Bike from the Dead's Mockup Mash

[Bike from the Dead]

Late this past year, I had a sort of "self-intervention" in regards to my bike hobby: I have more bikes and bike parts than I know what to do with, and I need to hurry up and decide what I'm going to do with all of them. The sooner I can do that, the sooner I can build the rest of the bikes in my collection, and get rid of what I don't want/need. So what's the best way to figure out what I'm going to do with all these bicycles and bicycle accessories? I don't know, but I decided that digging almost everything out of storage and mocking up all of it at once seemed like the best idea. (It wasn't, but it did help me figure out a few bikes so far, so at least it's not my worst idea...)

I plan to use this thread as an archive for most, if not all, of my mockups from this recent "Mockup Mash." It'll be more of an "idea journal," where I'm not exactly ready to start a build thread for each bike, but I can at least share my ideas and potential plans for each bike. Some of these bikes might be better suited for a specific Build Off, while others may be more of a "whenever I feel like it" kind of build. I may even share some earlier mockup photos from before this self-intervention, I don't know. Hopefully, not only will this "Mockup Mash" help me figure out my bike projects, but it might even give you some ideas for your bikes as well!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

One of the first bikes I started toying with during this Mockup Mash is my 1930s Murray. My dad actually got this and some other stuff from the Sapulpa Fire Museum back in 2022 for free because it was in a storage room not being used, and they wanted to give that stuff to someone who'd appreciate it. He wanted to use it as a display piece, but I wanted to build it up to ride. I ended up trading him some 1955 Buick parts I also got for free, and that's how I got my first prewar bike.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. At first, I just removed the fenders and chain guard, and installed a fresh set of tubes and tires just to take it for a test ride. Thankfully, the bike was stored well, so the skiptooth chain was good enough to use as it was. The coaster brake wasn't good enough to safely stop though, so I just left it on the rack while I worked on other bikes.

Still, I figured since Dad was the one who found the bike, it could make for a good father/son project, where we could collaborate and build a bike we'd both like. At the time, we thought about going for a "traditional hot rod" sort of look, with a flat/satin black paint job and mint green scallops. I just needed to see what parts I had that might help flesh out that idea. And yet, the idea of making this red bike firetruck-themed still lingered in the back of mind, even though I was all to ready to get rid of that red paint...

Earlier this April, I started mocking up a few parts on the Murray. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to install my Dana 3-speed bicycle transmission on this bike, since the straight chain stays meant the small chainring on the Dana wouldn't have any trouble clearing the frame, and because it would make the bike faster. At first I tried throwing a Schwinn springer fork on it, only to find the Murray's headset was too short. So that option was out.

Next, I mocked up a Columbia springer fork and a pair of fenders from the same bike. I knew the steerer tube on this fork was too long, especially since it was from a girl's bike, but I figured that would be relatively easy to change. Plus, the fenders fir the frame pretty well. But I had one more idea I just had to try: In one of my favorite documentaries, Hot Rods, Rat Rods & Kustom Kulture: Back from the Dead, Ian Roussel used a vintage Chevy e-brake lever as a suicide shifter for a rat rod pickup he was working on.

I happened to have a vintage e-brake handle of my own, and I wanted to see if I could make my own custom bicycle gear shifter out of it. So I zip-tied the thing to the frame, and honestly, I kind of liked it! It was too tall in its current configuration, but I figured it'd be easy enough to shorten it to a more reasonable height. The tricky part would be making it actually function...

The last parts I mocked up that day were some handlebars and a handlebar stem. I liked what I tried, but not enough to stick with it for good.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Fast forward to December. I was in the process of mocking up another bike, when I decided to see how some of the parts I was throwing on that bike would look on this prewar Murray. That soon led to me focusing on the Murray again.

It started off with mocking up the triple tree fork and one of the 24"x3" Thick Brick wheels and tires I got from a Felt bike. Just for kicks, I wanted to see how this bike might look as a chopper. Maybe it could work on another bike, but I didn't feel it was right for this one.

Next, I tried playing around with more of a klunker-inspired vibe.

I also mounted a wheel with a 3-speed coaster brake hub to the bike, inspired heavily by @The Renaissance Man's Drag King: Raceliner Dragster, which not only had a Bendix 2-peed kickback hub linked to a Dana 3-speed bicycle trans, but was also how I found this forum back in 2018, if I remember correctly.

