4D LaSalle

[LBCJ]

How’s it going, RRBBO’rs? After taking a year off from the Build Off (incidentally, I was in Italy for a month, just like Mr Kingfish is this year), I’m back with another bare bones build. This will be my fifth build off in ten years where I have finished with a 3rd, 5th, 20th, and DNF (uploaded at the last minute not knowing the site ran on central time )

I’m starting with a frame, fork and tank, all 1940 Schwinn DX at far as I can tell. It was rusted pretty badly at some point, then was stripped and primered, so there’s no archaeological digging to be done. There was a trace of dark red under the bearing cups but that’s about it.

Since that is the case, I decided it needed to be a LaSalle, complete with a proper head badge.

This build is going to be a quintessential rat rod by most of our standards, but I am searching out some original parts for it as well. I like having them look like I ruined a perfectly good bike rather than cobbling one together!

 

[Captain Awesome]

That'll be a cool build

 

[LBCJ]

That'll be a cool build

Much appreciated!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

You had me at "1940 Schwinn DX". This will be good!

 

[Frankie plekhand]

Nice, welcome to your 6th BO!

 

[OddJob]

Welcome back to the Build Off! This looks like it be very cool!

RaT oN~!

 

[Ulu]

How’s it going, RRBBO’rs? After taking a year off from the Build Off (incidentally, I was in Italy for a month, just like Mr Kingfish is this year), I’m back with another bare bones build. This will be my fifth build off in ten years where I have finished with a 3rd, 5th, 20th, and DNF (uploaded at the last minute not knowing the site ran on central time )

I’m starting with a frame, fork and tank, all 1940 Schwinn DX at far as I can tell. It was rusted pretty badly at some point, then was stripped and primered, so there’s no archaeological digging to be done. There was a trace of dark red under the bearing cups but that’s about it.
View attachment 193129Since that is the case, I decided it needed to be a LaSalle, complete with a proper head badge.View attachment 193130This build is going to be a quintessential rat rod by most of our standards, but I am searching out some original parts for it as well. I like having them look like I ruined a perfectly good bike rather than cobbling one together!

I am digging the tanker style, and I am trying to figure out how I will build a scratch tank on my custom build from junk. I want a functional compartment on the bike for bike tools and patches. And maybe a hidden fork lock.

I always wanted a LaSalle car, and I actually rode in one. Nice cars.

Was the Chicago Cycle LaSalle bike built under license? . . . framed by Schwinn?
. . . or built complete there?

I really should read some more Schwinn history. Always my favorite bike.

 

[LBCJ]

I’ve been wrestling with building tanks for various bikes for years. Bottom line is that it takes legitimate fab skills and you’ll probably have more time and money in it than it’s worth, but building your own would be awesome!

If you google around, all the LaSalles I see are all schwinn except the badging so I assume they did it all and badged it. But maybe someone here has factual info, lol!

 

[Wildcat]

The LaSalle badge was like The World, American Flyer, and some others Schwinn used, not a hardware or department store brand. That's all I know.

A 1940 DX should have a serial number between C10999 and E53499 in large regular spaced digits.

 

[LBCJ]

I’ve been wrestling with building tanks for various bikes for years. Bottom line is that it takes legitimate fab skills and you’ll probably have more time and money in it than it’s worth, but building your own would be awesome!

If you google around, all the LaSalles I see are all schwinn except the badging so I assume they did it all and badged it. But maybe someone here has factual info, lol!

I found this elsewhere on RRB: Prior to World War II, Schwinn utilized distributors to get their products into the hands of retailers and customers. Some distributors such as Chicago Cycle Supply would also sell their own branded versions of Schwinn bikes and/or contract to "make" private label brands for sale by larger retailers.


LaSalle" is simply a one of several names used on bicycles distributed by Chicago Cycle Supply Company (NOT Chicago Bicycle Company- a different organization). It was not a re-badging, but merely the ORIGINAL badge installed from new. It was a common policy of Schwinn and most other bicycle companies in the classic era to allow distributors, dealers, etc. to use their OWN badges and decals and names. Thus there are hundreds of names for such bicycles. This does not ALWAYS mean that, for instance, a Schwinn with a "LaSalle" name will be identical to a factory Schwinn model in a Schwinn catalogue.. It might have slightly different features or color availabilities.

 

[Ulu]

Thanks mucho guys. I can build a tank, but it might not be from scratch.

It will surely have brass, lead, or epoxy to conceal my shaky welding.

