The first one is mine, I looked high and low for a 50s balloon bike I could customize(this was in 2004-2005) and the closest thing was a frame in New Orleans in a second-hand store that wasn't for sale. Anyhoo, I bought this POS for $20, maybe it was $30?, from this place the week before Katrina hit. It was not rideable and I tried to get this hippy dude down on the price. It started out as a mid-70s Huffy? with an internal three speed hub.
The frame was straight and I started stripping it down, while the tail end of Hurricane Rita was pounding around us outside, trying to keep the cost down and things as simple as possible. Ideally, I wanted straight mountain bike forks with no curve to them, but at the time, I wasn't saavy enough to find any or even know if they would work with this old frame, bearings, etc. With it stripped, I had a better idea of what I was working toward at this point.
I stripped all the poop brown paint off and welded up the brake caliper holes and filling the top of the forks. I painted it myself with auto paint and used three coats of clear with pearl gold mixed in. I sourced most all the parts from a place in town and some through places on the internet. I removed the three speed rear-end and went with a coaster brake assembly, again I wasn't adventurous enough at the time to try to work with the three speed assembly and some cool shifter. I very carefully welded a dog leash chain to the front area around the forks as I didn't like the striped look of the forks. The rear rack I bent down a little to better match the contour of the rear wheel and tied elastic netting for Groslch bottles or whathaveyou. I added the toe clips too so I can keep up with my wife and my only gear. It's very nice to ride, not built for speed or anything, just to be different. Louisiana is not bike friendly, at all, so we go for short rides around the neighborhood. I did all of this over a six month period when I had the time. For all the v-dubs I've worked on over the years, well, this was more or less the first thing I actually ever 'finished' which was a great feeling. An attainable goal I guess. I still want to touch up the rack a little bit.
My nephew's bike
This started out life as a kid's purple Roadmaster 'mountain' bike I bought for $35 in Golden Meadow, LA. It was rideable and I bought it so we could have a project to do when he came down for a visit in the summer of 2006. Although getting him to come up with ideas ahead of time was like pulling teeth, he did a really good job of stripping everything down. He was 15. I bought some of the parts ahead of time, but he was only visiting for a few days so we didn't get it done at the time. According to what he told me he wanted and a simple drawing, I set up a jig of the frame taking measurements of angles and lengths so I could 'extend' the main tubes of the frame about 4 inches forward or longer if you will. Anyhoo, almost six months passed as I was busier trying to finish my shop so I'd have an enclosed place to work on the bike.
When I got back into it in March of '07, it took about a week to finish it, as in working on it every day for several hours. The tubing I got was a little too thick so I had to torch the metal to get it to bend. All the notches I cut took fairly small amounts of extra work to get them to fit. The multi-speed rear end was ditched in favor of a coaster brake rear end and all the associated holes welded up. The above test fit I did before painting included everything except the new sprocket on the crank, big mistake! I painted everything, started assembling the bike and found that the sprocket I was going to use wouldn't work as it was a straight one and the bike came with a two sprokets riveted together. The newer sprocket would've hit the frame. Poop. I had to use the old sprockets but ground off the teeth of the smaller inner sprocket. This was also my first time powdercoating all the smaller parts black with a $5 toaster oven I got. The paint turned out great. The front forks were a little difficult getting all the way down so there was no up and down play on the bearings, but all told it was very smooth to ride. I like the way the rear tire fills up the rear part of the frame.
The seat and bars are cranked up as I'm very tall, it looks better with them lower for my nephew. I took it apart, boxed it up and sent it to him. Nice uncle, huh?
The frame was straight and I started stripping it down, while the tail end of Hurricane Rita was pounding around us outside, trying to keep the cost down and things as simple as possible. Ideally, I wanted straight mountain bike forks with no curve to them, but at the time, I wasn't saavy enough to find any or even know if they would work with this old frame, bearings, etc. With it stripped, I had a better idea of what I was working toward at this point.
I stripped all the poop brown paint off and welded up the brake caliper holes and filling the top of the forks. I painted it myself with auto paint and used three coats of clear with pearl gold mixed in. I sourced most all the parts from a place in town and some through places on the internet. I removed the three speed rear-end and went with a coaster brake assembly, again I wasn't adventurous enough at the time to try to work with the three speed assembly and some cool shifter. I very carefully welded a dog leash chain to the front area around the forks as I didn't like the striped look of the forks. The rear rack I bent down a little to better match the contour of the rear wheel and tied elastic netting for Groslch bottles or whathaveyou. I added the toe clips too so I can keep up with my wife and my only gear. It's very nice to ride, not built for speed or anything, just to be different. Louisiana is not bike friendly, at all, so we go for short rides around the neighborhood. I did all of this over a six month period when I had the time. For all the v-dubs I've worked on over the years, well, this was more or less the first thing I actually ever 'finished' which was a great feeling. An attainable goal I guess. I still want to touch up the rack a little bit.
My nephew's bike
This started out life as a kid's purple Roadmaster 'mountain' bike I bought for $35 in Golden Meadow, LA. It was rideable and I bought it so we could have a project to do when he came down for a visit in the summer of 2006. Although getting him to come up with ideas ahead of time was like pulling teeth, he did a really good job of stripping everything down. He was 15. I bought some of the parts ahead of time, but he was only visiting for a few days so we didn't get it done at the time. According to what he told me he wanted and a simple drawing, I set up a jig of the frame taking measurements of angles and lengths so I could 'extend' the main tubes of the frame about 4 inches forward or longer if you will. Anyhoo, almost six months passed as I was busier trying to finish my shop so I'd have an enclosed place to work on the bike.
When I got back into it in March of '07, it took about a week to finish it, as in working on it every day for several hours. The tubing I got was a little too thick so I had to torch the metal to get it to bend. All the notches I cut took fairly small amounts of extra work to get them to fit. The multi-speed rear end was ditched in favor of a coaster brake rear end and all the associated holes welded up. The above test fit I did before painting included everything except the new sprocket on the crank, big mistake! I painted everything, started assembling the bike and found that the sprocket I was going to use wouldn't work as it was a straight one and the bike came with a two sprokets riveted together. The newer sprocket would've hit the frame. Poop. I had to use the old sprockets but ground off the teeth of the smaller inner sprocket. This was also my first time powdercoating all the smaller parts black with a $5 toaster oven I got. The paint turned out great. The front forks were a little difficult getting all the way down so there was no up and down play on the bearings, but all told it was very smooth to ride. I like the way the rear tire fills up the rear part of the frame.
The seat and bars are cranked up as I'm very tall, it looks better with them lower for my nephew. I took it apart, boxed it up and sent it to him. Nice uncle, huh?
