THE RICKPAULOS COLLECTION

found abandoned out the back door.

Coast to Coast. bent frame. >>> recycle bin



Mongoose freestyle bike. Weighs as much as if it were made of gold. I think I have a rear wheel to match.


Schwinn Delmar frame. A minor dent. .38? Build material.

in alpha order

Free Spirit LeGrande cheap Sears mountain bike 24" wheels.



Huffy. This was a donation, then the donor sent someone to get it. That person returned it about 7 hours later wanting lights, locks and an electric motor. Yah, sure.


Hyper Commute. low end walmart bike with all stamped steel parts.


This one is interesting junk. JC Penny UltraLight with 27" aluminum wheels, alloy crank on a 1 to 3 piece conversion bb. Shimano Tourney brakes with suicde levers that actually work. The rear brake cable routing was messed up from the factory. I wonder if it came with stem shifters. The downtube lever cable housing is very unusual. Typical Huffy frame construction so I'm sure it rides quite poorly. So many of the 1970s bike boom 10 speeds sold at the department stores were pretty awful, especially those with 26" wheels. They tried to "upscale" this bike with better parts but the frame just ruins it. Just a reminder that China doesn't have a monopoly on making lousy bikes. Another item is it is a larger frame. JC Penney sold some of their 10 speed bikes with 23" frames as the only size option.


Customers seat on his eChopper. Leather on steel. looks cool, Looks not comfortable.


Matching Next All Terrain Shock bikes. So heavy. Neat place for the headlight.


Next Flare


Raleigh Jazzi. Decent quality bike. More photos later for Macro Monday.


Roadmaster MTN Sport SX. Less common version with shock fork.


Schwinn Falcon. More bike industry stupidity with caliper brakes on painted rims.


Schwinn Frontier ladies version. Actually a nice bike.


Schwinn Mesa Gs. bright yellow & blue model. Sold before I could take a photo.

Schwinn Predator. 1985 Giant build. Father-Daugher repaint project. They even painted the pedals pink. Nice solid ride.


1975 Schwinn Suburban. Need tires, tubes, rim tape and a complete repack. Should clean up nice if someone wants to do that.


NOS Sears packaged Cateye Reflectors.


Best of the lot. Trek 7100 Multitrack. Front rim bent, seat torn.

I found a page for the JC Penneys Ultralight 27 in the 1979 spring summer catalog. List price $159. It might have been in other years but not all the catalogs are on line yet. "Minimum leg length of 34 1/2" so yeah, only 1 frame size.

rickpaulos said:

3 Murray Squirt bikes today.
A couple of the wheels are shot but I have access to period replacements.
The guy I got them from worked at a local grocery store chain where they were promo bikes. He said they had been in his garage since new, about 10 years ago. More like 40 years. made in USA Murrays. Very RED. A Bit washed out in the photo. Need reassembly and tuning up. They would make for good coaster brake conversions. Get rid of those feeble steel side pull brakes and friction thumb shifters.

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Started on one of the Murray Squirts today. Full dismantle. Ground off the cable stops. Masked off the decals and touched up with brush on Rustoleum. Perfect color match. BB & HS repacked. Ground off the rivets holding the 3 sprockets and guard together. This is getting a coaster brake conversion. Rims painted. Sprocket painted. The factory riveted the sprockets and guard before paint so there is no paint on the hidden sides of the sprockets. At some point this frame had an undersize seat post in it and someone cranked the bolt down so much it caved in the seat tube a bit. Easy fix. Just pound a larger post in.

LeeChi brake lever was copyrighted 1991. Bike made in Lawrenceberg, Kentucky. Near Louisville. Same place they made the Schwinn Varsities in 1984/5.

