Huffy Thunder Trail Monoshock

[GTV]

I picked this up a few years ago along with a bunch of other stuff, sold everything else and this weirdo has been hanging on my wall ever since.

Driving home late the other night I spotted a couple kids 20” coaster brake bikes with free signs on them I’ll cherry pick the appropriate parts from them for this bike then make one kids bike out of the two to give to my friends’ son.
But anyway, I started the tear down this evening after work.

Removed the ring from the crank, hit them with an SOS pad, and reassembled.

Chrome polished up pretty good. Guessing the crank means this bike is from 1978?

 

[GTV]

This frame could really use a new look but I can’t decide what that should be. The only certain thing is that the tires will be white. Maybe I’ll just clean it up and put it back together as is...

 

[MattiThundrrr]

The shocks from one of these old beasts would look cool

 

[GTV]

I’ve currently got a big project list and no access to a sandblaster so I just decided to clean this old nugget up and reassemble. I scrubbed the front and rear triangles and fork down with SOS pads, cleaned up the BB hardware and started bolting things back together.

Interestingly enough it looks like the silver paint is a respray, there is light blue poking out from under it, even inside the BB. I haven’t seen a single picture of a light blue bike but then again information and pictures of these little weirdos are few and far between.
I installed the rear triangle and then the crank. Interestingly enough the drive side crank now contacts the chainstay so I’ll have to pull the crank back out and shim the cone.

I’m currently wondering what in the heck im going to do for a saddle. Finding an original would most likely be impossible...

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

There are a few loaf seats on eBay, maybe on of them would work


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[GTV]

LOAF seat! That’s the search word I needed, thank you! I’ll keep an eye on eBay.

Does anyone know anything about these bikes? I’m thinking that my chainring was probably swapped (I haven’t seen a pic of one online with the (Murray?) chainring. Not that I’d switch it out, I’m just curious.
I really have no idea what I’m going to do with this bike but I thought it would be fun to build it up. However, if any of you are more interested in it than I am feel free to talk me out of it

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

I’d say the whole crankset has been ‘upgraded’ yours has longer arms than the reference pic. And yes, it is a Murray chainring


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[GTV]

I’d say the whole crankset has been ‘upgraded’ yours has longer arms than the reference pic. And yes, it is a Murray chainring

Well spotted. Previously I noticed this nick in the chain stay but failed to put two and two together.

The chainring is also a split hair away from the stay, definitely couldn’t have come that way when new.
With that newly learned information I decided that it’s just going to be a wall hanger. I like original-ish stuff and this appears to be far removed from standard. Even though I don’t have any money into it (well, I did order a chain last night) it’s not worth investing more of my time. The seat post came from my stash and unfortunately the stem/bars from the kids bike doesn’t fit. So this is where it will probably stay...

Some 24” wheels would really help fill the frame out...

 

[GTV]

I finally spent money on this... bought a chain for it! Put the pedals from my ‘40 klunker on it and hung it back on the wall where it will probably remain.

The rear stays have heaps of room for more wheel and tire. The rear dropouts have a ton of adjustment so a 24” should fit just fine. It’s also over 3” wide between the stays. The fork isn’t as wide but it can still swallow a 24” ballooner easily without worrying about pedal overlap. I’ll keep my eye out for a 24” coaster brake wheelset for version 2.0, I’ll probably do 3 piece cranks with a sealed hub at the same time. This little nugget might be pretty cool someday.

 

[toro1978]

It looks pretty cool even now. Just keep an eye on the pedal clearance when installing a 24" front wheel.