The Prowler

[Bike from the Dead]

That's why I don't trust forks that have been repaired or bent. That part of a bike takes more stress than any other part of the bike, right at the crown.

Perfect time to get a springer.

Yeah, I have one other bike with a repaired fork, but so far I've had no issues with it. That said, I have been thinking of switching that fork out too, mainly so I could fit a 26" tire up front.

Oddly enough, one of my previous ideas for this bike did include using a springer. I don't think I'm going to go that route, as I really loved how the bike looked with the solid (yeah, "solid") fork and full orange fenders on it, but this is what it might have looked like if I went that route:

Oddly enough, you just gave me an idea: Whenever I get all healed up, I'm more than likely going to work on my MBBO entry first, since that Build Off will hopefully still be active. What I can do with this bike in the meantime, since I won't have much of the time or energy needed to work on it, is I could put the springer fork back on this bike. Since the bearings are already greased, I could just pop that fork on and at least have the bike rideable while it waits its turn for repairs.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Catastrophic Failures can be harsh.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Catastrophic Failures can be harsh.

Yeah. Hopefully, this will be the first and last catastrophic failure I experience when riding a bike.

 

[JNOACK]

If I find I'm in a pinch and pressed for time, I can easily see myself doing that. Part of why I want to make my own rockers is for spoke clearance, but the other reason is for style and consistency. Note how on my sketch I made the rockers match the shape of the frame itself?
View attachment 176826

I love this drawing. Reminds me of my days in design school studying industrial design.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I love this drawing. Reminds me of my days in design school studying industrial design.

Thank you! I don't do a ton of industrial design, outside of bikes and fantasy concept cars, but I do cartoon character design in pretty much the same style.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I'm still feeling sore and stiff from my crash on Saturday, but I did feel better enough Monday night to make some more progress on my bike. I wanted to mock up the Schwinn mag chainring on the bike, so I needed to take apart the bottom bracket. This is when I learned that the pedals were cross-threaded to the wrong sides. I was able to bust one pedal free, but not the one that allowed me to remove the crank. So, using a wrench, some zip ties, and a hacksaw, I cut the crank arm so I could disassemble the rest of the bottom bracket. Turns out the frame had a bit of sediment tucked away inside, which I should've taken a picture of. I then mocked up a few new parts before heading to bed.

I mocked up the seat post, banana seat and sissy bar from Poison Apple, since that project isn't going anywhere for a while. I also mocked up the mag sprocket and a different crank. But there's one newer part that I mocked up that I'm really excited about. Can you guess what it is?

If your guess was the 20"x2.4" TCS Prowler tire mounted on the rear wheel, you win! Granted, it's just over 2" wide fully-inflated, but I love it so much more than that Duro slick I had on there before! I just got it in the mail on Monday, and I just had to see how it looked on the bike.

It's just big enough that I had to gently squeeze it to clear the chain stays as I installed it, which is big enough for me.

It may not have that squared-off profile most drag slicks have, but I feel the zig-zag tread pattern helps maintain a vintage, almost period-correct look.

This tire also helped me decide on a name for this bike: The Prowler. Reasons why I chose the name (aside from the tire) include:

1. One of the coolest cars from my childhood, at least in my opinion, was the Plymouth Prowler, especially in purple. Yeah, I know now that it was basically a cheap knock-off of one of Chip Foose's original designs, it should've come with a V8, and the bumpers somewhat took away from the overall look of the car, but to see a modern-day factory-produced street rod back then was, and still is, one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

2. The Spider-Man villain/ally, The Prowler, who dressed in a purple and black costume, and even rode a bike (though it was more "cafe racer" than "chopper") in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I'll be honest, I know more about Marvel/DC characters through their movies and cartoons than the actual comic books, so my introduction to The Prowler was the Aaron Davis version from Into the Spider-Verse. Awesome movie, awesome character, scary theme music.

3. The Prowler just sounds like a period-correct name for a 1960s muscle bike, or even a 1960s muscle car. Heck, 1960s-era Plymouth could've called one of their muscle cars The Prowler, and it would have fit right in with the Plymouth Barracuda or the Dodge Demon as far as model names go.

So, with all that said, I hereby dub this Murray muscle bike, "The Prowler."

------

One major issue I'm having right now is that the Schwinn sissy bar, as nice as it is, doesn't mount to my frame very well. The mounting brackets on the frame stick out too far for the mounting brackets on the sissy bar to sit flush. Worse yet, none of the other sissy bars in my collection have good chrome on them, and figuring out how to clean those up might not be that easy. I still want to try it, but I have no idea if it'll work. None of the aftermarket sissy bars I've seen are the right length, and the seat mounts are too low on all of them. And there don't seem to be many folks selling vintage sissy bars around Tulsa, Oklahoma. I might be able to find what I need on either here or the C.A.B.E., but I'm worried about the shipping costs. Maybe if I could trade for one...

I had to flip the mag sprocket so it'd clear the frame, but thankfully this chainring is in nice enough shape that it looks good this way. I also put my cardboard back plate behind the chainring, which I think has a neat look.

