Western Flyer

Luxury model of Western Flyer bicycle, made in 50s. See also: Western Flyer with Free Spirit engine

The Western Flyer bicycle was all about style and comfort. It emulated the look and feel of motorcycle design at that time. The frame was aerodynamically inspired (if not truly aerodynamic in operation), the colors were bright and included plenty of chrome, and the whole bicycle was a joy to look at. The bike began production during the beginnings of the Great Depression. They were produced right through this, through the Second World War, and on through a golden age in the 1950s.

The Western Flyer bicycle was first produced by the Western Auto Supply Company. The company was founded in 1909, but they manufactured no bicycles until in the 1930's. The high quality of parts and reasonable prices of the Western Flyer bicycle made it a great success, so soon many models were available. These were solid bikes, and they utilized the latest innovations to make sure that their frame design was seamless, sleek and totally aero looking. They were rather heavy by today's standards; most weighed in well in excess of 60 pounds. However, they were solid, and you could trust them to last a long time. This is one of the reasons why vintage bicycles of this variety are so sought after; often they are in very good shape even now. It was also one of the first bicycles to use shock absorption technology, so the ride was smooth. Many major manufacturers, including Huffy and Schwinn, copied the design of the Western Flyer bicycle in some way. This could be expected, as Western subcontracted out a lot of the manufacturing work to other American companies to produce the Flyer.

Another reason why vintage bicycles from Western Flyer are sought after is that they did a great job of including accurate serial details on every model. You can almost always track down the exact year, model and color scheme of a bike if you can find the serial on the frame.