Hello from Galveston

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Hello guys, I'm Rick (1dryman) from Galveston and here to show you all what I bought which I think is a 68 Sears 5-Speed Spyder. Mostly original I think, any feed back on what is not original is appreciated. I did already cleaned it and got the chain in good condition, I also took it to the local bike shop to have the gears and brake cables replaced. I will be taking up to date photos with the serial number at a later date and posting in the muscle bike forum, for now just introducing myself-

 
Welcome aboard!

That's agreat bike to start out with! Did you change out the derailler? It can probably be cleaned up and still be usuable. I would just change the cables and keep the original stuff as much as possible.

It looks all there, hard to tell what color it was new. A 68 24" Spyder would look like this:

DSCN2213.JPG


DSCN2211.JPG
 
Great find, welcome aboard!
@CRASH should be able to tell you if and what is missing.

If you are looking to build it up, there is a Muscle Bike Build-Off starting September 1st you could join in on, usually about 50 builders from around the world involved. Understand if you didn't want to wait that long though, I know I would be wanting to get that all cleaned up and riding ASAP!
 
Welcome to the forum. Used to spend a lot of time on Bolivar Peninsula back when the only ride between the two was the Cone Johnson and the R. S. Sterling. Nice bike though.
 
Thanks @LukeTheJoker ! Welcome @1dryman ! Here's is my '69 I restored.

TFmbWX.jpg



If you didn't know, you have a Violet (purple) bike. It could be either '68 or '69 because the style was the same and the serial numbers don't mean a thing, so if you know the pedigree of the bike, than that's the only way to tell. I was told mine was a '69 frame, but who really knows.

What's the condition of your tires? Your rear looks original, although the red line is faded. You could repaint that, because finding a good original NOS rear tractor grip Sears tires.... well, the one you see above took me 4 years to find.

I'd like to see what your bike shop did in the way of cables and housing. Did they use white? Did they route the rear brake THROUGH the shifter? (Look at mine).

Your chrome looks like it's in decent shape. We can give you techniques for cleaning it up. Also techniques for restoring the original tires if they can be saved. Finding an original seat can be a challenge, but I've seen them. As you can see I opted for a custom seat. Bottom line, this forum can help you with EVERYTHING you'd need to do to restore that bike so you don't have to spend money having a bike shop do it for you. Like Luke mentioned, the Muscle Bike Build Off starts in September. You could track the whole build start to finish and get all your questions answered along the way.
 
A lot of thanks to all the guys who replied and liked my ride. Wildcat you got what I have but a lot nicer as to the paint condition, my paint is too burnt and faded. And also you seat looks awesome. Wish mine would look like that. LukeTheJoker thanks for the advice about joining the Muscle bike build off I will have to think about that. jpshaw thanks for liking my ride, trying to get it ride ready for riding on the seawall in Galveston. Crash thanks for the input, I would call mine a 68, just because when I was researching it the first picture a saw was from the 68 sears catalog. Was there a specific name for the paint color or paint code. I was thinking of leaving it the way it is but after seeing wildcats bike I like how much it stands out. My tires are cracked and dried up. The front tire split open and has about a two inch gap, I think this happened when I took it to the local bike shop to change the cable. I only found out after I got home. They must have rode it to test the gears. I will start posting in the Muscle Bike form since this is only for intros. I will post more resent pics to show you a closer look. And again thanks to everyone...
 

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