This is what got me back into old bikes a couple years ago. I found this in a thrift store near where my parents live on Long Island and I absolutely couldn't let it sit. I paid $15 for it, and my wife thought I was nuts.
The headbadge says "Starflite", and the guard says "Polo Bike". It looks a lot to me like a department store Ross... anybody know who sold bikes under the name Starflite?
My plan was to find a boys' musclebike frame and transfer the parts onto it, maybe buy a new seat if I had to. For some reason, I didn't want to mess up the paint on this one... it was too nice. But I wasn't finding a suitable boys' frame. What I did find was a beater middleweight with an identical girls' frame that had a so-so repaint done to it. I adapted and painted a "tank" off a Columbia 16" convertible, bought a cheap white banana seat from a lowrider website, and ended up with this:
Fun to cruise around the block with the kiddies. Then I found a couple more bikes to diddle with, and I was letting my 2 oldest kids try it out:
My daughter in particular really liked it; she said she liked riding it a lot better than the $40 Toys-R-Us Murray she got a coupe Christmases ago. And as you guys know, when your little girl wants something...
anyway, I swapped all the stuff back to the pink frame, and it's hers for now:
and now Daddy has some new stuff to play with, which will show up in another couple threads...
--rick
edit: i should have mentioned that she always wears a helmet when she rides, but what she was wearing was just such a 70's-looking thing, it went perfect with the bike... so I took the shots without a helmet on her.
The headbadge says "Starflite", and the guard says "Polo Bike". It looks a lot to me like a department store Ross... anybody know who sold bikes under the name Starflite?
My plan was to find a boys' musclebike frame and transfer the parts onto it, maybe buy a new seat if I had to. For some reason, I didn't want to mess up the paint on this one... it was too nice. But I wasn't finding a suitable boys' frame. What I did find was a beater middleweight with an identical girls' frame that had a so-so repaint done to it. I adapted and painted a "tank" off a Columbia 16" convertible, bought a cheap white banana seat from a lowrider website, and ended up with this:
Fun to cruise around the block with the kiddies. Then I found a couple more bikes to diddle with, and I was letting my 2 oldest kids try it out:
My daughter in particular really liked it; she said she liked riding it a lot better than the $40 Toys-R-Us Murray she got a coupe Christmases ago. And as you guys know, when your little girl wants something...
anyway, I swapped all the stuff back to the pink frame, and it's hers for now:
and now Daddy has some new stuff to play with, which will show up in another couple threads...
--rick
edit: i should have mentioned that she always wears a helmet when she rides, but what she was wearing was just such a 70's-looking thing, it went perfect with the bike... so I took the shots without a helmet on her.
