1950s Hiawatha Updated

Shop deals on ebay
BOXKARS
Bike Wall
Advertise with us
Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

boxkar

Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I found this bike a while back at Bow Cycle here in Calgary. They were holding a "Bikes For Kids" campaign, so people just donated old bikes to them that they restored to working condition and shipped out to developing countries. Gave em a 30 dollar donation and it was mine. They said they wouldn't have bother bringing the bike back to working condition anyways, so everyone wins. So its been some time, but its almost done. Just got to get the fork issue all sorted out and it will be ready to roll out of my basement.

DSC_5419-Edit.png
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

Interesting rake on that front headtube for the fork. Looks pretty cool.
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

Looks great!

Do you check the bike pile at Bow often? I was talking with the boys there and they said they have some regulars who scoop the oldies. Great idea and win-win cause they aren't the bikes kids are gonna want.

Great to have another Calgarian on the site :mrgreen:
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

Did you chop that at all? Or was there that much rake and (triple?) top tubes? Either way a sweet looking bike.
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

Thanks for the comments. The frame is not chopped, this is the way I found it, and it happened to be the exact look I had in mind. Though at the time it was rolling piece of rust.

As for Bow, I haven't been in a while. They hold the drive every year around Oct-Nov. When I was looting around looking for this bike, many others caught my eye, mostly of the vintage road persuasion so perhaps next year I'll pick up something else.

Btw, do any of the Calgarians have a Schwinn blade fork they would be willing to part with, or know where I can get one without resorting to eBay?
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

RE: Btw, do any of the Calgarians have a Schwinn blade fork they would be willing to part with, or know where I can get one without resorting to eBay?

Na...Schwinn stuff is rare up here. And the 'Bay you have to hope they will ship to Canada, seems about 5% actually will. I know I've seen some auctions where I would have paid ALOT more for the bike or part if they would only ship up north :wink:

Best a luck...

These would be cool:

MRKFORK_upright.jpg


But there are some fit issues discussed else where on the board.

OR:

AS%20FK0065%20BLK%20Springer.jpg


Both from Chaingang right here in town...
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

gorgeous bike. would like to see a "before" shot of it...
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

nice and simple. The riser bars with the 10spd neck look great. Get some Schwinn blades and be done.
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

Thanks again. Unfortunately, I don't have a before picture and I regret not taking one. The bike used to be all red like the color of the forks, and was punctuated with rust. There was no seat, or seat post for that matter. I had to take a hacksaw to the original stem to get the fork off the bike and then a little heat, some WD40 and a big lever to rotate the stuck stem wriggled it out. I hunted down a road stem, some new tires, a wheelset and a few other nick nacks. It has been a lengthy process.

I do agree that anything besides a straight rigid fork will take away from the look i want to achieve. Hence why the Schwinn blades would be perfect. In response to Schwinnspastic, I would be forever grateful for a Schwinn fork. I measured the steerer tube of the original fork to be 6.5" from the fork crown to the top of the tube. As far as I know there should be no issue with customs, because I don't think bike components fall into any special categories. So maybe we can work something out.

Here's one more image of a personal touch I added recently.

headbadge.jpg
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

I may have an extra Schwinn fork -- I'll have a look in the Pile-O-Parts (TM) and see whats in there.

Bow Cycle is a great shop - I dropped off a bike for the bikes for kids program and somehow came home with more parts than I started with :roll: They let me go dumpster-diving in the scrap bin to find a few small parts and I came out with (most of) a Nishiki road bike!

-Mp
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

I would really appreciate that, Multipass.
Ya I love the guys at Bow. They were willing to entertain my requests for old and obsolete parts, plus they're just interesting to talk to. That scrap pile you're talking about it is where I got the seat I have on this bike. I can't wait til Nov.
 
Re: 1950s Hiawatha

I managed to dig up a fork in the Bow basement. It was a gaudy pink so I stripped it all off and I'm thinking of keeping it like this. At least for the time being. Mounted a headlight too. Don't know if I'll keep it, but it was certainly a pain to get it low and centered.

-1-1.jpg


-2.jpg
 
Leave the forks! I think they compliment the chain guard nicely. Good looking bike! IMHO
 

Latest posts

Back
Top