Super Stock Scrambler 1X10

[Chad T]

Hey Guys,

Got another bike I just have to build. It will be built with a 1976 Stingray frame and will be loosely based on a Stingray type Schwinn Scrambler.

Found this fork and just couldn't live without it so this was the starting point.

My local bike shop has had this Answer Manitou fork on the wall forever. About a year ago I got the idea to make it into a suspension sissy bar for this build. Last week I was able to talk him out of it. I think the only reason he let me have it is because I told him what I planned on doing with it. Nice family Schwinn shop.

Hopefully I can pull it off without it looking too weird.

I plan to use early wide Stingray bars. I love the feel of them and they have a similar shape to a modern BMX bar only much larger.

A quick mock up.

I've got a regular Stingray sissy on the way that I will cut the top off of. Can't decide if I want to make a cross piece to kind of fill in the mounting holes for the brakes or if I want to just cut the mounts off to make them look like shock tubes.

The original elastomers have turned into chewing gum so I'm still trying to fish all that out of the tubes. I'm going to use a Krate suspension spring I have. I will cut it in half to make 2 springs along with some rubber.

The Answer carbon fork was pretty beat up when I got it and the lettering kind of covers up the nice carbon so I decided to sand the scythe off of it.

Stripped the paint off of the dropouts and polished the whole thing. Came out pretty nice.

I had found a thread on here about using 1 1/8 threadless on an old frame and it said the old Schwinn headtube ID was 33.7. It's actually 32.6 so I'm going to have to do some whittling on it. The headtube itself is only 2.5mm thick so it will be close but I'm pretty well committed at this point.

I also need to figure out how to paint that lettering on a piece of vinyl for the seat. I'd like to do a plain black cover over some nice padding and then stencil SCHWINN lettering on there.

Got my favorite large flange hub in the mail yesterday. It was already shiny but I polished it anyway. I think it's actually chrome plated. Will have to clean and re-pack it but it feels nice and smooth.

That's it for now. Lots of goodies coming. Got almost everything for a SRAM X9 1X10 setup on the way.

 

[alistair clark]

this looks good. Do you remember which thread it was about using a threadless fork on an old frame?

 

[Chad T]

this looks good. Do you remember which thread it was about using a threadless fork on an old frame?

Thank you..yes is it was this thread.

http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/using-a-threadless-headset-on-an-old-frame.69574/

In that thread there is a link to this other thread that has the head tube dimensions.

http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/headset-trouble-50s-jc-higgins.14947/

 

[alistair clark]

Thanks Chad! I have Spaceliner that has no fork. But I manage to find a threadless fork form REI bike that needs a home. So this might help.

 

[Chad T]

Not much done but a whole lot of parts shopping. Tires for this will be Odyssey Chase Hawks. 2.2 plyte up front and 2.4 regular rear. Rear one has different lettering than I've seen. Kind of goes with the plyte.

Rims are polished Mutant Elektras. I will strip the clear off, sand and polish them.

Parts pile is growing. Quite the gluttonous feast...;-)

Should have some better pics with real progress soon.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

This should be a very cool build!

Luke.

 

[Chad T]

Thank you Luke. I hope it's cool. Looks cool in my mind anyways...;-)

Progress.....reaming out the head tube seemed like a torturous amount of filing and sanding with a drill but the bike is officially converted to 1 1/8 threadless....well at least it's half way there. Still have to do the bottom. File seemed to work better for removing material then sanding drums in the drill to round it out.

Plenty of meat left on the head tube.

This is with the bearing cup just pushed in snug. I've had it tapped home and removed already. Fits nice.

Was looking forward to polishing the rims after this was done but they appear to be powder coated. Spray on stripper, aircraft remover deal didn't budge the clear coat. Last one I did I sanded all the way down. Lots of sanding.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Lots of sanding and filing in your future!

Luke.

 

[Chad T]

Well I got a little more filing and sanding done. Did the bottom of the head tube. Left the bottom one a little tighter. Took a little persuasion to get the cups all the way seated.

There it is 1 1/8 threadless Schwinn. Not too bad. Good 2 hrs + of whittling.

My spacers and bearings showed up so I went ahead and tried it out. Major advance in technology here compared to the old threaded fork with a quill stem.

Black doesn't look the greatest with the blue. Plan is to paint the bike silver.

Grips arrived today so did a quick shifter/brake fit. I need to find a clamp bolt for the brake with a thinner head on it to get these just right. X9 stuff is not as nice as the X0 I used last time but it's still pretty nice.

Using a Dia Compe brake lever this time to match the Dia Compe centerpull brake.

Having a hard time getting the phone to focus in the garage.

Not a bad first day. My first day off work of 20 .....should have a runner soon. Need to get a little sleep then measure and order spokes.

 

[alistair clark]

Love the grip. Looks like a nice set up with the threadless headset.

 

[jlr551CFD]

Great start!

 

[Bicycle808]

Yeah, alot of misinformation on headtube sizes on those other threads. Old Schwinns use what became the BMX standard---32.5mm headtube ID. Murrays are a lot wider, and will take 1 1/8 headsets without modification, but you may end up using shims! And, the head tube on a Murray won't allow a 1 1/8" steerer thru anyway.... For Schwinn and other 32.5-ish frames, some folks turn down the cups instead of boring out the headtube, but either way works. (see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/17534977@N00/sets/72157628195500205/ ) I have run the stock 32.5 cups for 1" with all the other parts from cheap unsealed 1 1/8" headsets, and just put loose (uncaged) 5/32" bearings in the cups; worked good so far. A lot of ways to skin that cat, but I'm loving that headset in your SRAMbler...

