my Higgins-1st build

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Flea

Flea

Joined
Apr 29, 2008
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Minnesota
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Hey guys
I joined up a while ago with great intentions of building an awesome bike, but life sort of got in the way and I didn't do anything about it all summer long. Well, now that winters here I started going through my annual "why the heck did I move to this state I hate winter" phase. So I deal with my mild case of seasonal depression by getting busy and doing stuff that takes my mind off of the cold, so now is a perfect time to throw a bike together.

I have this old JC Higgins that I got at an antique shop in northern Minnesota. It's a skiptooth but I lost the chain and crank/sprocket assembly when we moved last. My wife has a schwinn that's in great shape, but it didn't get ridden all summer. My plan was to take the higgins frame and fit the wheels and crank from the schwinn, but since it's my wife's bike I had to ask her first. I was about to beg on my knees and offer to clean the whole house, do the dishes for a month or whatever else it takes when she said "go for it, I don't ride it anyway". Score

So here are the two bikes
family1494.jpg


Here's the bike after I fit the wheels and crank on. I got it in the basement to hook up the cable to operate the bendix 2 speed, it's cold out in the garage
Nov2008002.jpg


I wanted to be all slick and mount the shifter suicide style, but I realized on the first ride that it's not very easy to shift down in there.
 
Here it is after I got it outside today and got the seat on. Yeah, it snowed last night, that's ok, a little white stuff aint gonna keep me from riding this beast.
Nov2008004.jpg


It rides great. The shifter definitely is going need some work. I really want to get a shifter arm instead of the hand lever. It's also going to need some fatter tires. Maybe some of those red ones, those are cool as heck. I'm also thinking I've gotta do something about the handlebars, they're stinkin massive.

I've also laid back the seat post. I'll get some pictures of that up soon.
 
nice looking higgins, i like the curvebar frame and the truss rods with a sweet badge ta boot, laid back seat sounds nice too :)

so the wheels are off the girls schwinn right ? are they S-2s or S-7s ? if they are S-7s then your kind of stuck with that tire size unless you replace the rims
 
I know about the rims. These are just temporary 'cause I needed something just to get it rolling. I'm thinking of re-lacing the originals with new hubs.
 
cool, i thought maybe you just wanted the 2speed off the schwinn on there, definately save the drop centers :D , much cooler than must stuff nowadays :mrgreen: and like MarkM said, a 3 speed would be nice
 
Her bike will be easy enough to put back together. I just "borrowed" the parts, which means I have to give them back eventually.
 
Here's the laid back seat post.
Nov2008005.jpg


I rode it around the neighborhood today. It's a pretty comfortable ride. I did some tweaking with it to make it more comfortable. I turned the handlebars back towards me a little so I can sit up a little higher. I wish I could make the seat lay closer to the frame but I'm 6'2 and it would put my knees up in my chest if the seat were any lower.
 
Flea said:
Here's the laid back seat post.
Nov2008005.jpg


I rode it around the neighborhood today. It's a pretty comfortable ride. I did some tweaking with it to make it more comfortable. I turned the handlebars back towards me a little so I can sit up a little higher. I wish I could make the seat lay closer to the frame but I'm 6'2 and it would put my knees up in my chest if the seat were any lower.
Click to expand...

I've always noticed that some of the larger guys have fit issues on the old balloon tire era bikes, I wonder if that is because people were a little smaller back when the bikes where built. My house was built in '37 when cars were smaller, and it's hard to get a modern day full sized truck all the way down it because today's trucks have such a wide wheel base. My problem with any bike built around the '50's is what I call toe drag. With size 13" feet my toes will often contact the tires when on a casual turn.

A crank with shorter arm lengths might work for a taller rider. You don't have as long a down stroke, b ut then the upstroke won't be as high either. Just an idea....
 
I took the bike for a nice cruise yesterday after I had made some little adjustments to help it fit me better. It was way more comfortable with the bars positioned back instead of pointing straight down. That seat was COLD though. My butt was numb for a while from sitting on cold bare metal. I've gotta make a cover for it soon or else I won't be able to ride it during the winter. I also had to mess with the shifter a little to get it to shift properly. I've got it working pretty smoothly now.

I have a shorter crank that I might throw on there just to see if I like it better, but I'm pretty happy with the way it fits me for now.
 
Alright, I need a little opinion here. Does the light look good or way too big. It's an old Unity spotlight I had lying around.
Nov2008008.jpg
 
Honestly, I'm not nuts about the spotlight. Also, think about how its going to move when you have to turn. I'd definitely shoot for something smaller. Great looking bike otherwise!
 
I'd take the bar off of it. I just wanted to prop it up in there to see what it looked like. I think I will just keep my eyes open for something smaller, but I had this lying around so I thought I'd check it out. I do think it would look better though if it was mounted a little farther back, but the truss rods prevent that.
 
I like the big lights but feel you on moving it closer to the head tube.Will it fit behind the truss rods? I can't figure out how that seat is mounted.did you make the seat post? I really like the look of this bike.I like the light but it would definitly need to be mounted to follow the lines a little better. :mrgreen:
 
I'll take the truss rods off and see what it looks like with the light mocked up closer to the head tube. The light won't fit behind the truss rods the way it is, but If I could easily modify the truss rods to allow the light to fit.

The seatpost is the one that came with the bike. It's a solid bar and I used my oxy/acetylene torch to heat it up and bend it to the shape it's in. I got a little crazy and bent it too far on the first bend, but instead of just bending back up a little, I decided to make a second bend further back which gives it an "S" shape.
 

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