Coda

[furyus]

Rear tire held air overnight; on to the front wheel. Script hub, believe correct for an early Sting-Ray.

Center-stamped S7. Definitely correct for a ‘65. A litttle more evidence this bike has been together a long time.

Crusty.

July of ‘69. Tire is pretty weak, but I may see if I can get a few more miles out of it. Just have to keep it under 60 mph. Wonder if that’s blood on the rim, right below the 9 in the date code.

Uh-oh. Bent axle with frozen hardware.

Ordered a Union replacement. Looks correct, and the provided measurements match up as far as I can tell. Hope it shows up in time.

furyus

 

[OddJob]

Broken front axle: Rider probably nose-landed too many sweet jumps.

Blood on the rim: Rider must have had a high hemoglobin count based on the viscosity.

 

[furyus]

Broken front axle: Rider probably nose-landed too many sweet jumps.

Blood on the rim: Rider must have had a high hemoglobin count based on the viscosity.

You know, maybe it all goes back to this day:

and perhaps also explains this:

which I’ve remedied by buying this:

As you would expect, I’ll only be using the wedge from the nice, shiny stem. Its practically mint condition will be hidden away from view and won’t detract from my bike.

I’ll probably leave the blood on the front wheel, too.

furyus

 

[furyus]

Isn’t the internet great, at least parts of it? Less than 72 hours after finding a bent axle I have a NOS vintage replacement. Union brand, made in Germany. The bend in the old axle is fairly evident.

What I assume are the original bearings for this axle/hub, manufactured by New Departure. Soaked them for a bit in degreaser and they’re ready for service. Simple little things, really, but at 3/4” and fifty-some years old, they say a lot about a different time when things were built to last.

furyus

 

[furyus]

Right rear dropout tweaked.

De-tweaked.

Kickstand cleaned, ready for grease and re-installation. The rust is along for the ride.

This stand has stood a few times.

Crank hardware, reporting for duty.

Union chain from West Germany. Dies ist die richtige kette. Fand es bei eBay.

The left crank arm is rusted. No correction necessary.

These correct pedals are pretty much worn out. In other words, perfect.

Ten days left. Pretty simple bike, but with work and life it’s going to be close. It’ll be tough to get decent finished pics with no light in the evenings by the time I get home from work, but it is what it is, right? Besides I’m not finished yet.

furyus

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Love this build and this thread!

 

[furyus]

Front wheel is rough. Rusted, out-of-true and at about the end of its service life without some serious attention. That’ll have to come later. It does have a new axle and freshly greased bearings.

Rim strip is fini. Nice bits of color on it, but thoroughly spent. And I don’t have another, and the build-off is over in a week.

Solution? A couple layers of electrical tape. It’ll work for now.

Front tire is either a September ‘76 or September ‘66. If I recall, this tire came off a ‘66 I had years ago. The older Schwinn Approved tube that was inside it reinforces my speculation.

Front and rear wheels are done. Hope to have a roller tomorrow night.

Good ol’ American rubber on both wheels. Hate to wear it out, but what’s the point of keeping it hidden away in a closet?

furyus

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good for 50 year old tires!

 

[furyus]

Looking good for 50 year old tires!

Like I said, they’ve been in a closet for long enough. I bet I’ve owned them 9 or 10 years. Someone else had ‘em stashed before that. Surely I’m just the current caretaker of this bike, but I may end up using a few consumables while she’s mine.

furyus

 

[furyus]

Here we go...

Obviously not finished, and even this roller has to be tweaked and torqued. One week left!
furyus

 

[furyus]

Nice example of why I use Gibbs Lubricating Oil. If you’re into patina, check out the difference in the colors of the rust before and after an application of Gibbs. By application, I mean spraying a dollop of Gibbs on a paper towel and wiping this brake strap down, maybe ten seconds work.

Before:

and after:

Subsequent applications will make the colors richer, and the stuff is dry to the touch pretty quickly, unlike WD40 and silicone sprays. I’ve applied Gibbs to this entire bike, save the tires. Gotta add this stuff to your workbench if you dig preserving patina. Only place I’ve seen it is eBay, and no, I don’t sell it.

furyus

 

[ODDER]

Here we go...

View attachment 89036

View attachment 89037

View attachment 89038

Obviously not finished, and even this roller has to be tweaked and torqued. One week left!
furyus

Amazing! I love it.

 

[furyus]

Thank you very much, Odder. I know you like your Sting-Rays, so I appreciate it.

furyus

 

[furyus]

This picture really got me thinking.

I’ve been keeping this exerciser seatpost stashed for a long time.

I’ll take a few inches off the bottom, thank you.

Nice old Persons sissybar that came with the bike. Previous owner added it, and since I’m fairly certain this Sting-Ray was sold as a ‘65, it never would have been original to the bike anyway.

HERESY! HERESY, I TELL YOU!

furyus

 

[furyus]

Slammer.

Persons flag holder.

furyus

 

[furyus]

furyus

 

[furyus]

Old Schwinn chubbies. Not sure what they came off of.

Made these streamers years ago out of an old Schwinn inner tube. They were on another build-off bike name Puppy Dog Tails. Puppy is gone, but I saved the streamers.

Grips and streamers. The streamers are actually very close in length left to right, but this pic make ‘em look way off. But they aren’t perfect like factory streamers, either, just like the rest of the bike.

furyus

 

[furyus]

Let’s get started!

Trim trim. Sorry Steve. But I did save the best part!

Emery cloth. Scuff scuff.

Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion
Grease is the word

And in this case, of course I’ll use official Schwinn grease from the freewheel off my ‘63 Superior.

Dab dab dab blot blot blot.

And

furyus

 

[ParkRNDL]

the weathered/scuffed sticker is BRILLIANT

 

[furyus]

the weathered/scuffed sticker is BRILLIANT

I think when I figured out how to do this I made more of a Homer Simpson d’oh sound (my wife yelled down “are you okay?”), but I’ll take the rare brilliant if you’re handing them out. Thank you.

furyus