The frame (shown above) is a '65 Schwinn Typhoon I bought months ago here from
"ern". The new glossy black powdercoat finish is perfect for the "formal" look I'm going for...
As the name implies, I'm looking to do something pretty different here - not ratty, but the polar opposite: classy, yet kind of sporty, with a little attitude thrown in. I'm thinking something like the tux-wearing-James-Bond of cruisers. In other words, a "black tie" Typhoon - see where I'm going here?! 8)
I already started gathering parts for this ahead of time, mostly from my already extensive collection of (unorganized) goodies (some of it shown here):
However, since we're at our beach house this week, my supply of stuff brought along to work on had to be scaled back a bit since all of the necessary luggage and beach stuff took priority. :?
Regardless, I have gotten some work done....
I'm sure my wife's not exactly thrilled about all the bike parts and tools laying around our vacation place either, but she's pretty supportive and understanding of my...uh, obsessive hobbies....so she just rolls her eyes and smiles.
I had a set of new-ish alloy rims, so I thought those would work to give it a clean, sporty look, and the light weight should help offset the heavy Schwinn steel frame. I also had a brand new set of wide whites that hadn't been mounted on anything else yet (read: "clean"!) that would add a touch of class and more of the needed black and white for the formal "tux" appearance (bullet valve caps were added as a nod to Mr. 007 :mrgreen: ) :
I hate to see a BRAND NEW (!) fork go to waste, but it's not quite what I had in mind:
So, the fork gets swapped out...and on go the wheels:
And yes, it gets a chrome springer. What better for a classy, sporty model? 8)