I tried this little trick I came up with on another bike I had mocked up just before this one, where I mounted a BMX handlebar by the cross tube, then ran some truss rods through the center hole, only this time I also ran the shifter cables through it as well. I really liked the idea, but like on the previous bike I tried it on, it just wasn't the right idea for this bike.

I tried a few other handlebars and stems to see what might work better, until I landed on the pair below.

But here was where this mockup kicked into high gear (pun very much intended.) It may not look like much, but this leftover piece of bobbed fender from my first RRBBO entry Dumpster Diamond was the exact piece that determined the entire direction I planned to take this Murray. As it turned out, that fender scrap almost perfectly matched the paint and patina of the frame. And while red is one of my least favorite colors, the idea of building this red bike around the fact that it came from a Fire Museum, that houses red firetrucks, never left my mind. Couple that with the 3-speed trans paired to a 3-speed wheel hub for a total of 9 gears, and the fact that I was listening to The Choice is Yours by Black Sheep, and just like that, I had my new name for the bike: Engine No. 9!

To tie in with the new direction for this Fire House Murray, I grabbed this "Fire Chief" siren off another bike I recently acquired and threw it on this bike. I know it says "Fire Chief," but I'm already calling this guy the other name I thought of for this bike, Fire Marshall Bill Murray.

And just like that, I had my theme for this bike! But I still needed to grab a few more parts out of storage to really flesh out this idea.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

The next day, I grabbed all the parts I needed to take Engine No. 9 even further, and continued mocking up parts.

Most critical to me was the original paint and patina-matched fork. No other other fork I had would go with the red frame and fender like the original red fork. Next, I cut out a cardboard tank (from admittedly the wrong side,) and sprayed it red to match as best as I could. At this point, Engine No. 9 was looking more like a board track racer, which I really liked. However, a fast-ish board track racer bike with a name like Engine No. 9 needs an engine. I didn't have one, but I had the next best thing: a vintage battery-operated Mattel Vrroom motor! I got it years ago for another project, but it just felt more at home on this one.

Now, a Vrroom Motor isn't an actual motor, but it does one thing just as good as any bike motor: it makes a lot of noise!

And like any noisy engine, it needs an exhaust pipe. I got this Harley Davidson chain guard and vacuum hose attachment at the Haysville Kansas swap meet last year, and I knew they'd make great bicycle parts. Admittedly, the main reason I threw them on the bike is that the bike looked a little too top heavy with just the tank and engine, and no chain guard to balance it out. Plus, I figured if I was going to have a bike with 9 gears, I might want a little extra protection if the chain snaps at speed.

If you think my workspace looks messy in this photo, I can assure you that it's only gotten worse since then.

I don't know exactly what that box I've seen behind the seat post on old motorcycles is, but I figured I'd see what Engine No. 9 might look like if it had one of it's own. I felt it bulked up the bike too much, but I still played with it a bit. The main thing that piece did was show me that the fender could be placed better.

Once I figured out the fender and "box" setup, I swapped out the handlebars to something that felt more in line for a board track racer. I also mocked up a wheel-mounted number plate from the same bike I got the fender from, and just like that, I think I found the look for Engine No. 9!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Obligatory high-quality driveway photos. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Great idea! Not sure if I'll read every word (lol there's lots of em!) but I'm subscribed

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Great idea! Not sure if I'll read every word (lol there's lots of em!) but I'm subscribed

Thanks! Yeah... I get kind of wordy whether I'm talking IRL or sharing stuff on the forums. I don't know, I guess I just feel like I need to explain myself sometimes.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I already have a build thread going for my Monark that I messed with when this "Mockup Mash" started, so I'll just share a brief highlight reel of some of the mockups this bike went through. You can get the full story on the bike here.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I mocked up a few more bikes earlier this week while the weather was still warm. I thought about turning this JC Penney Uni-speed into an upside-down bike, but I liked the colors too much to want to cut it up. Plus I had just picked up these mint green wheels last year that matched the bike almost perfectly, along with a few other parts.

I can't say this is how I originally wanted to build this bike, but it could be a nice, simple bike I could throw together after I use up the good parts on my better bikes.

I might even try and get a Huffy Cranbrook for a pair of these mint sidewall tires to go with the mint-colored wheels! That would be pretty neat!

