Hello from Missouri

Submitted by blitherbike on Sun, 09/08/2013 - 22:09

 

Hello everybody- my name is Daniel (user name blitherbike) and I'm from Springfield, Missouri. I'm embarrassed to admit that as much as I love bikes, I had never heard of CCM bikes until yesterday morning when I saw one at an estate sale. Actually, I'm only pretty sure it's a CCM because all the branding had been removed except for the "ELITE" stickers. I didn't know what it was, but based on the components, the price ($25- half off their original price), and it's coolness, I bought it. I've recently become sort of obsessed with fixing up bikes- especially those from the '50's through the early '80's. My brain is now completely monopolized by the task of figuring out definitively the year and make of this bike! I have read an enormous amount of stuff on forums and blogs about CCM and Sunshine bikes, and I have become a fan.

I wonder if any of you could help me out? I have a serial number which is missing the letter, and my bike does not closely resemble any of the CCM Elites I have seen on the interweb. I will attempt to upload a photo or two. Maybe three if I can. The serial # is 161928 and is stamped into the non-drive side rear fork/dropout. Any help or opinions at all would be welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any response, and after reading several posts on this site, I feel I am in good company.

blitherbike

10 Comments

Submitted by Old-Bikes on Mon, 09/09/2013 - 07:58.

as far as I can tell, this is not a CCM. 

Submitted by blitherbike on Mon, 09/09/2013 - 13:56.

That's really not what I was wanting to hear. indecision

At this point I was really hoping it would be. All of my searches lead me either to Elite Cycles, which this is definitely too old to be, or CCM.  I had wondered if it had just been altered enough to make it hard to identify as a CCM Elite, but the serial number's lack of a letter seems to be a major hitch.

 

Thanks for your input though.

Submitted by Wayne.Gillies on Mon, 09/09/2013 - 22:16.

Here a couple

dscn4508.jpg dscn4509.jpg

Submitted by blitherbike on Tue, 09/10/2013 - 22:52.

Wow. There aren't as many similarities as I thought. Thanks for posting the pics. I was finally able to get a good, close-up look at them so I could compare details.

I think the next strongest possibility is that my bike is a very, very early Centurion. But I can't be sure yet. There's still issues with the serial number, and I can't find any Centurion Elites from the early '70's. 

 

Thanks again!

Submitted by blitherbike on Fri, 09/13/2013 - 15:57.

I finally found out what it is- sort of. It's a Belgian built Montgomery Ward. I think it was built by Flandria or Libertas. I'm still trying to work that out.

 

Maybe I'll find me a CCM someday.

Submitted by Old-Bikes on Fri, 09/13/2013 - 22:34.

don't despair... there are tons of them here in Canada.

I'm sure you could find one on Ebay or someone from this forum could ship one for you?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Cycling-/7294/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ccm&rt=nc

Submitted by bikedenis on Sat, 09/14/2013 - 08:06.

ouff....the price for this bike is too high !..Not sure but the value of this bike is les than $200,, I have one like this and I paid $15 and the bike is super clean !..

Submitted by blitherbike on Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:54.

heh, heh, heh,  yeah, the $1581 Corsa is a little out of my price range right now.

 

She is pretty though.

Submitted by blitherbike on Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:58.

Oh, by the way, I'm about 95% sure the Montgomery Ward Elite was built by Superia. So, I wasn't too far off thinking it might be a Flandria.

Submitted by T-Mar on Fri, 10/11/2013 - 08:31.

A couple of these have turned up before, on another forum. Those had made in Belgium markings. While it is probably Belgian, I don't think it is Superia, Flandria or Libertas.  The downtube sticker is very reminescent of another Belgian margue, Ficelle. As for the year, that should be relatively easy to narrow down. The Sugino Maxy crankarns should have component date codes on the back, format YY-MM or YY.MM..