Hey guys,
I stayed up way too late last night checking out the gallery and all the bike builds so I figured I should post an intro and stick around for a while.
I used to work at a bike shop in Omaha NE back in the early 90's when I was in high school and summers home from college. Back then I was mostly into bmx and mountain biking but I did pick up a 60's Schwinn Typhoon with 2-speed kickback that I've always regretted selling when I finally left Omaha. I've been out of the bicycle scene for a long time now, but my wife was wanting a bike so I started keeping my eye out. We found a sweet Breeze on Craigslist for $40, I found the Schwinn forum to try to find out some info on it, and it's all down hill from there. This was about a month and a half ago, now I have six bikes hanging in my little shed and on Sunday I'm going to look at two more. My wife thinks I've gone nuts, but we went for our first bike ride together the other day and it was a blast. She's amazed that I pick hobbies that require lots of space and lots of specialized tools. My other hobby is guitar-building, haven't finished one yet but I'm good at starting them. http://guitarmaking.blogspot.com
Hope it's not in bad form to post this many pics on a first post. It's not a real impressive collection, nothing too rare or interesting, but it's been fun getting back into bikes.
Here's the one that started it, 1974 Breeze. I've got some of the parts off as I was doing a little cleanup, chain degreasing, etc... I put pink Vans brake shoes by Kool Stop on it. I need to overhaul the 3-speed hub, I don't think it's ever been serviced and it's not shifting right.
So then I found this matching Speedster, same year and color, on eBay. Still missing seat/post, but it was very clean out of the poorly packed box.
Then I found this on Craigslist and picked it up within a couple hours of it being posted. It's a 1953, mostly original from what I can see except the rear tire and seat post clamp bolt. I think it's a Meteor model which is lower end, but it's got a couple nice upgrades with the springer and torpedo light. I've been having a great time cruising the neighborhood on it. The only problem is I'm too fat so the spring compresses a lot when I ride. I think I'm going to get a smaller high tension spring to fit inside the original. Hopefully I'll lose a few pounds pedaling this thing up some slight inclines.
This is my dad's childhood bike and probably the one I'll get a little creative with since these aren't super valuable. I think it's about a 1953 Montgomery Wards/Hawthorne. It's been painted a couple times and has been sloppily welded once at the seat tube/bottom bracket.
Then this is my dad's bike from college, 1963-ish Hawthorne/Hercules 3-speed with coaster brake. Funny thing is I couldn't find any real similar bikes online till I found a thread on here where someone passed one up on a garage sale for $50 obo. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11014&p=110418
Not pictured: the 1994 Jamis "Diablo" mountain bike and the two 1949 English 3-speeds I'm going to go look at on Sunday to a local guy I've talked to. His dad bought them in 1949, still has the receipt. He was going to refinish them in the 1980's so they're taken apart and everything was stripped and primed and never put back together.
Thanks if you've read this far, see you around.
I stayed up way too late last night checking out the gallery and all the bike builds so I figured I should post an intro and stick around for a while.
I used to work at a bike shop in Omaha NE back in the early 90's when I was in high school and summers home from college. Back then I was mostly into bmx and mountain biking but I did pick up a 60's Schwinn Typhoon with 2-speed kickback that I've always regretted selling when I finally left Omaha. I've been out of the bicycle scene for a long time now, but my wife was wanting a bike so I started keeping my eye out. We found a sweet Breeze on Craigslist for $40, I found the Schwinn forum to try to find out some info on it, and it's all down hill from there. This was about a month and a half ago, now I have six bikes hanging in my little shed and on Sunday I'm going to look at two more. My wife thinks I've gone nuts, but we went for our first bike ride together the other day and it was a blast. She's amazed that I pick hobbies that require lots of space and lots of specialized tools. My other hobby is guitar-building, haven't finished one yet but I'm good at starting them. http://guitarmaking.blogspot.com
Hope it's not in bad form to post this many pics on a first post. It's not a real impressive collection, nothing too rare or interesting, but it's been fun getting back into bikes.
Here's the one that started it, 1974 Breeze. I've got some of the parts off as I was doing a little cleanup, chain degreasing, etc... I put pink Vans brake shoes by Kool Stop on it. I need to overhaul the 3-speed hub, I don't think it's ever been serviced and it's not shifting right.
So then I found this matching Speedster, same year and color, on eBay. Still missing seat/post, but it was very clean out of the poorly packed box.
Then I found this on Craigslist and picked it up within a couple hours of it being posted. It's a 1953, mostly original from what I can see except the rear tire and seat post clamp bolt. I think it's a Meteor model which is lower end, but it's got a couple nice upgrades with the springer and torpedo light. I've been having a great time cruising the neighborhood on it. The only problem is I'm too fat so the spring compresses a lot when I ride. I think I'm going to get a smaller high tension spring to fit inside the original. Hopefully I'll lose a few pounds pedaling this thing up some slight inclines.
This is my dad's childhood bike and probably the one I'll get a little creative with since these aren't super valuable. I think it's about a 1953 Montgomery Wards/Hawthorne. It's been painted a couple times and has been sloppily welded once at the seat tube/bottom bracket.
Then this is my dad's bike from college, 1963-ish Hawthorne/Hercules 3-speed with coaster brake. Funny thing is I couldn't find any real similar bikes online till I found a thread on here where someone passed one up on a garage sale for $50 obo. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11014&p=110418
Not pictured: the 1994 Jamis "Diablo" mountain bike and the two 1949 English 3-speeds I'm going to go look at on Sunday to a local guy I've talked to. His dad bought them in 1949, still has the receipt. He was going to refinish them in the 1980's so they're taken apart and everything was stripped and primed and never put back together.
Thanks if you've read this far, see you around.
