Hi. I live in Australia and have been visiting RRB'S for a few years. Great website. Not many people appreciate these old bikes here. I tinker with most things with wheels. Old USA made bikes are pretty hard to find downunder so I have had to resort to scouring ebay.com for reasonably priced project frames. I started off about 5 years ago with a black Mississippi built cruiser 5 that was privately imported here in the 80's. It was ridden for a short time before the original owner stacked it, bent a wheel and pedal and parked it. Didn't take much to fix it and I added a rack and repro taillight with the fat batteries in it. That bike was a killer up hills (especially after getting back into riding and being used to lighter bikes for years). Only alloy parts on it were the brake calipers. I sold it to make way for one of the new Kos Kruisers. Wanted one as a kid in the 80's but my budget then bought me an old dragster with skyway tuffs, a can of spray paint and few bmx parts. I bought the KOS from a dealer in another state in a box, assembled it, rode it for 20 mins and a short time later pulled it down and put it back in the box. Fantastic looking bike and its now gone to someone who is using it. Next on the list, a 50's straight bar Panther frame that I have just started got around to building. It will be a mix of vintage and bmx with a 7 speed hub. One of my current rides is a 68 red typhoon built mostly with parts I had in the garage from other bikes. Its surprisingly light and fun on the local trails and beach tracks. I get passed by almost everyone but I think I am the only one riding slow enough to enjoy the scenery around me. My faster ride is a late 80's chromoly Shogun MTB (Giant built I think). I bought it new and made the dumb decision to part with it for a later mtb with suspension that I hated so much I stopped riding. I got the Shogun back at least 10 years after I sold it in really bad condition and just finished restoring it. I am also building a Chinese made Schwinn for one of the kids. Plenty of cheap late model Schwinns here. I found the ladies bikes a good source for cheap wheels. The alloy frames don't interest me that much. The younger daughter has her eye on pink debutante with the bottle holder even though she's not into the candy pink. Anyway that's my story for now, hope to hear from a few of you soon and thanks for the great website.
