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If there is one thing in the world I hate most of all, it's a bicycle thief! I do hope you get it back.... BUT if you don't, I hope whoever stole it get run over by a bus or something equally unpleasant! By the way... there is a great old movie from 1948 about a guy who got his bike...

OK... that's about as crappy as they get! I thought that Walmart was already at the rock-bottom of Chino-Junk..... but this sets a new low, even for them. I guess the only thing that could make it worse would be if they slapped a "Schwinn" headbadge on it!

I've got to disagree that the American Worker produces less quality, or lesser quantity than their Asian or European counterparts..... OR that American workers don't want to work. The statistics simply don't support such an arguement. If you look at the dollar value produced per hour worked...

I guess you could.... if I knew how to post 'em here. Most sites I go to have an "upload" feature, and I'm not up to speed on the "hosted photo / link" thing. Maybe I'll go read the "How to post photos" thread.

Scrumby is right.... it shouldn't be too hard. I'm pretty sure that the Electra frames have a derailieur mounting hole, so you might not even need a hanger. BUT before you go the 8D route, you might want to look into an 8 Speed Internal hub. The Nexus 8's are very reliable, and don't add the...

I found an original one in a junk-pile for free a few weeks ago.... complete, but very dirty. I'd much rather spend my $150 fixing up my original, than buy a Chino-junk copy.

That's a nice looking bike..... of about the same quality as an older Raliegh 3 speed. The price seems about what i'd pay for such a bike. If it were in my town, I'd probably buy it. I would be careful about the tire sizes, as mentioned above. Harris cyclery has a complete chart of tire...

Actually, that is changing. The current model of outsourcing everything to China is becoming less attractive as oil prices go up and the Dollar and Euro go down. Consumer sentiment is also turning away from the "lowest quality for the lowest price" merchandise.... especially in Europe...

I'm with you, Ffloyd. I had the opportunity to look over one of these a few days ago, and my opinion is that they are just Chino-Junk made to look superficially like a REAL Schwinn Krate. If you put one of them next to an original, the quality is laughable Sure, they did buy the right to use...

Thanks RatDaddy.... I'm going to take you up on your offer. About the current status of the project: Worksman has been totally unresponsive in giving me quotes for framesets. I guess they aren't interested in even discussing the idea. That's OK however, since I've got another American...

I liked Sheldon.... he was a great friend of mine..... but he was often wrong, you know. He was a huge proponent of Fixies, in spite of their inherent dangers and difficulties. Now after folks have been riding them for a while, they are switching over to single-speed freewheels in droves. The...

OK.... the questions is NOT whether or not I can build a bike here in this country and make money with it.... OR if the American public cares where a bike is built. I've got mountains of research telling me those answers. In the last three years, the animosity bewteen American consumers and...

It will make it a satin / grey color.... but certainly still a metalic color. Another suggestion would be to BLUE it like one would blue a gun. You can get the chemicals at MidwayUSA. That would look VERY cool.... especially with a few chrome touches.

Re: I got her clothes off ,now what??? Scrumb..... ain't it great when you get 'em to that point? :D If it were mine, and I wanted it left "au naturale", I'd pickle it to give it a nice metal / satin finish and then use a thin satin urethane top coat. All it takes is some phosphoric acid...

I remember eleptical chainrings coming into vogue for road bikes in the 1970's.... then they went away for a time, only to come back later for mountain bikes. I actually used such chainrings on one of my bikes, and didn't find any advantage to them. They did however cause some shifting...

About the engineering reasons for truss rods: On a Schwinn, the truss rods serve no purpose other than as a decoration. The forged blade forks are more than suffiently strong without the need for such a brace. You can tell this is the case since they lack a compression member at the fork...

Hoyt.... I hear what you are saying. For casual riding, you are looking at the price vs quality.... and the economics of it point you toward simple at a lower price, but you'd still like something better than Chino-junk. I can tell you that at the $150 price bracket, it would be very...

Wolf.... you are right if the added extension is on the front of the fork. either way, I wouldn't recommend it

There is another way, Buck. We can build bikes here in this country, and as a people quit buying Chi-crap. If we don't buy 'em, thay won't make 'em.

So... Migz..... you are partly right. Custom bikes cost $1500.... and that's too costly for most folks. AND the margin for mass-retailer is indeed 50%. However, the median price for bikes is approx $450. Most folks can afford $450. (That's the price of an Electra Townie.... and they sell...