Wheels done for the first Murray Squirt. Aluminum rims are from some boxmart mtb. Painted white. White wall tires. Kept the original Wald front hub with the 3/16" axle that fits. Rear hub is a coaster. I replaced the axle with a much longer axle to match up to the 135mm spacing on the frame. Needs a chain and brake arm clamp to finish it up.

rickpaulos said:

Sekai GT Deluxe 2700. Donor said he got in it 1980 but the serial suggests it's a 1977 build. Note the lack of top tube cable stops and no water bottle bosses. Suntour Cyclone rear der.
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Started tuning this bike up and riding it. BB repacked as the factory grease had seized up after 47 years. Very little wear. First ride, flat tire. chain not running smooth.
Chain totally worn out. 1/4" extra length in just 12 inches.
new chain installed.
The front derailleur broke on the stand. The aluminum body broke off at the hinge.
Suntour Cyclone with bottom cable housing routing.
Replaced a similar vintage but cheaper Suntour from the parts bins.
Noticed the head set wasn't working well so I pulled the fork expecting more petrified grease but no, it had newish phil wood grease. Oh!, the steerer is bent. Just enough to crack the paint and to rub on the bottom cup that was causing some binding. So now the search is on for a matching fork. Basic Japanese fork used on millions of 10 speeds in the 1970s. 198 mm steerer in silver.

June 15 intake in alpha order

Eastern Trail Digger bmx.
rear wheel isn't oem on this bike but it is an Eastern Nitrous. 14mm axle. 9 tooth cog.
"Cro mo down tube" I take that to mean the rest of the frame is not. MSRP $449


Customers Firestone Pilot. Highly customized. copper wire lacing on the seat. Longhorn fender adornment.


GT Timberline. Just needs wheels.


Haro Vector V-0.


1999 Magna Outreach (looks unridden)


Mongoose Ledge 2.1. busted rear derailleur. Aluminum frame. Will sell fast once fixed.


Raleigh M20. Nice bike.


Roadmaster Granite Peak. IMO one of top 10 selling bikes of the past 20 years. I said top selling, not top quality.


Schwinn Continental. 22" frame. With factory fenders.


1982 Schwinn World. Steel cottered cranks! Made by Giant in their first year or so. scrapper.


Vista! The donor said it was a Schwinn Super Sport. Not. A Schwinn sticker stuck on the head badge doesn't make it a Schwinn. About the only non-schwinn bike with a flat blade fork. Well why not, they were trying to copy Schwinn bikes.


And what is this? Found in the bottom of an incoming box of parts. ISIS Overdrive bb? 48mm threading? Heavy so I'd guess it is not for some high tech carbon bike. It could weigh more than some carbon race frames.

1989 Fuji Ace

Suntour Blaze derailleurs, Suntour Edge crank. needs shift cables. Mongoose seat. Air.

today's incoming pack. In alpha order as usual.

All Pro (kmart) kids bike. Sent to the metal recycle scrap heap.


Dunelt fender.


Dynacraft Suspect (lousy name, blame your kid for everything)



Electra Hawaii by Trek. Nice kids bike.


Firestone. Fenders saved. Bent fork. Frame scraped.


Giant Frantic for the nervous kid.


Hot Wheels. Busted motor.


Huffy Sante Fe (2011). Potential build material.


Jeep kids bike. Super plush. Sold within the hour.


Roadmasters three

Edge with a splatter paint job. Made in the USA.

Hurricane Ridge

USA Mt Climber. (single speed project for this one).



to be continued

1965 Schwinn Collegiate


Schwinn Exerciser bones.


Schwinn Spitfire. 1952 or 1956. 24 inch ballooner.


Sears SpaceLiner rack.


Upland Storm. Has F117 stealth fighter decals on it.

Vista head badge from the bike of June 15 above.

what it would have looked like new:


before & after (rather uninspiring).

Roadmaster USA Mt Climber in a Blue to Maroon fade single speed conversion.

Fully dismantled. Ground off the cable stops, touched up the paint with red and blue metalic. Ground off the sprocket rivets so I could keep the smaller ring. The larger ring has a larger center hole so it would be useless on a crank by itself. On many of these low end bikes, the sprockets are riveted prior to painting so the inside surfaces are a bit rusty as water gets in and doesn't dry out.. Painted the smaller ring with the same red & blue metalic paint. Wax. Bottom bracket and headset repacked. pedals oiled.
Wheels built. Rear is a Bendix red band. Only some 30 years older than the Roadmaster. Hub rebuild with a longer axle and some extra washers and nuts. The grease was super petrified. The old axle was bent and it took a bit of effort to get the left side cone/brake stop off. All good now. Looking for a source of 3/8" x 24tpi x 175mm axles in bulk for cheap. Bent the brake arm so it would line up (bench vise and a 12" adjustable wrench). Aluminum rims from some ~2000 wallyworld mtbs. Brass nipples. Light weight. Tires are some modern mtb tires. 28 pounds now. About as simple as a bike can get. No cables, no levers, no derailleurs, no brake calipers. After a brief test ride in the 108 heat I can say the seat is pretty bad. I'd change that if I were going to keep the bike. And the Crossroads Flak Jacket tires are real duds.

