I bought this bike off of craigslist a few weeks ago. Its a great little bike and works well. I wanted to look up maintenance on the bike, but no matter what I google or search for, I can't even find an image of the same bike. If anyone has seen this bike or knows anything about it, please let me know!! I am looking for a year or era, who made the bike, anything special about it, and the approximate worth of the bike.

Obviously the seat is not original, but the guy who sold me the bike said everything else is. He also mentioned the little rack on the back of the bike, was worth more than the entire bike. Is that true? False?
Thank you,
Amy

Hello Amy welcome to the forums. Great looking old city cruiser! I am not expert but something tells me this is from the late '50s at the begining of the "Jet Age"



The Boeing 707 debuted in '58 I believe along side of the infamous KC-135 it was derived from.



I think he may right that is a cool rack! I like the jet inspired design of the cross braces. I think often times these old racks were simply removed or damaged and broken by being used as back seats.



I would not worry too much about finding maintenance tips on this exact model but basic bike maintance will suffice. It does look like an oil port on the hub does this have a 'kick' multispeed hub? A reel to reel? You will fit in great with this trogladite crowd!

well guys? Oil port or fancy Zerk?

I would guess 60's as a date, perhaps a Department Store name brand, which DOES make it hard to track, especially if they only had that model for a year or two. As for maintenance, it's a Bicycle. Pretty standard front axle, standard Ashtabular (one-piece) crankset, seat post, headset, chain....all the usual things that need to be looked at, cleaned, lubed and adjusted. The rear hub, a Sachs Komet looks interesting, might find markings on that, could give you a year. Welcome to the Forum.

I believe it's a Hiawatha 707. I saw one in a co-op pile once, me thinks...

Peaked fenders and swirly chainring. I'm gonna put my dollar on Roadmaster, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were a Murray or a Huffy. The front fender looks to be on backwards but that's sort of a matter of taste. The fenders are worth a little bit, too.
I think that's an oil port but open it up and look. If it's a port squirt a syringe full of automatic transmission fluid (or motor oil or anything other than 3-n-1 or WD 40) down there.
remember that 26x1.75" tires won't fit 26x1 3/4" rims and have fun.

The Boeing 707 jet printed on the chainguard maybe dates it to around the time when those planes just came into world-wide service (early 60's?)....unless it came from some sort of "eastern bloc" or "red curtain country" that usually were some years off from being current to the newest tech things and had the habit of putting such seemingly unrelated graphics on things to speed up the buyer's pulse.........but then the proletariat would have rather seen a Tupolev printed on the bike, right??.........If not American, maybe from "Formosa"??..... I guess I really don't know, these are not in my territory when it comes to bikes...

Chombi

Here's a couple of double top tube Roadmaster pictures, though there seem to be some really similar looking Murrays. Try googling Roadmaster serial number or Cleveland Welding serial number and see if your number fits that pattern.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=200630012756
https://www.flickr.com/photos/altmani...223144/detail/

Just for fun I searched Hiawatha 707 and turned up this





Here is a 707 going gravel grinding!

I like to watch crosswind landings on You-Tube.
Looks like BG hit the nail on the head. Hiawatha was the Gambles department store brand, right? They were made by one of the big makers usually, right?

Oh yeah, here's what Dave's Vintage Bicycles has to say;
Hiawatha brand bicycles were sold by Gambles Hardware stores from the 1930′s through the 1970′s. Most Hiawatha bicycles were manufactured by the Cleveland Welding Company or the Shelby Cycle Company, however some were made by Murray Ohio and Huffman Manufacturing. The most sought after Hiawatha bicycle is the late 1930′s Arrow model, built by Shelby. It featured extreme styling and was similar to the Shelby Airflow model.

I've also owned some Gambles Hiawathas that were made by Phillips,
and lightweight English made bikes. This does not appear to be one,
This one seems Roadmasterly to me.

Hiawatha bicycle 1960's

I just bought a vintage 1960s bike and I found this and yours to be the closest to mine.
Here is mine.

Sorry, last picture was upside down :$

I was distracted by that great circa 1970 TEAC tape deck -- I used to repair and sell those as a UCLA undergrad.

Really old thread but for anyone who reads it, yes it is a Hiawatha. My stepmother just gave me hers, she's had it since she was a kid and it has been rusting in a shed for years. She was born in '48, not sure how old she was when she got it new, she says about 10. Here are a couple of pics with original tank, seat and light. I had just taken the grips off before taking the picture, but they are white.

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Hello John,

I found myself wondering about this as well. Do you think it could be a 4010S?


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I think higher-end than that. The spindles look far enough outboard to accommodate 10.5" reels.

I thought the deck looked like a 3300 series.

Regarding the OP's bicycle, it should be a 1960 or 1961 model based on the F&S date code. Yes, I know it's a 3-2/3 year old thread and they only ever made the one post.

F&S on the bike's rear hub is for Fichtel & Sachs.