50, Skinny, and Single

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OddJob

Staff member
Moderator
Pro Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Messages
10,897
Reaction score
24,630
Location
Maplewood, MN
50 yr old, Schwinn Racer. Born in August of 1971. Seeks short, urban trips, rides around the lakes, runs to the convenience store, and short commutes to work. Looking for classy, but casual, riding. Comfortable in many settings. Breaking out after many years of being confined to 'traditional' mode. Excited for my new 'single' status. Ride like nobody's watching!

308395135_424115849791893_8480627091063921977_n.jpg


308409037_498444725134149_7928780931860861324_n.jpg


308331649_341083801534066_6034048578848553479_n.jpg
 
This reads like a personal ad
SGM (Single Green Male)
 
Beautiful sunny and 70 day today in the BACK 40. I got the headset in to the frame, using my home made headset tool. 1/2" threaded rod, 3 coarse thread nuts, 3 large washers bigger than the diameter of the cups.

Couple wrenches and forearms.

20221001_114918.jpg


20221001_114906.jpg


20221001_115056.jpg
 
Last edited:
"Make hay while the sun shines" is an old farmer colloquialism meaning 'take advantage of the nice weather'. Up here in the north country, getting the crops in during the Fall harvest season can be a bit dicey. You want it dry, avoiding the early Fall rains, and not covered in snow, which can happen all of a sudden and as early as mid October. It definitely applies to building bikes in a non-air tight, but mostly enclosed shed.

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and since I won't be doing any painting on my Skinny build, I was able to dedicate it to adding parts that I have procured from my stash and ordered last week at the bike shop since my idea for a build sprouted a couple weeks ago. The headset in the previous post was from parts I had in my top drawer in my tool box. Whenever I find a bike cheap or free I pick it up and strip it of these 'old bike' specific parts, like 1" headsets of which there are at least 3 different configurations that I have found.

I want my 50 SS ( 50, Skinny and Single) build to be an updated and revamped version of a 1971 Schwinn Racer, one they might have built if they could have forseen the future and the craze of urban single speeds. So that means some of the old parts need to be modernized. I wanted to use a 3 piece crank, like I did on Silver King Unchained, because they allow for more crank and chain ring choices, as well as run really smoothly. This Sunlite conversion kit is inexpensive, available, and easy to install.
309293784_1120621685515934_2433453202355872284_n.jpg


309283762_624402516075891_5268126248030111742_n.jpg



I popped out the old original cups in the Racer, and used my rubber mallet that has a large head to tap in the new ones. For the finishing taps, it helps when the diameter of the mallet head is bigger than the BB cup.
A little grease on the inside of the BB tube never hurt either.

309484161_1701059786931942_2209999582320018984_n.jpg



Part of my inspiration for building this came earlier in September when my long time mtb racing buddy and friend, Joe, came into the bike shop one day with a large blue Rubbermaid tub in his hands. He told me he was cleaning out his garage and found some stuff I might be interested in for my vintage bike hobby. Inside were some mtb parts from the late '80s / early '90s, some vintage pedals from earlier years, various nuts and bolts and attachments that are often hard to find, etc. The small stuff was in a Shimano shoe box from a pair of shoes he had purchased from me at my first bike shop back in 1990 when we were all switching over to clipless shoes and pedals! Pretty cool.

As I perused through the tub, I found this crankset, where the 3 original rings had been removed, and a 40t ring put in place, loosely held on by the crank bolts. Ding! The bells and whistles went off in my head! Someone had already thought of a single speed conversion years before, and left it for me to finish the thought! I modified some washers to fit the spider, and bolted it together and mounted it to my new BB.

309633418_2337374816429378_118922589113016395_n.jpg


310169082_895575801424950_5043435724766414952_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
"Make hay while the sun shines" is an old farmer colloquialism meaning 'take advantage of the nice weather'. Up here in the north country, getting the crops in during the Fall harvest season can be a bit dicey. You want it dry, avoiding the early Fall rains, and not covered in snow, which can happen all of a sudden and as early as mid October. It definitely applies to building bikes in a non-air tight, but mostly enclosed shed.

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and since I won't be doing any painting on my Skinny build, I was able to dedicate it to adding parts that I have procured from my stash and ordered last week at the bike shop since my idea for a build sprouted a couple weeks ago. The headset in the previous post was from parts I had in my top drawer in my tool box. Whenever I find a bike cheap or free I pick it up and strip it of these 'old bike' specific parts, like 1" headsets of which there are at least 3 different configurations that I have found.

