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Hey all, greetings from the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where it is 95 degrees and muggy today...I am 42 years old, from St Louis Park Mn., got lots of old vintage bikes I ride around, couple rats and some nicer ones, so I'll post a few pics of my rat here and maybe some other ones in the gallery....
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here's afew more pics of the ride, it was a bike I got from my old neighbor, when he moved he LEFT IT on the side of the house to rot away, so I liberated it, I believe it was a late 60's to early 70's Hiawatha, very rusty on all the chrome, I just painted all the chrome with Hammered paint, stripped the frame and painted it with clear glitter spray in red and silver from the craft store, recovered the seat with some cheap fabric, spent about 30 bucks or so on new tires and cork grips, I think it turned out good, rides real nice, the hammered paint will scratch off if you are not careful, but it's easy to touch up....
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Here is a shot of my girlfriend (im)patientely waiting for me to quit taking pics and go ride!!
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Here is a couple more pics of some of our other rides, the first one is of me and my girl on our matching Fastbacks, mine is a violet '67, and her's is a violet '69 Stardust, womens version of a Fastback, these are both nice bikes but get ridden, not just displayed....
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She loves the Stardust, and it is a beautiful bike, this was an Ebay find a few years ago, was about 100 BUCKS, but shipping was just as much...
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Here is some pics of our other matching rides, these are 1962-ish Murray Jetfires, I found the girl's one at a garage sale many years ago, this is Brenda's favorite bike, rides it everywhere, this is her first choice by far of the three bikes she owns to ride, she will ride the Stardust at parades or something, but the Jetfire is the daily....
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The red mens bike I have is the same model as hers, I got this last fall at a bike show, we were super excited to find a matching bike to hers, this bike is in incredible shape, the guy I bought it from had just bought it from a garage the week before, it was covered in 30 years of dust but in GREAT shape, here is some shots of our first ride together on them late last fall....
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Here is a shot as I rode up on this bike at the show last year and first saw it... Needless to say the negotiations began with the owner....
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Very cool...love the matching bikes!!!

Glad to see that your girl loves the bikes like you do.

Welcome to your new home away from home. :wink:
 
I added plenty of pics, I suppose I could tell all about myself a little more...
i am 42 years old, been riding since I was 5, I have had too many bikes to count over the years, one of my first bikes I remember was a convertable of some kind, the tank could be bolted on to make a girls or boys bike, my first new bike was an AMF Aerobee single speed, a copy of a Stingray, I still remember going to buy it at Holiday gas station, I loved that bike, I turned it into a BMX bike when that craze hit, with real motorcycle shocks on the rear of the moto seat, I have pics of that bike I'll have to digitize sometime. I was a bike mechanic for 3-4 years at a Schwinn shop, I raced BMX bikes in the early to late 1980's, did the whole freestyle thing back then, I had a first generation Haro freestyle bike, the one made by Torker, and many many others over the years... I raced some BMX again in the early 2000's, I can still ride a bike on ramps and transition, I don't very often anymore though....
I still skateboard a lot also, I can still drop in on a vert ramp or do some basic tricks, I tend to stick to riding one of my longboards nowadays....
I got into getting older bikes and restoring and riding them about 10 yers ago or so, I enjoy the style and feel of the older bikes, I really like riding my Fastback Schwinn around the lakes and such, riding a wheelie forever, past some lycra clad bikers, is always fun!!!
 
Thanks for all the cool comments, this is such a cool site to share your bikes, I have been a member of the Schwinn forum for some time, it can be a bit"stiff" and no fun, this place is way cooler....
Here's some more shots of some of my other rides, I have a LOT of bikes I have collected up over the years, they all get ridden, some more often, but they all make it out at least a few times a year...
The first pic is of my '69 Lemon Peeler, I restored this from a basket case in about 2000, it has been ridden alot and is actually in need of paint and a new chainguard decal again, the paint turned out brittle and will need to be redone, most of the parts on it are from one of the Repop Schwinn Krates from 1999, I love this bike although it does not get ridden as much as my Fastback....
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There are also some pics of a '74 Fastback I restored a few years ago, I bought this for cheap, spent more on a new seat for it than the whole bike was, I ended up getting my '68 violet Fastback while I was in the middle of re-doing this 74, I gave this bike to my best friend Tim when it was done, he was a little shocked when he sat on it for the first time when it was done, and I told him it was his....
The before shots...
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The after shots, and one of Tim painting it, and a shot of the exact moment I told him it was his......
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A few more pics, one of our ratty old tandem, and how it got home from the bike show where I bought it....
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Here is also a pic or two of my 1950 Schwinn Panther, I bought this bike in 1986, it is the bike that started me on riding older bikes and enjoying them, it still gets ridden quite often, one pic is of it coming home earlier today after it lived at my buddy's house for almost 2 years, I am glad it's home....
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The red bike in the next pic is a teaser of a bike my buddy just redid, more pics of that one some other day.....
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HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NICE BIKES! I LOVE THAT PANTHER!!! And the peeler and the fastback and the tandem lol i like em ALL!
 

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