THE RICKPAULOS COLLECTION
- Thread starter rickpaulos
- Start date
Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:
When I was a kid riding my bike I bent a crank like that. One of my rides to a friend's house took me through a parking lot. There were cement car stops with metal pipes to keep them in place. Plenty of room to ride between them, but you needed to keep the crank level as you go through. I didn't do that one time, flipped me right off the bike and I was air born. Very painful lesson.
This arrived in July but I was too busy to do much with it then.
1988 Schwinn Traveler. Made in Greenville Mississippi. TruTemper tubing. Looks like someone was trying to change the bike to, well, what?
Not your typical plain blue Traveler, Traveler II or Traveler III, etc. The Traveler was a lower end lugged Schwinn road bike that was next to the Le Tour. Both models changed specs often, some times up, other times down. Made in several different factories/countries. This one is a "good" year for Travelers. Tru Temper 4130 db main tubes, alloy parts.
Bike now mostly dismantled. Front cones shot. Haven't pulled the rear axle yet. Pedals falling apart. Tires shot. I had put on another set of alloy dropped bars in July and found some 27" tires for it. Paint scrubbed and frame washed. Lots of chips and scratches. I touched up the white. A good match for the Rusteoleum High Gloss white. I'd say there is no chance of matching the greenish color so I'll probably spray some clear over the worst of the scratches and scrapes. Weinman Concave rims. I remember when those came out, 1978 or so and everyone made all these claims about them being bomb proof. Not. They still got flat spots. Some spoke wrenches would catch on the rim. They are great at collecting dirt and water. I rarely seem them any more and good riddance.
Frame with head set cups weighs 5.6 pounds.
1988 Schwinn Traveler. Made in Greenville Mississippi. TruTemper tubing. Looks like someone was trying to change the bike to, well, what?
Not your typical plain blue Traveler, Traveler II or Traveler III, etc. The Traveler was a lower end lugged Schwinn road bike that was next to the Le Tour. Both models changed specs often, some times up, other times down. Made in several different factories/countries. This one is a "good" year for Travelers. Tru Temper 4130 db main tubes, alloy parts.
Bike now mostly dismantled. Front cones shot. Haven't pulled the rear axle yet. Pedals falling apart. Tires shot. I had put on another set of alloy dropped bars in July and found some 27" tires for it. Paint scrubbed and frame washed. Lots of chips and scratches. I touched up the white. A good match for the Rusteoleum High Gloss white. I'd say there is no chance of matching the greenish color so I'll probably spray some clear over the worst of the scratches and scrapes. Weinman Concave rims. I remember when those came out, 1978 or so and everyone made all these claims about them being bomb proof. Not. They still got flat spots. Some spoke wrenches would catch on the rim. They are great at collecting dirt and water. I rarely seem them any more and good riddance.
Frame with head set cups weighs 5.6 pounds.
Schwinn Traveler overhaul continues.
hubs: all 4 cones pitted and replaced. It took 5 more Normandy hubs from the parts bin to find good cones. Of those 5, the worse had been repacked at some point with Phil Wood grease, the rest had the remains of the original grease.
bottom bracket. Axle has lots of pits spread out. I've seen worse but this is toast.
bearings full of pits.
Spoke nipples seized due to the Wienman Concave rims collecting water. The spokes could stand to be bit tighter but not this time. The alternative is replacing the spokes & nipples. If this were a paying job the final bill would be in the $400 range. I see youtube videos about customers paying $300 to $350 for a few upgrades on vintage bikes, not even full overhauls. There aren't many new road bikes in the same price range so a big bill on a classic Schwinn might be worth it to some.
We'll see if the photos load. Got hit with a Windows Upgrade this am and now my computer won't make thumbnails for edited photos.
hubs: all 4 cones pitted and replaced. It took 5 more Normandy hubs from the parts bin to find good cones. Of those 5, the worse had been repacked at some point with Phil Wood grease, the rest had the remains of the original grease.
bottom bracket. Axle has lots of pits spread out. I've seen worse but this is toast.
bearings full of pits.
Spoke nipples seized due to the Wienman Concave rims collecting water. The spokes could stand to be bit tighter but not this time. The alternative is replacing the spokes & nipples. If this were a paying job the final bill would be in the $400 range. I see youtube videos about customers paying $300 to $350 for a few upgrades on vintage bikes, not even full overhauls. There aren't many new road bikes in the same price range so a big bill on a classic Schwinn might be worth it to some.
We'll see if the photos load. Got hit with a Windows Upgrade this am and now my computer won't make thumbnails for edited photos.
Last edited:
View attachment 283062
Both bikes fully dismantled. Turning out to be more than a simple frame swap. 4 gummy rotted grips tossed. The 2011 Cranbrook was in okay condition. The 2010 Sante Fe wasn't. bare frame with seat post weighs 8.3 pounds. Pedals seized, bb shredded, stem rusted in pretty good but it came out after a blast of wd-40 and 60 minutes. Rust on the seat stay brake bridge so I sanded that out and touched it up with some black rustoleum.
