Vintage Schwinn Bicycle Reference Books & More

Current Projects 2

---------------------------------------------------------------

1953 Schwinn Green Phantom (B.F. Goodrich)

Dang. I did not need any more project bikes. But this was too good to pass up and the price was right. 1953 Phantom with a decent mix of original and period parts. Fenders are from a Hornet. No tank. Seat is junk. Bars, stem and grips are marginal. Missing tail light. Wrong pedals, rusty cranks.

On the upside, the paint is really solid, the guard is clean, there's a fore-brake, the fork lock works, the rims are still round, and the chrome should clean up somewhat.

I'm thinking about putting this bike together as a mild custom. It would be easy to just order up some bright and shiny repop fenders and tank, but then I'd have to start upgrading all the existing dull chrome, which is more than I want to do. Plus I like the painted fender look. The plan at this point is to keep the Hornet fenders and paint the white tips black (with white around the edges) to visually echo the paint scheme on the frame. (I mocked this look up with electrical tape, looks good so far.) Instead of a Fenderlite or Rocket Ray, thinking about mounting a pair of early 1960s Miller genny lights (modded to LED) on the springer truss rods. When I find a suitable tank, will likely paint in the same green / black scheme.

Lots of the other parts I should have in back-stock. Blackwall Typhoon Cord repops, check. Parts to build Persons Deluxe pedal clones, check. Phantom seat that needs recovering, check. Appropriately weathered tail light, check. Replacement springer spring, check. Stem and bars with less weathered chrome, check. Lots of free time to do all this, um, uh, maybe in three or four months. Until then, here's some pics.

Fresh from CL.

Vintage "No Riders" decal on rack, plus the weakest paint on the entire bike. Marignal parts removed. Front fender mocked up with black electrical tape. Fender mocked up with black tape. One of those chrome Whizzer fender tip accessories would really make this pop.---------------------------------------------------------Gah. The repop Whizzer fender tips are $120 (set of 3), so no-go on those.Installed red Grand Tycoons front and rear, and tossed on some better bars and a better seat. I'm liking the look quite a lot. Now that I've got the general look figured out, it's time to hang this one up for a while. -------------------------------------------------Nexus 7 with coaster brake. I'm gonna do it. That's what this bike needs, 7 speeds. And red pedal blocks, which I also have knocking around.Jan 2012 update. This bike is up and running. Not yet perfect, but close. Rocked the Nexus 7 coaster hub, laced it up to the original S-2. Used a '65 Schwinn heavy duty seat, black with small chrome rivets. Painted the fender spears black with enough original cream around the edges so it looks like stripes. Red tires and red pedal blocks. Modded some later Exerciser pedals to take repop red blocks. Dropped a pair of repop cross-bar handlebars on this bike to give it a bit more early post-war flair. Installed some dual headlights, still need to finish the LED install on these. And the fore-brake needs new linings. The Nexus provides plenty of braking power, so for the time being the fore-brake is just for looks. Will get a picture up once I get a good one. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Grape Ape Krate, Kustom

So I've had this Jerald Sulky 26" slick knocking around for a while. It's a bad-ass tire, but at the same time you'd practically have to build a bike around it to really use the tire correctly. It's a fat slick with a profile very similar to that of the Schwinn Sliks, but in a 26". It's a super cool tire, but again, to what end?

And then I picked up a repop Grape Krate seat on eBay for cheap. It was listed as a "schwinn grapekrate seat", which was a poor wording and not many people saw it, and certainly not the intended people, so it was mine for a song. I hung the seat up in the shop with no idea of how I would actually use it.

And then I got an email from a guy I sold a bike to a while back asking about the best way to make a full-size Krate style bike. I answered that there really isn't a good way to do it because you'd have to modify a springer fork to have extra long legs, which would be pretty involved to do correctly, and you'd have to cut up two springer forks in order to make it work, and even then who's to say it would actually ride worth a darn.

So my brain churns all this stuff around. Weeks later it decides that I must build a full size Krate style bike. It decrees that I must name it "Grape Ape Krate", because it will be violet and because it will be large. (Evidently Grape Ape lodged himself into my childhood brain.) The bike will have a modified springer fork so it can use a 20" wheel up front while still maintaining correct stance and steering geometry.

Just picked up a 1980 (or so) 26" wheel Cruiser frame for this project. These frames have wider seat stays, so I'll be able to use a heavyweight style rear flare fender without crimping it in. This bike came with an aftermarket chrome springer (Sun brand?) that will be one of the donor springers. Parts that I have in stock include a 1990s era 26" S-2 for the rear hoop, an S-7 20" front with a Superior for the front, '68 bars, a freshly acquired flat face chrome trim Traveler guard, a low-flange 36 hole rear hub, large style pie plate, and decent cranks.

