much want to tke hte rear hub apart and find out how it works...I'm scared I won't get it together again though.


I wish I could give you guys a picture but the only camera that talks to my computer is a very very low quality webcam. If you ask I could try to get a picture with it but i'ts probably worse than no image at all.


EDIT

Oh yes I forgot to mention, the seat (which seems to be original) is black leather on top, white on the sides. Another new one for me, I've never seen a multicolored seat.

chopper tom

whats the serial # ?
got pics. ? i should be able to identify it
i have several huffy bikes. i always had
huffy growing up . some of my family
worked @ huffy , ohio.

Noah Scape

Huffy was not always what it is today... in the late 60s, early 70s they imported bikes from Carlton of the UK. Check it out!

frameteam2003

In the 30s huffy built cro-moy tubed bikes.They used to be finer than schwinn.Lot better welds.

el twe

What a great bike, Noah! Those had some real class!

Is it a three-speed hub, Mistress? I think even a low quality picture (or several) would be good. We love the pics here!