I am still open to the idea of putting canti brakes on it in the future and all of that, but if I'm being honest this will probably be the finished product. The little riding I have done actually feels good so I'm hopeful it will be an OK bike to put a few miles on here and there. I haven't put too many miles on it yet, the plan is to make the commute to work on it one day this week and see how it feels. I also think the chrome looks too 'cruiser' for this bike. I ordered a black rear coaster wheel so the chrome one can go back where it belongs. It was a great day hanging in the garage/yard/driveway.Ī few minutes after this picture was taken the red Schwinn Corvette made its way to my dad's basement bicycle museum, and the white bike gave up it's rear wheel so I could test ride the Klunker. My friend was over cleaning up his Camaro for winter, my wife was working on some fall-theme upgrades for our planters, and I was messing around with bikes and helping where I could. Saturday was gorgeous so I brought some of my bikes out for some sun, and some cannibalization. The brake modifications all got thrown out the window (for now) in favor of a coaster brake for simplicity and cheapness. Well, considering this is almost together and seems like it would fit that group well, I decided to go for it and finish it on Saturday. I went on a night mountain bike ride with some buddies, one of whom mentioned an event called "homie fall fest" which sounds like a singlespeed specific bar crawl next Saturday (10/26/19). With handlebars and a front wheel, the bike was essentially a rear coaster brake away from functional. I found some parts in the attic stash and hung them on the bike, and my 1" to 1-1/8" stem adapter showed up on Friday. Over the weekend I made some decisions that ultimately led to the 'completion' of this bike. In forward progress, my bottom bracket showed up and I was able to mount my cranks. Oh well, it won't be bad piece to have around for future builds. but they're going to be getting replaced now it seems so I won't need that particular adapter. The irony now is that I ordered a 21.1mm stem adapter, as my forks are the smaller 21.1 ID. HOWEVER - this does present an opportunity for this thing to be moderately svelte, which is good as now the plan is to make it a singlespeed. I'm also planning on buying some weld on brake mounts for the frame so I can run a cantilever rear brake as well, due to the fact that the frame spacing is 110mm which is the more standard BMX size, meaning my hub selection is limited. I'm going to scrap that idea in favor of a new fork with canti mounts and just run a traditional rim brake. It also requires a strap (like a coaster brake) to be attached to the fork. Plans have been changing I got a drum brake front hub from a buddy and it is gigantic. Hopefully parts will be here this week and I can keep bolting things on! I think the bmx bars would be too tall and funky on the bike, though I'm still not opposed to the idea. I was originally going to run a bmx-style handlebar but as the project is progressing I'm leaning more towards a more standard riser bar. The stem adapter will let me use a "modern" 1-1/8" threadless stem which opens up a ton of options versus the original 1" threaded. Some other notes I have a 1" threaded to 1-1/8" threadless stem adapter coming from eBay as well as a new sealed bearing bottom bracket for the cranks. The real bonus though is the spacer that goes between the spindle and sprocket fits perfectly with the original Schwinn sprocket, so I can re use that. These Powerbites are 10mm longer which hopefully won't interfere with toe overlap too bad and allow me a bit more power in my pedal strokes. Furthermore, the crank on this bike was a 165mm which is pretty short and would likely make the bike feel even slower. This bike had a 1 piece crank and they're heavy, flexy, and just generally suck. I also unearthed an old set of Primo Powerbite cranks from the attic. I think I'm going to like the look I'm guessing I'll spring for a new one when the time comes. Well now I can test the aesthetic with this old one, and I may even be able to bring it back to life with some TLC. I've been picturing this bike with a Brooks on it, but as they're expensive it was going to be a bit of a risk to take to buy a new one. I came up with a couple gem's I'm pretty excited about.Įxhibit A:) This vintage Brooks leather saddle. I also went to my dad's place and raided my/our stash of bike parts in his attic. I also re-installed the headset and repacked the bearings with fresh grease (don't worry I put more on after this). It's a small Allen headed bolt and a Nylock nut, you can imagine how it must look. Naturally I have no photograph of the replacement. No matter found a nut & bolt in my scrap 'organizers' and replaced it. The bolt for the seat collar has seen better days.