New member with a Schwinn Tornado

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GTL

Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
2
Reaction score
2
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hello... new member to the forum. I'm an avid mountain and road cyclist, but fairly new to rat rod bikes. I previously had a vintage Burgers E.N.R. that I restored after pulling it out of a neighbor's garbage, but ended up selling it because it was too small for me to comfortably ride. I recently picked up a Schwinn Tornado from an estate sale for $60. The frame was re-welded at some point in the past at the upper seat tube junction, which detracts a bit from its current appearance, but this should be less noticeable once it's repainted. I'm still planning out what to do with it, but I'm leaning toward the board track racer style: red paint, wide cream-colored tires, flipped handlebar, low set back seatpost. Suggestions and comments are welcome!
 
Sweet bike! Looks like mine :)
2ehemyqe.jpg
it is a great riding bike, welcome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Welcome.
You have one of those frames only made for a couple years, around 1960-1962. The white stripes look in good shape on it. Just a suggestion, you may get the original paint looking good with just a cleaning and waxing, then touch up the welded spot to have an original looking classic board tracker. The white trim may rub off if you scrub too hard though.
 
Welcome to RatRod world. As a fellow roadie I use vintage heavy bikes for strength training. Helps in hill climbing. The Schwinn twin bar nice.:bigboss:
 
Thanks for the comments. I was thinking that a complete repaint was in order, primarily because of the re-weld, but maybe it'd be better to only paint that spot. If so, do you have suggestions on how to clean? Just basic soap and water with a sponge, followed by some automotive wax? Also any technique suggestions for matching the paint color and blending it to the original paint so that the transition is not too noticeable?
 
Welcome, GTL! Looks like I'm not the only member joining this month with a '60 Tornado in hand! I picked mine up in northern Indiana on Saturday. Yours looks great - best of luck!
 
I have been looking for that particular chainguard on your Tornado. Would you consider a trade? Maybe some $$$ to help you decide?

Chainguard_Front.jpg

Chainguard_Back.jpg


Lou
 

Latest posts

Back
Top