 

[LBCJ]

The LaSalle badge was like The World, American Flyer, and some others Schwinn used, not a hardware or department store brand. That's all I know.

A 1940 DX should have a serial number between C10999 and E53499 in large regular spaced digits.

That computes!

The above info, combined with the fact that the bike badge uses a different script than any of the autos, combined with the fact that LaSalle was a French explorer so tons of people probably copped the name over the years, leads me to believe that there’s no correlation with the GM brand. But I still think it’s cool!

 

[kingfish254]

Ciao LBCJ, è bello rivederti in fase di costruzione!!! Hai sempre un raffinato senso dello stile per le tue build. Arrivederci, Pesce Re

 

[LBCJ]

Moving pretty slowly over here. Went from 11 days in Baja, Mexico racing the NORRA 1000 Rally to three days up at the family cabin in Kern County doing all the weeding and fire cutting. If you don’t, the fines start coming June 1st. Now I’m getting ready to head to Baja again for an actual vacation for a few days.

the first order of business on the frame was to free up the seat clamp. It had been welded on. I ground the top with a flap disc a little at a time until it broke loose.

I had a bunch of stuff going to the Powdercoater the other day so I went ahead and got the frame and some other parts sandblasted while I was there. I also bought an NOS AS bolt and nut on eBay to save the seat clamp.

I ordered a few other parts off eBay and in the meantime, I need to sand sand sand all the frame fork and tin. Then a little boiled linseed oil and then I can start putting this thing together!

 

[Shrunken_Head_Pedaler]

View attachment 194530Moving pretty slowly over here. Went from 11 days in Baja, Mexico racing the NORRA 1000 Rally to three days up at the family cabin in Kern County doing all the weeding and fire cutting. If you don’t, the fines start coming June 1st. Now I’m getting ready to head to Baja again for an actual vacation for a few days.

the first order of business on the frame was to free up the seat clamp. It had been welded on. I ground the top with a flap disc a little at a time until it broke loose. View attachment 194531I had a bunch of stuff going to the Powdercoater the other day so I went ahead and got the frame and some other parts sandblasted while I was there. I also bought an NOS AS bolt and nut on eBay to save the seat clamp.View attachment 194532I ordered a few other parts off eBay and in the meantime, I need to sand sand sand all the frame fork and tin. Then a little boiled linseed oil and then I can start putting this thing together!

I’ve always wanted to run a stock Volkswagen bug, but even at that, maybe a little pricey for me to do. Some day though.

 

[LBCJ]

I’ve always wanted to run a stock Volkswagen bug, but even at that, maybe a little pricey for me to do. Some day though.

People do it, but it’s a long bumpy ride! We run a modern (2007) three seat prerunner buggy. 3rd in class and 30th overall out of 260 entries. Trying to get it together and start a vintage truck project to run down there someday.

 

[Ulu]

The Volkswagen business is gone completely too poop from when I built them in 1973~81, until this past couple years when I bought a Volkswagen replikar.

The market is flooded with really poor quality parts. A lot of parts are just difficult or impossible to get now. It’s just amazing how many of us can still keep an old 1600 boxer running.

Ok, not actually in the car right now, but she still screams to 4k.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

That's one cool Schwinn LaSalle you've got! Sounds like a fun project.

Hearing about your adventures in Baja racing makes me wonder if you could add a little "Baja Bug" to spice up this build! Maybe add some off-road racing-inspired graphics or something!

 

[LBCJ]

The Volkswagen business is gone completely too poop from when I built them in 1973~81, until this past couple years when I bought a Volkswagen replikar.

The market is flooded with really poor quality parts. A lot of parts are just difficult or impossible to get now. It’s just amazing how many of us can still keep an old 1600 boxer running.
View attachment 194573
Ok, not actually in the car right now, but she still screams to 4k.
View attachment 194574

most of the VW stuff has been replaced by GM Ecotec 4 bangers these days, and the ones still running flat fours are insanely high end, even with just a stock 1600. And I remember all the cheap crap they sold. It was all I could afford back in the day!

 

[LBCJ]

That's one cool Schwinn LaSalle you've got! Sounds like a fun project.

Hearing about your adventures in Baja racing makes me wonder if you could add a little "Baja Bug" to spice up this build! Maybe add some off-road racing-inspired graphics or something!

I love all the 70s tones and graphics that are back in style, but not for this one. Going full traditional- in the rat rod sense, of course.