G519 Columbia Woman's Bicycle - found and recovered!

[Quest Master]

I am pleased to say I just found and recovered this gorgeous WWII U.S. Army Westfield Columbia G519 Woman's bicycle, serial number MG154711. Unrestored, but all of the wartime bits to include the grips and wooden pedals are present.

[blackcat77]

Hello Van;
Nice find, above your number you must have a "K8 " dated August 43.
What is the date on the rear hub? letter-number
It is between 2 G519 COLUMBIA bicycle: 154703 - 154713
I myself have a G519 COLUMBIA women bicycle: 155000, found in France in March 2017.
Regards;
Serge

[Quest Master]

Indeed there is a K 8 above the serial number, once I cleaned it, and the Eclipse hub has a date code of M3.

[blackcat77]

Re;
This is its original rear wheel of your bicycle, L3 ( July - September 43).
I have the same code M3 on mine.
Regards;
Serge

[Quest Master]

So, do you have a archive document of serial numbers to production dates?
Because if mine has a date code of M3 (1944, 3rd quarter July-September) on the Eclipse hub, and yours does too, I would think the bicycle would have been made at that point and not August 1943.

[Adrian J Hardgrave]

Hi Van,

That is a nice find, and increasingly rare to come across these days.

Blackcat is a good friend of mine, and pointed me to your post. Since some of the information he's using is from research I have carried out and published on CABE, I don't think he'll mind me answering.

MG154711 K8, with an M3 Morrow hub. The K8 indicates this bicycle frame was made in August 1943. Due to the urgence of wartime manufacture, it was probably built up into a bike almost immediately. M3 is a Quarter three Morrow code for July to Sept 1943, and that would be right for bikes being turned out at this point.

Mr. Columbia has said in the past that all production records for Westfield were thrown away, so there probably aren't any original production documents to be had. However, when I got my own G519 a few years ago, I wasn't happy with the lack of information available in comparison to, say, G503 (I have a Slat Grill, and some of my older posts are on this site under Adrian Hardgrave), so I sat down to find what I could.

As a result, I have listings of around 70 WW2 Military Columbias, (and over 500 pre WW2 Westfield produced bikes) and a similar number of Huffmans, which helps solve some of the production questions (and raises others).

For the Ladies M306 we know in 1943 that 2500 bicycles were ordered under Ordnance contract 3459.

We don't know, and can't tell what the actual serial number range for those bikes was, since their production is not in a single number block, but is mixed in with G519's (this bike is close to my own G519 which appears in a block of ladies bikes), and Columbia Compax F92L's, and possibly other civilian bikes, not yet identified.

The earliest known surviving ladies bike at the moment is MG139872 K6, so a June 1943 frame, and I don't have the Morrow hub code. The latest survivor is MG155000 K8, with an M3 hub. So production of these 2500 bikes was spread over at least 15000 serial numbers from June to August 1943.

I currently have 13 (including this one) of these M306 bicycles listed as survivors.

I hope that helps, please don't hestiate to ask if I can explain something better.

Best Regards,

Adrian

[Quest Master]

Adrian,
That is spectacular detail. Thank you.
First, for clarity, the hub code M3, is that for 1943 - because earlier it is listed as L3, in the thread.

[blackcat77]

Hello;
Van, excuse me for the error , yours is M3, i confused with the L3 hub of my 41 G519 MF17056 which i am starting to restore.
Adrian, on the contrary, thank you for your message and your work on the G519
Regards;
Serge

[Quest Master]

Serge,
Oh wonderful! So, M3 is correct for rear hub to my bicycle serial number range - produced in the third quarter of 1943.

I wanted to make sure because these threads are used by other historians while conducting research and I wanted to make sure I was following correctly.

Thank you again for the detailed information!

[Johan WILLAERT]

Great find...

My M306 is #140418

[Johan WILLAERT]

Great find...

My M306 is #140418

Before and After

[Travelfix]

Nice....goes to show they're still out there!! Congratulations!

[Quest Master]

Wow, I knew these bicycles were scarce, but I did not know that I just obtained the 13th known and now documented surviving example! Lucky 13!

[blackcat77]

Hello Van;
Yes, you are very lucky
I own the M306 MG155000 K8, found in France.
Regards;
Serge

[HuffmanBill]

Hi Van,

If you go to Johan's '' the liberator'' website and look through the military bicycle section you can view my M306 women's Columbia before and after restoration pictures from about 10 yrs. ago. What is so neat is that your M306 serial # MG 154711 was stamped just 8 bikes after mine serial # MG 154703. Both these bikes were most likely completed on the same day! Like your bike mine also has the K8 ( Aug. 1943 ) frame manufacture date code and the M3 rear eclipse hub shell date code ( 1943, 3rd quarter ). Fortunately for me the original seat and seat safety crash tabs, original spares of which are extremely difficult to locate, were still on the bike when found. So all I had to do was re-upholster, dye and stamp the upper seat pan. You may have seen my M306 at the East Coast Military Vehicle Show at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD as I had it there 2-3 times over the past several years. Enjoy your new acquisition.

Regards,
Bill Strong