I want my 50 SS ( 50, Skinny and Single) build to be an updated and revamped version of a 1971 Schwinn Racer, one they might have built if they could have forseen the future and the craze of urban single speeds. So that means some of the old parts need to be modernized. I wanted to use a 3 piece crank, like I did on Silver King Unchained, because they allow for more crank and chain ring choices, as well as run really smoothly. This Sunlite conversion kit is inexpensive, available, and easy to install.
View attachment 211615

View attachment 211616


I popped out the old original cups in the Racer, and used my rubber mallet that has a large head to tap in the new ones. For the finishing taps, it helps when the diameter of the mallet head is bigger than the BB cup.
A little grease on the inside of the BB tube never hurt either.

View attachment 211617


Part of my inspiration for building this came earlier in September when my long time mtb racing buddy and friend, Joe, came into the bike shop one day with a large blue Rubbermaid tub in his hands. He told me he was cleaning out his garage and found some stuff I might be interested in for my vintage bike hobby. Inside were some mtb parts from the late '80s / early '90s, some vintage pedals from earlier years, various nuts and bolts and attachments that are often hard to find, etc. The small stuff was in a Shimano shoe box from a pair of shoes he had purchased from me at my first bike shop back in 1990 when we were all switching over to clipless shoes and pedals! Pretty cool.

As I perused through the tub, I found this crankset, where the 3 original rings had been removed, and a 40t ring put in place, loosely held on by the crank bolts. Ding! The bells and whistles went off in my head! Someone had already thought of a single speed conversion years before, and left it for me to finish the thought! I modified some washers to fit the spider, and bolted it together and mounted it to my new BB.

View attachment 211618

View attachment 211619
What did put in there. Where can I find one
Screenshot_20221003-083051.png

Would this do same thing with sealed bearings
 
What did put in there. Where can I find one
View attachment 211623
Would this do same thing with sealed bearings

I'm not sure about that one you found. But mine is available for $31.94 on Amazon. Here it is:

sunlite BB kit.jpg


And it said it could be to me by Friday, Oct 7, with my Prime account. Good luck!
 
For those of you curious, I have found the 122 mm spindle length to be good for SINGLE chain ring applications. It keeps the ring in nice and tight to line up with your cog in the rear hub. If you are going with more than one chain ring in the front, or a multi-speed freewheel or cassette in the rear, you might want to use the 130 mm spindle BB conversion kit to get a wider range.
 
I'll see if I can find it in Canada
I got mine through our bike shop, we use a vendor called JBI.bike, but I don't think they have a Canadian outlet. Your bike shop may have access to a vendor that carries the Sunlite parts, they are world wide.
 
I got mine through our bike shop, we use a vendor called JBI.bike, but I don't think they have a Canadian outlet. Your bike shop may have access to a vendor that carries the Sunlite parts, they are world wide.
We have three I'll try but they come to me for odd parts.
 
We spent Monday up north, closing the camp for the 34th season, and pulling out the new dock for the 1st time. Took 4 of us about an hour to remove the 128' of dock. All stored on shore till next season.

Fall can be a melacholy time, saying goodbye to another Summer, the changing leaves, dropping temps. To me it's more pensive, to contemplate those days behind us and to wish for the return of those days next year.

In the meantime, I've got a bike to build!

received_1279100776252508_kindlephoto-377202381.jpg
 
We spent Monday up north, closing the camp for the 34th season, and pulling out the new dock for the 1st time. Took 4 of us about an hour to remove the 128' of dock. All stored on shore till next season.

Fall can be a melacholy time, saying goodbye to another Summer, the changing leaves, dropping temps. To me it's more pensive, to contemplate those days behind us and to wish for the return of those days next year.

In the meantime, I've got a bike to build!

View attachment 211780
Beautiful fall colors. We don't get that here to a large degree. Cool build OJ, looking forward to more progress!
 
While I was up north, few parts came in to the bike shop. These super lightweight aluminum pedals are just what I was hoping to add to the 'vintage upscale' look. Sealed bearings, highly polished, toe clip compatible.

20221004_163047.jpg


20221004_163033.jpg


20221004_162955.jpg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top