There's a smattering of parts that I'll need to pick up for this project, grips, decals and paint are the main things. And another springer to cut up to make one long-leg springer. But other than picking up some parts, this project is going to be on hold for a while. Too many projects, not enough days in the week.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

1963 Schwinn American King Size

Frame, fork and guard on CL for $40. Yeah, I know it's a nightmare sort of project bike, but it should be easy enough to source parts. Headtube was drilled for a tall style badge by a previous owner, so I guess that's what I'll be using. Front chainguard mount on frame is gone. Bad purple repaint. If it wasn't an oddball frame, I wouldn't have given it a second look. This one's getting hung up for a long time, one of those things I couldn't pass on, but really don't have time for either.

Bike was originally black, which is nice, because that's very like the color it will be repainted. Part of me wants to get a bit crazy with this frame, since it's so rough. If the top bar is arced the same as the regular frames (and it looks to be) then I could braze on some tabs for a hanging slimline tank. And if I could source a pre-war springer fork with a tall steer tube, well, it would be neat.

1963 Schwinn American King Size frameset

Update, Jan 2012. Got it figured out. Dropping the tank idea. Definitely going to go with the tall pre-war springer. Remove middleweight fender brace from this frame, bend rear triange to heavyweight dimensions, braze in a heavyweight width fender brace. Phantom style guard. I have some super deep Monark fenders that I've been looking for an excuse to use, I think this bike is the excuse. Maybe some Fat Franks to fill up the fenders a bit better. Might well drop a repop Phantom style fenderlite unit on as well. Nexus 7 a possibility.----------------------------------------June 2012. Got this bike rolling. Locking pre-war springer. Deep Monark fenders. 6 hole rear rack. Phantom style guard. Heavy duty S-2s with Bontrager Solana 2.35" tires. Removed the rear fender mounting brace and spread the frame to take the wider fender. Rides nice. Still some work to do, but at least it's getting close. Need to finish up the front light situation and find an appropriate deluxe rear reflector.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Schwinn 16" StraightbarHad the idea to build a miniature version of a Schwinn straightbar. Schwinn never made such a frame, and I thought, hey, why not. The frame most resembles a '37, in a general way. This bike is based around a second generation Pixie frame. I didn't document this build all that well. It sort of goes from built frame to finished bike, but here's the details:Frame is a later Pixie with the mixte bars removed and the very top of the seat tube removed. The top tube and the center tube were sourced from a wrecked Fastback frame (thanks to Sting-Ray Rick for the frame). The seat stay assembly and the top 2 inches of the seat tube were taken from a stripped Bantam frame, same thing as a Lil Chik. Seat stays were given a bit more of a tighter bend in order to achieve proper fit. Brazed it all together will a torch kit borrowed from Meticon bike shop, a shout-out well deserved.Wheels on this bike are S-7s. Long front fender constructed from two cut downshort fronts, they meet under the fork. Stealthy! Was toying with the idea of running a skiptooth Lucky 7 sprocket because it would give the bike more of a pre-war look. If I can find an excellent sprocket and an appropriate 24 hole rear hub, I just might do it. But it would be a significant effort, and for what. Paint is "Schwinn-matched" rattle can. Looks good but it's soft. Pink pin stripes are Sharpie oil paint pen. My skills leave something to be desired in the striping department. Pedals are NOS Unions from around '62 or so. They had 9/16" spindles, so had to switch out to 1/2 spindles from 1950s era tall cap Schwinn pedals. Dropped down two ball bearing sizes on the outer race and had to take a bit off the end of the spindle with the angle grinder, but now they look sweet. Grips are NOS from Memory Lane. Seat is NOS Troxel, might switch it out to a tan seat. Had drilled the head tube to take a "shield" size badge, but none of them looked right with the paint. So copped out and went with a stick-on repop tall oval badge. Chainguard is still up in the air, maybe it'll get one, maybe it won't. If Schwinn had built this bike pre-war it wouldn't have come with a guard, but if I find the right guard to work with I'll scale it down for this bike.

Here's the snaps, enjoy.

In theory I built this bike for my daughter Guinevere, although the reality of it is that it'll be a "special occasion" bike. The pink accent stripes give it a bit of girly flair, plus I really like the way the pink sets off the two tone green.

Website content by The Greenephantom Electroforge.

Web Hosting by Turbify

geoff@greenephantom.com