Colorful Colorflow

Back in April, I picked up this J.C. Higgins frame for $10 at the bicycle swap meet in Haysville, Kansas. I instantly fell in love with it, both because it was a balloon tire Murray frame, and especially because of its wild layered paint job. This thing's got at least 4 layers of paint: 2 shades of blue, 1 coat of red, and 1 coat of black! It almost looks like a "splatter paint job," which is super cool!


It's got some freeze damage in one of the seat stays, and the rear triangle is out of alignment, but I'm sure I can fix both issues with little difficulty.

Two months later, I came up with a plan for this frame while I was down in Texas pet-sitting for my brother and sister-in-law. I whipped up this sketch of the JC Higgins as something I've wanted to build for a while: a stripped-down, BMX-style "street bomber" klunker!


Not long after I returned home, I pulled the bike and some parts out of storage and mocked it up. Now, usually when I sketch out a plan for a bike first, it doesn't translate as well in the real world. This time however, it looked just as good if not better than my initial sketch! The steerer tube on the fork I had on hand was 1 inch too short to use for more than this mockup, I couldn't use the handlebar and stem I wanted to mock up, and my idea for using pink accents didn't work like I thought it would, but the overall mockup of the bike was just what I was looking for!


Here you can see just how out of whack the rear is.

Just last week, I picked up this Schwinn Cruiser for $20 locally, because it had one specific part I needed to really kick this project off: a 26 inch BMX-style fork with a ~7 inch steerer tube! As an added bonus, it also came with two lightly-rusted but perfectly true chrome wheels that I think will look great on this JC Higgins, as well as some other parts I can use on some other bikes.


After throwing on some new tubes and tires to take the Schwinn for one last ride, I quickly disassembled the bike and threw my newfound parts on the JC Higgins, and I got to say, I'm loving it!

If I just paint or powder the fork chrome, and stick with the black 26" x 2.5" GT Smoothie slicks I had on before, this thing's a winner! I think having all the attached parts in black and chrome will help the colors on the frame pop that much more. It already has this sort of "splatter paint" look I've seen on custom BMX and mountain bikes, except the effect is from layers of different colors of paint peeling off over time!


The chainring is off a 3-speed AMF bike I got years ago. I had planned to put it on another BMX-inspired build of mine, but I think it looks right at home on this bike.


While the fork isn't the color I want, it spaces the wheel away from the frame in a way I really like, and it has that classic BMX look to it!


I don't know if I'll use this seat or something else, but I'd like to have something comfortable to sit on, especially since I want to put some miles on this bike.


Got these handlebars from a guy while I was down in Texas earlier. I just liked the chrome and the sticker on them. Figured they'd be perfect for this project!


I'm not sure what the stem's off of, Dyno, I think? I got it in a bundle of parts from the Springfield, Missouri swap meet last month.


I had thought briefly about saving this project for the next Off Road Build Off, but the weather has only just begun to cool down in Tulsa, and I want to knock out as many projects as I can while the weather's cooperating. I've found that the best weather for riding and building bikes is usually in the fall, so I want to take full advantage of it while I can. If it means I miss out on a few Build Offs, I can live with that as long as I can build more bikes.

Something I might do in the future though is convert this bike from a single-speed coaster brake bike into a 10+ speed bike, using parts from various donor mountain bikes and this funky Wild Side bike I got. I figured the purple cables and chainring would look pretty nice on this mostly blue-and-red bike.


In the meantime though, I'm keeping this bike simple. Hopefully I'll have it ready in time for the next BMX Vintage Nationals here in Tulsa later this year.

Wildcat said:

Are you going to try to paint the fork to match the frame? Looks like black, baby blue and coral red.

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No, I have an older bladed fork that'd match the frame, but that's not the look I'm going for. I'm going to either paint or powder coat the fork chrome.

Wildcat said:

https://bmxmuseum.com/forsale/698115

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Awesome, thanks!

MattiThundrrr said:

I like the "tough mutt" vibes this is giving off. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I think I'd leave the fork blue. There's blue in the paint mix, the fork isn't that far off. Very cool stuff, looks like tons of fun to ride

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Thanks Matti! Yeah, the blue fork isn't bad, but it sticks out too much for my tastes. I want the only color to be on the frame, at least for now.

Thank you! I can't wait to fix it up and ride it around town. I might even take it to a skate park and practice "carving the bowl" too!

68z27 said:

Lots of good options, you have. I also like your idea of the chrome fork and only the frame having color.

Your $20 blue Schwinn cruise frame and fork is the same/similar to GIGI. Do you have a serial number. This may help me identify their age,,,,,,,

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Thanks!

That's right, I remember you building one earlier. I didn't look too hard for a serial number, but I didn't see one on either the head tube or the dropouts like I normally do on these later Schwinns. Next time I run by my storage unit, I'll take a closer look and see if I can find anything. I want to say this is an '80s or maybe even an early '90s bike, but I'm not sure.