Unfortunately, the crank I picked doesn't clear the frame. I'm going to try mocking up a few other cranks in my collection, so hopefully one of them will work.

I'm not sure what else I'll be able to do on the bike this week, as I'll be spending time with my family during Thanksgiving weekend, but I'm glad I made what little progress I did earlier this week.

 

[GeePig]

View attachment 179116View attachment 179117

Push the bolt through the clamp, fit nut one and tighten, push the bolt through the frame bracket, fit nut two and tighten. Or you could use a thick washer instead of nut one.

I would also be tempted to file that bolt head to fit the clamp better.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

what if... that faux tank curved up gracefully from the downtube, and then down to the same ending point it has now, in an attempt to compliment/mimic/be parallel (concentric?) to the top curve of the chainguard?

 

[Captain Awesome]

I'm still feeling sore and stiff from my crash on Saturday, but I did feel better enough Monday night to make some more progress on my bike. I wanted to mock up the Schwinn mag chainring on the bike, so I needed to take apart the bottom bracket. This is when I learned that the pedals were cross-threaded to the wrong sides. I was able to bust one pedal free, but not the one that allowed me to remove the crank. So, using a wrench, some zip ties, and a hacksaw, I cut the crank arm so I could disassemble the rest of the bottom bracket. Turns out the frame had a bit of sediment tucked away inside, which I should've taken a picture of. I then mocked up a few new parts before heading to bed.
View attachment 179107View attachment 179108

I mocked up the seat post, banana seat and sissy bar from Poison Apple, since that project isn't going anywhere for a while. I also mocked up the mag sprocket and a different crank. But there's one newer part that I mocked up that I'm really excited about. Can you guess what it is?
View attachment 179109View attachment 179110View attachment 179111View attachment 179112View attachment 179113

If your guess was the 20"x2.4" TCS Prowler tire mounted on the rear wheel, you win! Granted, it's just over 2" wide fully-inflated, but I love it so much more than that Duro slick I had on there before! I just got it in the mail on Monday, and I just had to see how it looked on the bike.
View attachment 179114

It's just big enough that I had to gently squeeze it to clear the chain stays as I installed it, which is big enough for me.
View attachment 179119

It may not have that squared-off profile most drag slicks have, but I feel the zig-zag tread pattern helps maintain a vintage, almost period-correct look.
View attachment 179115

This tire also helped me decide on a name for this bike: The Prowler. Reasons why I chose the name (aside from the tire) include:

1. One of the coolest cars from my childhood, at least in my opinion, was the Plymouth Prowler, especially in purple. Yeah, I know now that it was basically a cheap knock-off of one of Chip Foose's original designs, it should've come with a V8, and the bumpers somewhat took away from the overall look of the car, but to see a modern-day factory-produced street rod back then was, and still is, one of the coolest things I had ever seen.
View attachment 179121
2. The Spider-Man villain/ally, The Prowler, who dressed in a purple and black costume, and even rode a bike (though it was more "cafe racer" than "chopper") in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I'll be honest, I know more about Marvel/DC characters through their movies and cartoons than the actual comic books, so my introduction to The Prowler was the Aaron Davis version from Into the Spider-Verse. Awesome movie, awesome character, scary theme music.

3. The Prowler just sounds like a period-correct name for a 1960s muscle bike, or even a 1960s muscle car. Heck, 1960s-era Plymouth could've called one of their muscle cars The Prowler, and it would have fit right in with the Plymouth Barracuda or the Dodge Demon as far as model names go.

So, with all that said, I hereby dub this Murray muscle bike, "The Prowler."

------

One major issue I'm having right now is that the Schwinn sissy bar, as nice as it is, doesn't mount to my frame very well. The mounting brackets on the frame stick out too far for the mounting brackets on the sissy bar to sit flush. Worse yet, none of the other sissy bars in my collection have good chrome on them, and figuring out how to clean those up might not be that easy. I still want to try it, but I have no idea if it'll work. None of the aftermarket sissy bars I've seen are the right length, and the seat mounts are too low on all of them. And there don't seem to be many folks selling vintage sissy bars around Tulsa, Oklahoma. I might be able to find what I need on either here or the C.A.B.E., but I'm worried about the shipping costs. Maybe if I could trade for one...
View attachment 179116View attachment 179117

I had to flip the mag sprocket so it'd clear the frame, but thankfully this chainring is in nice enough shape that it looks good this way. I also put my cardboard back plate behind the chainring, which I think has a neat look.
View attachment 179118

Unfortunately, the crank I picked doesn't clear the frame. I'm going to try mocking up a few other cranks in my collection, so hopefully one of them will work.
View attachment 179120

I'm not sure what else I'll be able to do on the bike this week, as I'll be spending time with my family during Thanksgiving weekend, but I'm glad I made what little progress I did earlier this week.