Here's how this bike looked when I got it. I used it as a parts donor initially, but I may wind up just reassembling it down the line.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

After mocking up the green bike, I started trying some ideas I had for this bare X-53 frame I got at the 2023 Haysville bicycle swap meet. Ever since I got this frame, my whole plan was to make it sit longer, lower, leaner and meaner than stock. I also really wanted a bike that had more of a "traditional hot rod" kind of vibe. Given that my X-53 frame is black with red scallops, like many classic hot rods, I figured that this would be the best bike to build that way. I can't say I figured out exactly how I want to build this bike just yet, but I love the stance I got when I mocked it up earlier this week.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Another bike I mocked up on Thursday was this blue girl's Schwinn frame I got out of the free pile at Haysville last year. Originally, I got it for the tube bends, but I loved the original blue paint to much to cut it up. Unfortunately, I don't have any color-matched parts that go with this frame, and to complicate matters further, I'm not the biggest fan of Schwinn's girls frames. There's just something... off... about the shape of them. Regardless, I decided to see if I could do something with this frame that I liked.

I also tried some of the same ideas on that Schwinn on a couple Murray frames I had, just to see if those ideas would look any better on frames I actually like.

I also found I had a color-matched fork for the girl's Murray, but I'm not sure that's the way I want to build this bike.

Back to the Schwinn. Admittedly, lowrider bikes aren't really my thing, but I wondered if building this Schwinn as a sort of rat rod lowrider might make me like it better. Can't say that it did.

Just when I was about to give up on this frame, I decided to throw on a couple parts that almost matched the blue paint on the frame, along with an old pair of cream-colored tires. Suddenly, I found a way to throw this bike together in a way I liked. I also remembered I had a chrome chain guard a relative modified to fit these types of frames, and plopped that and a white seat on as well. Now I was getting somewhere!

I also mounted the truss rods through the BMX bars again, and this time, I think they're going to stick. I have some off-white handlebar grips I can throw on the blue handlebars that'll help tie in with the paint. I also mounted a pair of chrome fenders to go with the chain guard, but I'm not so sure I like that look. Doesn't help that there's no room for the front fender. Maybe later I can tinker with this bike some more and see how it'd look with some other parts, but for now, I think this is the general direction I intend to take this bike.

 

[idiotboy]

I already have a build thread going for my Monark that I messed with when this "Mockup Mash" started, so I'll just share a brief highlight reel of some of the mockups this bike went through. You can get the full story on the bike here.
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Wow that monarch has been a lot of different bikes!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Wow that monarch has been a lot of different bikes!

And most of those were all in the same day!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Did a few more mockups before I moved some frames back into storage.

First, a fairly standard upside-down step-thru bike:

I don't know why, but I really like the attitude of this one. Something about the nose-down frame and the 20"/26" wheel combo works for me.

This one's pretty kooky even by my standards, but it's still an idea worth keeping in my back pocket.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

First, a fairly standard upside-down step-thru bike:

Only in this place does that get called "fairly standard"
This is such a fun thread, sounds like you're enjoying yourself too

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Only in this place does that get called "fairly standard"
This is such a fun thread, sounds like you're enjoying yourself too

Haha, thanks! Yeah, it's fun exploring all the possible ways to build bikes with what I have.

 

[curtisfox]

Only in this place does that get called "fairly standard"
This is such a fun thread, sounds like you're enjoying yourself too

Cut the top tube ( now bottom tube ) and flip it..........Curt

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Sometimes inspiration strikes as I'm cleaning out my workspace.

I picked up this step-thru Foremost Murray for free last year at the Haysville bicycle swap meet. I originally got it for parts and tubing bends, but I decided to play around with it during this whole "Mockup Mash."

I didn't even mock it up until I was almost ready to put it up! I was cleaning out the garage and loading frames and parts into my car to take back to storage when I decided to do a very loose mockup of this bike. What set it off was this handlebar and handlebar stem that almost perfectly matched the blue paint of the frame. I found a set of white grips and a white seat to go with the white paint, and then took the front fender and mocked it up as a bobbed rear fender. And just like that, I decided that I'll throw this bike together this way. I'll likely use a set of whitewall tires and maybe some white pedals too, but just laying the all the parts on the floor like this was enough to help me decide what to do with this bike!

I'll be taking a break from the Mockup Mash for a bit, as I needed to free up some space to work on my bikes, and I have plenty of bikes with an actual plan in mind to work on now. That said, once I get a few bikes done, I'll be sure to pick up where I left off! I still have plenty of frames that need parts, and plenty of parts that need frames!