Mostly, I'm looking forward to how you set the gears up.... will be watching this thread....Everything looks awesome so far.

 

[Chad T]

Love the grip. Looks like a nice set up with the threadless headset.

Great start!

A lot of ways to skin that cat, but I'm loving that headset in your SRAMbler...

Mostly, I'm looking forward to how you set the gears up.... will be watching this thread....Everything looks awesome so far.

Thank you all! Good info 808. The threadless upgrade is very doable for sure. I like it.

Had to file the clamp bolt down on the brake so I could slide the shifter over.

Got it in the right position now.

Anybody know how old that style of Dia Compe lever is? Thought it was a good match with the X9 deal.

Got spokes ordered after much head scratching. Time for something to eat and another nap....I love vacation!

 

[Chad T]

Got my new chain guard the other day and installed it today. Kind of Scramblery.

Started working a little more on the sissy suspension. Added the springs. Still some fine tuning to go on that.

One benefit of this type of chain guard is it keeps the chain on the sprocket during upshifts.

Pretty common problem with these 1X setups. I was finally able to observe what goes on and it looks to me like when you make an upshift with the indexed shifting it sends a side to side wave up through the chain. Guard works mint at keeping the chain on.

Wasn't a great day for a ride but it was a great ride! Man this thing flies with the long cranks. Gearing is just about perfect.

 

[rrtbike]

Wow! This looks like one high tech Sting-Ray! Great job man. Love the tire choice too.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Awesome bike that just gets better and better!

Luke.

 

[Chad T]

Wow! This looks like one high tech Sting-Ray! Great job man. Love the tire choice too.

Thank you. These tires were the main reason to do this bike as a Scrambler. I wanted them on the front and back. Hard to believe a tire can be so fat and fast at the same time. These are also the truest tires I've ever seen.

Awesome bike that just gets better and better!

Luke.

Thank you Luke. It was such a revalation to finally discover that the chain dropping is a common problem with these setups. There's a whole industry built up around producing widgets to keep the chain on.

Was such a thrill to finally crank her through the gears without the chain dropping. Anybody could get this bike up to 20+ mph with little effort. It just goes!

Thinking about adding another brake lever and cable and doing a dual pull on the center pull. Feels a little naked with only one brake lever.

Will be slow progress until it gets a bit warmer here but this one has a ways to go.

 

[Chad T]

Found something on ebay I just had to have. I'm not real big on decorative do-dads but I saw this scrambler pad and got curious if I could find a bolt-in cross bar so did a search on that and found a Suzuki motorcycle one that's alum and looked like it would work.

Bought that then went back and bought the pad. Thought about making a longer center rod to get it up a bit higher but I kind of like it as is.

I also swapped the lower shock tubes from side to side to get them to line up with the sissy better. I cut off some of the extra alum that was sticking out as well. Thinking about possibly mounting a fender and a reflector on the shock tubes but I'll have to make a bracket.

Was above 30 so took her for a spin today. Starting to get things dialed in......

 

[jamesdart]

I was just looking at that tire the other day wondering if it would fit the back of a stingray.

 

[Chad T]

Well it seems like this thread is way overdue for an update. Still kind of in the R&D riding stage. Working on it here and there but it's my main rider right now and it makes a great urban assault vehicle for hitting sidewalks, grass, etc. It's great on the street too.

These 1Xsetups (this one and my 9-speed Fastback) are quite the temperamental beasts. Seems this is not uncommon especially with Velo 20 in. road bikey deals.

This bike is finally shifting mint. I can bang it up and down through all 10 gears with no worries. The chain guard helped a lot but what finally cured it was a Surly 50t non-ramped and pinned stainless steel chainring. Works great and is a key item. Not many places make them. Wolf technologies has some too but they are a little more spendy.

No chain drops since I installed that about a week ago. I used the 39t inner chainring for a spacer for the guard. I think I'm going to keep that and just grind the teeth off of it.

I got a lovely Fairlady seat from Chicago Muscle guy quite a while ago. Pan is mint and the price was right. 6 dollar ebay seat cover is sooo comfy. I hope to stuff that whole thing under some black vinyl eventually.

Getting the suspension dialed in real nice. I've got about 2 inches of nice smooth travel.

Now the bigges frankensteiny thing I've done was to add another brake lever to the left. I've got the both running through the bolt at the straddle cable.

With 2 hands she stops pretty good but man is this thing weird looking. I really feel like I must have spent too much time online playing that Fantastic Contraption game.

I think I can shrink all that quite a bit or perhaps just weld something permenant in there. Was kicking myself for not doing a disc setup on here but I pretty well commited to the ole centerpull.

I also had to move the 2.4 hawk to the front and the 2.2 plyte Hawk to the rear for clearance. These babies grow a lot when the weather gets warm. More of a BMX stance now so that's OK.

Also made some early BMX style struts out of alum tubing. These have about 4 inches of rubber under them and that seems to damp a lot of vibration. She really does ride sweet but looking a little weird. The fork spacing there won't let me get them close enough to go inside the seat.

Just a wonderful bike to cruise around on and fun to bang through the gears. 50t ring (old one was 53) Get's me in the sweet spot of the cog for most cruising.

Not as cool as my son's Scrambler (The General Lee) but it will get there eventually. Rides to good to tear into.

My kid took a pic of it in his bike pic spot the other day.

I will finish it.....someday