You had me at Spiderverse!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

The Plymouth is still a head turner, saw one prowling around town the other day, people were definitely looking. I'd love to try one out, see how it handles

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Push the bolt through the clamp, fit nut one and tighten, push the bolt through the frame bracket, fit nut two and tighten. Or you could use a thick washer instead of nut one.

I would also be tempted to file that bolt head to fit the clamp better.

Thicker washers... Good grief, the answer is so easy and obvious, yet somehow I didn't connect the dots. Thanks, I'll run by Lowe's and Hone Depot and test that out.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

what if... that faux tank curved up gracefully from the downtube, and then down to the same ending point it has now, in an attempt to compliment/mimic/be parallel (concentric?) to the top curve of the chainguard?

That's a neat idea, but a curvy tank and chain guard would look weird on a mostly straight barred frame, at least in my opinion. That chain guard isn't staying the way it is currently. I just havent modified it yet.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

The Plymouth is still a head turner, saw one prowling around town the other day, people were definitely looking. I'd love to try one out, see how it handles

I agree. They're still attractive cars, and it'd be fun to drive one!

 

[GTHOtrod]

Wow, Nasty stack!
Hope it doesn't affect your build too badly. Its looking awesome, Great work so far.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Wow, Nasty stack!
Hope it doesn't affect your build too badly. Its looking awesome, Great work so far.

I'm feeling much better now. Still sore, but I can keep working on my bikes at least. Thanks!

 

[GuitarlCarl]

A dimple precisely placed with a big o' ball peen hammer will help that crank clear. Is there a washer behind the race on the sprocket? Losing that would move the crank over too. Lastly, you could grind a bit of the back edge off the crank arm too. I've done all of those things and never suffered any adverse effects. Maybe a little bit of all of the above will be enough...

Carl.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

A dimple precisely placed with a big o' ball peen hammer will help that crank clear. Is there a washer behind the race on the sprocket? Losing that would move the crank over too. Lastly, you could grind a bit of the back edge off the crank arm too. I've done all of those things and never suffered any adverse effects. Maybe a little bit of all of the above will be enough...

Carl.

If none of my other cranks fit this frame right, then I might just dimple the frame or grind off part of the crank. I'd really like to avoid that if I can help it, though. The only thing between the race and sprocket is that super-thin piece of cardboard.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Okay, this is a small, lackluster update, but I figured it was worth sharing.

First up, the bad: I tried using longer bolts and stacking washers to make the Schwinn sissy bar work, but to no avail. The clamps offer no room for the washers to lay flat like they need to. So my nicest sissy bar was pretty much useless for this bike.

The good: While I don't have a picture of it, I swapped out the crank for the one off of last year's MBBO entry, Poison Apple. At this rate, Poison Apple's going to be a donor bike. The crank cleared the Murray frame no problem, so I can pedal with confidence!

This past Thanksgiving weekend, I also met up with a friend in Missouri who I met at the Pleasant Hill Bicycle Swap Meet back in September. He knows how to recover seats, so I figured he could help teach me how to recover a banana seat. Not only did he give me some helpful tips, he even gave me some sample materials to help me find what I needed for the job. He even gave me a bunch of forks, mostly 20", for free!

I also bought another sissy bar off another friend for $10, which is in much better shape than any of the other sissy bars I have. It seems to be missing the clamps, but If I need to, I could just bolt the sissy bar directly to the frame.

I also bought some leather/pleather today for the seat cover.

Progress on the bike has been slow this past week, but I'm still working on it. I'm feeling substantially better since the crash, though my wrists and my right arm are still acting up. I'm probably not going to make much more progress this week, due to some stuff I'm trying to get done around the house before this weekend. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick back up where I left off soon.

 

[Oldbikeguy1960]

I don't think so. This is my first repop Monark springer, so I'm a bit unfamiliar with these myself. That said, I tried assembling the fork like you said, but it spaces the dropouts too far apart to properly tighten the axle nuts. Assembled this way, the wheel axle fits right inside the dropouts. That said, I don't know why the lock nuts keep hitting the spokes. Is it an aftermarket issue, or are 20 inch wheels built wider than 26 inch wheels?

I haven't seen one in a while, but why would rotating just the bolt affect that? Even so, you could use a longer axle and spacers if necessary.
Like I said though it has been a while and I only had 2 original forks and none of the newer models.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Progress has admittedly slowed down a bit since my last post. Between the holidays coming up, the frequently, though not consistently colder weather, my wrists still acting up until recently, nagging ideas for my other back-burner bike projects, and a severe lack of energy/motivation to do much of anything these past couple of weeks, Prowler's been hibernating more than anything lately.

I have taken one small step tonight that should hopefully lead to more progress on this bike soon. I typed up a rough task list for this bike, so I could get most of my thoughts in order and figure out what I could do on my own, what I need help with, and in what order it would be best to tackle these steps.

One small but important detail I'm trying to figure out right now is how to paint some of my parts to look like chrome, without breaking the bank. Does anyone have experience with chrome/mirror spray paint, and what options yield the best results? If possible, I might run by one of the hardware stores tomorrow to buy some paint and test this out.