1914 excelsior single belt drive

[aka HAWG]

first off I am a returning member to the amca- thanks for this site

I purchased a 1914 excelsior singlr belt drive wwwaaayyy back in 1990/91 at the oley meet, It was put into storage due to the restoration of another bike.

now it is time to refurbish it, as it is an original paint bike.

at this time I am looking for any other owners of 14 "X" single belt drives for correspondance, as well as photos and measurements to help in this undertaking.

Is there still someone doing a list of serial numbers for the excelsior???

thanks in advance

aka HAWG

[LouieMCman]

I'm not as lucky as you to have an Excelsior but there was a "preliminary list" of serial numbers in the Antique Motorcycle back in the Fall issue of 1995 by Les Snavely that states that 1914 numbers were from 48978 to 55909.

[aka HAWG]

thanks - I have that list, one little problem with that list in my eyes, my serial # starts with a 19XXX, and another single I know of also starts the same way . is that list for twins???????

there is also a list earlier on this site I think post was under 1911 EXCELSIOR

aka hawg

[LouieMCman]

As you know the list states 1913 model serial numbers as 18064 - 48977. Are the 1914 models identical to the 1913's? Les wrote that he gathered registration info from 4 states to compile the list.
There is a note on the list that 1911 twin serial numbers are T1057 - T3271. It looks like maybe the twins were mixed in with the singles but with a prefix of "T" ??? Surely there is an Excelsior expert out there that can comment on these questions.......

[exeric]

I've played with a lot of Excelsiors and Hendersons and I cast a very warry eye on engine # lists. I believe there are some generalities regarding engine prefix #'s and years but nothing I would take to the bank. Most lists are based on the Ballak list from the old days which is flawed and possibly based on genuine Schwinn factory data, but to my knowledge there is no holy grail document from the Schwinn factory that has difinitive engine # data. It's possible the AMA has such a document in that pile of Excelsior/Henderson literature they received from Schwinn years ago, but that is not for the eyes of mere mortals. You have to be a very well connected big shot to see that stuff. I still contend that Schwinn kept motor #'s secret or erratic so that you couldn't tie a motor # to a specific year. I believe this was done because the Schwinn factory was of smaller output than H-D and Indian and there were a lot of carry-over castings and forgings. I do believe there was a list at the factory that could identify a specific motor # to a date of manufacture but I believe that data is long gone.