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Behind Bars

Stories about riding, enjoying and tinkering with vintage American bicycles

1918 Shapleigh 'Wonder' (literally)

by Robert M. Justewicz

I get bored often, and there is nothing to do. So I asked the Cabe if they would be interested if I wrote for the “Behind Bars’ column ( I ride all of my bikes as frequently as I can). They told me sure, so I promised to make something in a week. I later discovered that they were looking for articles anyways, but that’s another story.

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"1918 Shapleigh Wonder"

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Being 14, lots of collectors either don’t take me seriously or hackle me. I do feel that I have a pretty good understanding of old bikes, but I don’t know everything. SO LAY OFF!

Awhile back, I started a deal with a guy in the North Carolina for a 1950’s (no one was really sure of the exact year) Schwinn Panther missing its horn tank. After some time of paying him for it in installments, I changed my mind, and bought a different bike of his instead. He wasn’t sure what it was, I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was really old and there was something about it that was just pretty cool. So, I bought it, and 3 weeks later, I got it. I opened the box to find a bunch of parts and various assorted stuff, and proceeded to rebuild it. However, it was built, well, differently than any other bike I had ever worked on. I wasn’t new to drop-down kickstands, but I had never seen the frame used as a seat post clamp, holes in the fork for the front wheel to be attached through, or a bunch of screws holding the rear wheel on. So I took the whole bike to my friend Clay’s bike shop to have him look at it. He looked at it, and an hour later, he had built it. He then proceeded to test ride. I am 6’ 3”, and Clay is about 5’ 11”, and somehow he managed to jump on the 28” beast and ride it around outside in blind dark, and I barely fit on it. He loved it, with all the cushioning, and since then, when I take it in to him for work (not much, only getting the front wheel trued so far), he says he’ll do it, only if he can ride it afterwards.

1918 Shapleigh Wonder

After that, I decided to research it. I used the only info I had, the headbadge, which said it was a Shapleigh Hardware ‘Wonder’. After trying the Schwinn Forum, I was informed to look on ‘The Wheelmen’ website for info. It said there was a Shapleigh Hardware Wonder made in 1911. But it said Shapleigh was the seller, not the maker. So I e-mailed them directly, and after awhile, we decided it was probably a Mead. However, they directed me to someone else to check. He said that it was made during a bunch of years, that Mead did not make their own bikes, etc. He deciphered the serial #, and found out it was a 1918. He also explained that the Davis Sewing Machine Co. Made my bike, and sold it to Shapleigh Hardware, who then sold it (I discovered on my own that they were a mail-order catalog). I was content, but then I was horrified. Davis Sewing Machine? Dayton Huffman, Huffman Co, HUFFY!!!!!!!!!!! (insert loud screaming of various nasty words that I will not repeat for the sake of others). I HAVE DIME STORE JUNK!

Thankfully, I have discovered that Huffman made good bikes up to about the 50’s. And that my Wonder is one of the best-built bikes ever made, being virtually indestructible. I have ridden through stuff on it that ‘Huffy’ bikes wouldn’t last in.

Wednesday, I decided to take a ride so I have something to write about. So I put a water bottle holder on the Wonder and went for a ride. Fist thing anyone will notice about the bike is that it is BIG. Second thing you notice is that it is comfortable. Also, it takes turns like a ’59 Caddy, due to it’s length. What it looses in maneuverability, it makes up for in comfort, speed, and durability. To start my ride, I have to ride up a long incline to get out of my neighborhood. I have almost no bikes that can make it up this hill. I live right next to a bunch of newer, expensive houses owned by rich people who consider bikes like mine to belong to poor people who are there to rob them. Most of the time, I get little kids who come outside to see the ‘big, stupid kid who rides girly bikes’ (To a child of a rich family, a bike with fenders is ‘girly’). However, the Wonder was going non-stop up the hill at a decent speed, and a woman came outside and ran after me to ask about it, which is different. After I cross Beach Rd., I go though an older neighborhood, 80’s, where no one bothers me. And then I have to go through a Dead-End barricade, into a dirt road neighborhood. The wonder takes the hill by the barricade with no bumps whatsoever. As continue, I notice the fact that I can’t feel the road all that much, but I can hear the rattling of the kickstand and the spring movement. I continue on, past an elementary school, where kids are going home. As I pass a kid on a 24” Huffy, talking is exchanged:

Bob: Excuse me.

Kid: Your bike sucks!

Bob: Then how come I’m going faster then you?

Kid: (silence)

Bob: I thought so.

As I continue on, there is a steep hill. You have not seen steep until you se this hill. To make matters worse, there is a 4-Way stop at the bottom. And I have 3 school buses breathing down my neck, the first one 10 feet away, making braking no longer an option. So, seeing no cars coming, I start pedaling hard and fast. So the bus speeds up. Swell. I blew through the stop sign, and so did the bus. Now in an empty neighborhood, I signal for the bus to pass. So it does. And I get knocked into an irrigation ditch. Ouch. However, I got up, was fine, and proceeded to chase down the bus to yell various words at. Which I did. So I rode on, and came by a Middle School, where I decided to rest and take a picture. As I took the picture, I put the bike on the steps of the building. It was after school let out, and I didn’t know anyone there, because I wasn’t even in the city I lived in anymore. As I took pictures, there were some kids in the background who obviously wanted to anger me by standing in the window in the background and stick out their tongues, jump around, etc. But I figured that you would have preferred a picture like that, so it didn’t bother me. However, they had stopped when I was about to take the picture anyways. As I left, they ran outside to yell and scream about how my bike was old and stupid, so I proceeded to inform them that they were young and stupid as I rode off.

I continued on, got chased by about 10 more buses, and went to visit a new neighborhood under construction. Finding nothing more then trees in bags and a sign out front, I took a picture, and left. And I rode across some railroad tracks, too. So, I’m going back home, and another bus is chasing me. What is this, Duel? I end up in a ditch again, but not falling over.

So, overall, the Wonder is a wonder. It is virtually indestructible, smooth riding, comfortable, fast, etc. Also, and I won’t go into too much detail, I have outrun plenty of mountain bikers, BMXers, etc, and a few road bikes with this 28” coaster brake, whether you believe it or not.

Please, if you are or know someone who has old bikes and doesn’t ride then, to take their bikes out of their vacuum-sealed cases and use them for what they were made for. Unless you have an Evinrude Streamflow, in which case it isn’t worth taking the chance of the frame breaking.


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