Re: The Elgin Experiment
Ok - its 2:33 in the morning and this is the first second since 8 this morning that ive been at rest - so lets begin:
The bike: From the info that Ive gathered here, this bike is a 1941 Elgin, I bought it at the swap meet for 10 bucks, maybe it was a little high*, but like Road Master said - I couldent resist that curved seat post.
*"10 bucks is a high price? lobsterboy you are trippin" But the real story of how i came to own this bike is a bit sticky, but ill sum it up quickly: I was standing in my garage one morning having a cigarette when the scrap metal guy rolled around, i saw some rusty spokes and flagged him down - turns out it was a 48 Schwinn New World
price paid? 10 bucks. I made it ridable, and kinda forgot about it - I took it to the swap meet along with a "for sale" sign. i walked around the whole day with it and no one even bothered to look twice about it. after a few hours we had seen the whole swap and decided it was time to go. as we were walking out, a guy walked up and asked about it. Turns out he was a schwinn guy and he was collecting the entire line of schwinns from 1948, his birth year. with a crisp ben frank in the hand, i turned around happy with the deal i had made only to see this elgin staring directly at me with a 100 dollar price tag.
"
It was un-ridable, missing spokes and a bottom bracket that felt like the bearings were replaced with roundish pebbles. i put my "mock up" wheel on the front and snapped these shots.
the first order of business was the wheels. Tore in to the rear coaster and it was pretty worn. Off to the LBS i went, came back with a set of china alloys, the plan was to lace a ND skipper in to it and call it a day, but i had heard about grinding every other tooth off a modern sprocket to make your own skiptooth. so i did it, and it worked pretty well. Ill snap some shots of my handy work later.
Ok Tires - Lately ive been getting in to a lot of trouble with tires. i have 4 pairs of cool balloon tires that ive just been collecting because ive really lost control of myself when it comes to cycles. (my name is lobsterboyx and i hoard bicycles and parts) The choices:
Felt quick bricks: beautiful tires, get very dirty and turn yellow, also they wear down pretty quickly - see below
:roll:
Electra diamond tread in white- These are beautiful tires and im saving them for a truly beautiful bike (Hiawatha/roadmaster Luxury liner)
Typhoon cord whitewalls - cool but these belong on a over the top 50s bike (x-53, higgins, roadmaster)
Fat franks - we have a deal - another quick story - I had been looking for the best price on franks, and it just so happened that my lbs got tired of folks test riding their bikes with creme franks and having to explain that the tires were "New... but... um slightly used" so at 20 bucks for a SET, My business partner and i bought 4 sets. 8)
Lets hang for a minute here:
Frame - Check (cost - 10 bucks)
Wheels - Check (cost - 60 bucks)
Tires- Check (cost - 20 bucks)
heres what a 90 dollar bike looks like:
2:33 to 3:09 - the sun is going to be painful. more later
In the next exciting episode of the elgin experiment:
Springer
Tank
Fenders
Drop Stand