Cranbrook tins painted for the Sante Fe. A dark red with an exposed center strip of tan. The Cranbrook chainguard is a bit short but will work after i drill a hole for the rear screw. I guess the Sante Fe has a longer wheel base or the mens model has a longer wheel base. The HUFFY is raised on the chain guard so I'll accent that after the paint dries. It wasn't quite warm enough to spray paint today and the yard work was kicking up a lot of dust and leaf debris. So I did a fast brush paint job on the fenders and chain guard. Pretty crude up close but this isn't a bike I wanted to put a lot of time into. Will be okay at 10 feet.
Sante Fe bb. Crunch, grind. Spit it out.
Last edited:
Huffy Sante Fe done.
It is kind of a small bike. Seemed cramped and short for me. Rolls good. Rode it about a mile and that was enough. Not good on hills or rough terrain. I did adjust the hubs, repack the headset & bb. Wheels with hd spokes and wide steel rims, fenders, chain guard, BB & crank transferred from the Cranbrook. I sanded the barn paint off the raised HUFFY letters on the chain guard. Pedals are pretty awful but I'm hoping they will break in again. No bearing plastic body type with rusty axles. I shot some oil in the pedals. I figure a few miles of pedaling will polish the rust off or grind a larger hole in the plastic pedal. Scrubbed and waxed the frame with little improvement. The gloss black paint has oxidized. These canti frames are annoying to strip, paint, polish etc, you just can' get in between the tubes. Some of the full photos came out good enough for postcards. 37.5 pounds final weight.
It is kind of a small bike. Seemed cramped and short for me. Rolls good. Rode it about a mile and that was enough. Not good on hills or rough terrain. I did adjust the hubs, repack the headset & bb. Wheels with hd spokes and wide steel rims, fenders, chain guard, BB & crank transferred from the Cranbrook. I sanded the barn paint off the raised HUFFY letters on the chain guard. Pedals are pretty awful but I'm hoping they will break in again. No bearing plastic body type with rusty axles. I shot some oil in the pedals. I figure a few miles of pedaling will polish the rust off or grind a larger hole in the plastic pedal. Scrubbed and waxed the frame with little improvement. The gloss black paint has oxidized. These canti frames are annoying to strip, paint, polish etc, you just can' get in between the tubes. Some of the full photos came out good enough for postcards. 37.5 pounds final weight.
fresh Specialized CrossRoads Elite ladies hybrid/comfort bike. Broken brake lever.
tuned up for Toys for Tots. 16" Hotwheels. Both wheels were trashed so we put on some with black rims with red spokes and hubs. Kinda cool color combo. Looks better in daylight.
tuned up for Toys for Tots. 16" Hotwheels. Both wheels were trashed so we put on some with black rims with red spokes and hubs. Kinda cool color combo. Looks better in daylight.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2024
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 15
That's definitely a fringe benefit Rick.
Giant Boulder. XS frame. Decent bike for a tween.
Huffy Princess. Tuned up and on it's way to Toys 4 Tots.
Huffy Rockit. late 2023 model. Defective from the factory. another EZ build pos. They keep modifying this horrible design. Hard to say it's worse than before. My nomination for worst bike line in the chinese era. Designed for "No tools needed for assembly", yet it has an USA Assemblers Inc. sticker on it. Really, take it out of the box, turn the crank arms outward, stick the bars in the fork until it clicks. Plug the training wheels in. That's it. Scrap metal. I'll put the wheels on another tot bike.
Schwinns!
Frontier
Ranger 2.6 FS (nice riding) and ready to go.
Schwinn Ranger 24"
Schwinn Thrasher.
Schwinn Trailway with sample collector.
Schwinn Varsity. Giant build after the Chicago factor was closed up. Schwinn had Murray make them for a year or two, then Giant.
Huffy Princess. Tuned up and on it's way to Toys 4 Tots.
Huffy Rockit. late 2023 model. Defective from the factory. another EZ build pos. They keep modifying this horrible design. Hard to say it's worse than before. My nomination for worst bike line in the chinese era. Designed for "No tools needed for assembly", yet it has an USA Assemblers Inc. sticker on it. Really, take it out of the box, turn the crank arms outward, stick the bars in the fork until it clicks. Plug the training wheels in. That's it. Scrap metal. I'll put the wheels on another tot bike.
Schwinns!
Frontier
Ranger 2.6 FS (nice riding) and ready to go.
Schwinn Ranger 24"
Schwinn Thrasher.
Schwinn Trailway with sample collector.
Schwinn Varsity. Giant build after the Chicago factor was closed up. Schwinn had Murray make them for a year or two, then Giant.