Murray Squirt #1 done.
More photos on the 4th.

Murray Squirt #1 is my 50th completed single speed conversion! Well, counting those I've photographed. There might have been more that I missed or forgot about.

1989 Fuji Ace wrapped up.
new pedals & grips.
used tubes, chain, crank, bars, stem, brake levers, all cables.
rode it 44 miles yesterday. enuf.

Sekai fork replaced. new & old. straight and bent. The off the shelf silver seems to match well enough. A bit longer so I had to readjust the brakes and add a thicker spacer to the headset. It sure steers better without the binding..

Schwinn SX2000
2006
Hydroformed Aluminum frame. Wallyworld special. As far as wm schwinns go, this one is pretty nice. Compared to real mountain bikes I'd rate it about 3 on a 1 to 10 scale.
Plastic chain guard broken in 5 places. Removed. I dug through the parts bins of over 50 guards and none fit.
Cleaned off a thick layer of gravel dust mud and tuned it up. Replaced a brake cable, adjusted the loose rear hub. Cleaned and lubed the drive train.
Took it for a test ride that lasted about 3 hours on a glorious day for riding.
Some overgrown single track, some crushed limestone, some pavement.
The freewheel was a rockin and knockin all the time.
Basic Gripshift mx, coming apart.
Lumpy weld on the rear rim so the brake was grabbing every rev.
Doh, seat clamp is stripped out so I had to unload for the rest of the ride going over any bumps.
When I got back I noticed the seat was rather bent. Probably bent during the test ride. I hadn't noticed it being bent before the ride. too bad as it's a good visual match for the bike.
The fork. Suntour SR something. Basic coil springer, no dampening. Typical on most bikes under $1000. Well after a couple of miles of single track it started squeaking and groaning. Stiction with noise. unh uhn unh. Needs fresh lube for sure. I hit one section of the trail that looked like it was over run by horses during the last rain, then setup hard and dry. Well this bike sure couldn't handle that.

Overall a nice looking bike but really only good for urban use.

Mobo.
Of course we need two of them so we can race.

In rough shape. needs a lot of work but I'll get them going again. rear tires shredded. many missing bolts or nuts. seat backs are plywood that are totally rotted out. The seat covers look reuseable. Foam padding black with mold. Mobo sells several versions. This is the Tri-Ton, good for riders up to 5'2". Funky front freewheel. Not your typical cranks, they are tapered but are 5 sided! One had a road fork welded on the front for a camera mount.

Mobo.

Houston, we have a problem.

Turns out the steering geometry is bogus. The toe-in is wrong and not adjustable. I measured the spacing of the tires, front of the rear tires and rear of the rear tires and it's off by an inch! On people we call that duck footed. And more over it's not designed properly. The wheels stay at the same relative angle when turning. Anyone who has every studied steering knows the inner wheel has to turn in a smaller circle than the outer wheel to keep them parallel to each other so you don't grind off the rubber. It's called Ackerman Steering.* Well this all explains why the tires were shredded when I got them. I can feel it drag when going straight and I can really feel the tires dragging when turning

First plan is to cut the cross link and install a turnbuckle. I can get a left hand threaded die for one side. This will let me set the toe in at 0 where it should be. Still won't fix the steering problem though.

They did install turnbuckle adjusters on the steering levers where it's pointless. The company appears to still be in business. Their website has owner complaints of fast wearing tires which are responded to in a way that shows the company is clueless.

Turns out this is not the kids version. The frame adjusts out much more than a 5'2" tall person could reach.





*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ackermann_steering_geometry