Fat tire bicycle.

[Herb G.]

Since you like old Schwinns, I have a 12 speed you'd love. It's a racer, but I don't know the name of it.
I can check if you'd like. It's been hanging in my garage for 35 years.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Since you like old Schwinns, I have a 12 speed you'd love. It's a racer, but I don't know the name of it.
I can check if you'd like. It's been hanging in my garage for 35 years.

I am definitely interested, I would like to see a pic of it. I wonder if there is a bike shop near you that could box it up and ship it?

 

[Herb G.]

@woodtickgreg I will try to get some pics of it this week after all my medical appts. I don't know if there's any bike shops around here, but I can look.
If not, there is a Parcel Plus store that says they can box anything.
It's in pretty good shape. The tires are probably shot, but dry rot does that.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Sounds good @Herb G.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I got the front fender mounted today, I need to make an aluminum spacer for the rear and get some new screws to mount it. But these fenders look really nice.

I dig the little kick out on the bottom of these.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Raining all day for 2 days! So today was a good time to work on the bike a little more.
Next was the rear fender, all new stainless hardware.
Here you can see the fender bracket doesn't line up with the frame bracket. This is often the case when using new modern fenders on an old Schwinn frame.
Not to worry I can just make a spacer, chucked up a piece of aluminum round bar in the ole Southbend. Drilled the center hole and machined the outside to proper diameter.
Aluminum is so fun to work with, machines so easy. Then cut this to length.
Voila! A nice machined spacer that fits perfectly.
The rear rack is part of the install because the rack and fender supports all use the same mounting screws. This is an original old schwinn rack, but it probably came off a 10 speed. I like it because Scwhinn is cast into it and it has the rat trap style keeper. Alluminum alloy so it wont rust.
It's starting to look more like a bike with every piece that's bolted on.
I'm not sure if the seat will stay this low, I'll have to wait until the wheels and tires are on and see how it fits in the final adjustments, might raise it a little.

 

[woodtickgreg]

And I found some cool grips to match the seat.
The camera flash kinda washed out the color, but they are a nice dark brown that closely matches the seat.

Let's see........whats next? Clean and install the front wheel, build the rear wheel and instal, new chain, and install the chain gaurd. And I have new decals for it that will go on the very last thing.

 

[Wildthings]

Raining all day for 2 days! So today was a good time to work on the bike a little more.
Next was the rear fender, all new stainless hardware.

View attachment 145519

I sure am glad you weren't in your skivvies!!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Got the front wheel done, all polished up and a new rim strip installed, put the used tire and tube on for now and installed it on the bike. I might put some colored tires on it, either clay colored or black with redwalls.

I have some major work to do on the rear wheel. I'm starting with a Schwinn S-7 rim laced to a bendix 2 speed kickback hub. Problem is it can only take a 1.75 tire and I want to run a 2.125 tire, so I have to change the rim, I'll use the S-7 eventually on a tandem build I want to do. So I'll use the wheel, take some measurements and see if i can re use the spokes or see if i have to source new ones. The bike is coming along and its turning out quite beautiful in my opinion. The red powdercoat is very striking and will look nice with new white decals. I cant wait to get this one done and ride it at the local car cruises.

 

[ripjack13]

Nice....I like the red sideways, from what ive seen online...

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

I like the self portrait!!!

 

[woodtickgreg]

I like the self portrait!!!

View attachment 146857

View attachment 146858

That's actually a painting of my deceased father. I never had a relationship with him as he had his own demons that he never beat. He was a professional clown among other things, his character was Mister Fleas. He made his own costumes. Long story and kind of personal. But that is my father.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Worked on the rear hub today. Doesn't look like anybody has ever been inside of it due to the rock hard grease that was in it. After I got all the old grease cleaned out and I got a chance to look at the parts I saw no signs of wear anywhere!
Really old grease, the bearings wouldn't even turn.
That's on of 4 brake shoes, in grease that was more like wax, lol.
Nice clean parts, put them in a bucket of mineral spirits and brushed them off good.
blew them off with compressed air and they look great!
The donor rim is polished, spokes are cleaned and it's almost ready to be laced up. Only thing to do before that is drill out the holes in the rim for the larger spokes and nipples.
Hub is ready to go. Its a Bendix yellow band 2 speed kick back.

 

[Herb G.]

My brother used to build bikes when he was a kid at a bike shop where we used to live.
He had the gift for lacing spokes. I never acquired that gift.
He built a home made rim balancing rig from scrap metal
and scrap wood pieces. It even had a run out gauge on it.
I don't remember whatever happened to that rig, but it was certainly
functional, if not down right cool.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Lacing the wheel is the easy part. Calculating the spoke length is another story, there's apps for that now and it makes it so much easier. I used to just true up wheels on the bike when I was at home but always used a truing stand in the bike shop. Now I have a professional park tool truing stand at home, it's so worth it if you do a lot of wheels. It not only aids in side to side, but up and down, and centers the rim to the hub perfectly. With the spoke calculator and the truing stand I can pretty much lace any wheel to any hub.

 

[Herb G.]

Yeah, but my brother was doing this back in the late 1960's.
No computer, no apps, nothing except a run out gauge & a home built stand.

 

[woodtickgreg]

In the early 70's I was building 5 speed beach cruisers before they where available on the mass market. I would start with a Schwinn fat tire like the one I'm building and lace a Schwinn 10 speed hub into it. Voila! 5 speed fat tire beach cruiser. People would see my bikes and then ask me, the snot nosed kid, to build them a bike too! I did this cheap back then because I didn't know what my skills where worth then. Bits of coat hanger taped to the frame where my gages. I used the frame as my jig. .105 gage motorcycle spokes laced into schwinn S2 rims where a hit back then, lol. Bikes weighed a ton! And now those style bikes are everywhere. I wished i had all of those rims today! Back then ashtabula was making hot bmx parts for us kids and mongoose was just starting out with bmx bikes. Funny how things come full circle sometimes.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I had to make a tool to finish up the 2 speed hub.
The piece on the left is what I made at work to fit the jam nut on the 2 speed hub. I welded it to the cheap India wrench because I couldn't find a cheap chimes wrench that was sized right, lol
I forgot to take pics after I welded it, didn't matter it was my typical ugly welds, lol. Then I ground it smooth and reamed the bore.
See how the jam nut sits down in a feces and has the 2 notches?
The tool fits over the axle.
And down into the recess and engages the notches. Then I can hold the outer cone nut with a week h as I tighten the inner jam nut with the shop made wrench.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I have a wheel, all laced up! Just needs to be trued now.
First 9 spokes on one side.
9 spokes on the other side.
All 36 heavy gage spokes laced into a 3 cross pattern.

Now I just need some time to tension and true it.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Damn, spokes are 10mm to long. So now I either have to cut them down and retread them or order new ones if I can find them.