Recent content by AndyA

Coincidently, just yesterday I saw the movie "Greased Lightning" with Richard Pryor playing Wendell Scott. Scott was the first black driver in NASCAR and started his career driving moonshine. The movie had some cool scenes of dirt track racing and some heart-breaking and/or infuriating scenes of...

If you would also consider a non-Schwinn camelback, keep your eyes open for a Ross Compact. They were manufactured as 3-speeds (Shimano hub) and as 10-speeds.

Uncle John: Lots of potential there! I'm sure that you can get lots of valuable help from this forum. Post specific questions as you proceed with your project. And have fun.

Like the Tracy Morgan ad on the Super Bowl, "pretty sure" might not be enough. Seat posts come in lots of sizes, some only 1mm different. Time to buy a vernier caliper (or a digital caliper if you want to spend more money).

"It also lowered the cranks about an inch, I scraped the pedals a couple times leaning into corners." Cousin Wildcat: I like the look of those 27" frames with 26" wheels. The pedal scraping is pretty easy to solve: get in the habit of putting down the outside pedal on tight turns. Have fun!

It may be sloppy, but I have run a lot of cables without ends and have not (yet) run into any problem. Some applications need ends to run smoothly, depending on how the cable fits into the brake, brake lever, shifter, or derailleur. But others, where the cable fits neatly, seem to operate fine...

For your consideration, a Ross Compact, circa 1980, with Shimano 3-speed and stem shifter. It was obtained with drop bars (first picture) and was switched to risers. Nice, sporty rider. Three speeds are all you need for most riding. And lots of reflector area: big reflectors on wheels and...

Uncle Deorman: Excellent point. I hadn't thought about it that way. Thanks for the insight.

I wanted to switch my 24" Huffy Good Vibrations from coaster brake to freewheel. Once you're used to a freewheel, with or without derailleur, a coaster can be annoying. Front caliper brake was easy. Rear caliper looked like it would fit so I bought a single speed freewheel and replaced the...

It's not just a matter of simplicity. It's where on the spectrum of simplicity to complexity you want to operate. Using Kevin's example of a coaster brake cruiser, there are simpler machines, e.g., a draisine, a 19th century two-wheeler that the rider pushed along with his feet on the ground...

As the saying goes, there are a lot of working parts in a derailleur. Basic function is that a derailleur wants to go to a higher gear and is prevented from doing so by the tension of the cable. I'm not familiar with that cool 5-on-the bar shifter you have there, and whether it's a friction...

Ah, I see a difference between the photo and the catalog drawing that I didn't notice before. The catalog shows a Murray-style chain wheel. The photo shows a Monark-style chain wheel.

Cousin Vroom: Nice bike! Looks like it's a Regal. The 1951 fall/winter catalog shows a probable match. Trussrods are shown and your bike has the bracket for them. Headlight is shown and it looks like your bike has hardware on the fender for mounting. No rear rack shown. Colors in description...

Ha ha! I thought the items in the background were a cricket bat and batting pads. Hockey might provide even more ideas for combining with bikes. Kinda like roller hockey. Pretty close to bike polo.