1940 Elgin

1940 Elgin girls bike

Elgin head tube badge

Elgin made some cool bikes.

Sold through the Sears & Roebuck department stores prior to the second world war, these bikes competed with Schwinn, Monark, and Columbia for the attention of America’s youth.

This girls bike from 1940 is not the most spectacular of the Elgin models (that distinction belongs to the Blue Bird or the Four-Star Deluxe), but it does have some eye-catching features.

Elgin torpedo lamp

Elgin skirt guard

Neat fluting on the stem

A nice rear rack, a torpedo-shaped headlight, and rich blue and white paint add to the appeal, but the most striking item has to be the louvered skirt guard.  Kinda looks like the grill on dad’s Buick.