My starting point for this year's RRBBO:
Here's a little backstory on how I got here and where I'm headed, for those who like rambling bicycle tales.
For a few years now, my favorite old bike to find and ride and wrench on has been the XS-size camelback-style Schwinn Speedster/Collegiate. This Craigslist find got me started. It was rough, with bent handlebars, battered fenders, and non-Schwinn wheels. I still have the oddball 40-spoke British rear wheel in the shed.
Around this time, I also picked up a girls' Collegiate in lime green (more on that later). I LOVED the way it rode, so I set out to remake this Speedster to be as close to a Collegiate as possible. After removing and replacing pretty much every part on the bike, I had myself an ersatz Collegiate 5-speed, built with a bunch of castoff Ross Europa parts and some chrome fenders from Niagara Cycle.
It wasn't long before I found a mens' Collegiate in great mechanical shape with great patina. It has been my go-to rider pretty much since I got it.
Since the Speedster was collecting dust, I decided it was a perfect candidate for a makeover. This is what it looked like at the end of RRBBO 15.
My son really liked the way this one rode, so I decided to build another one from a Facebook Marketplace rescue.
Then recently, I updated the aforementioned green ladies' Collegiate with an index-shifting 6-speed drivetrain for my daughter. It works great, and I got to thinking I wanted to update one like that for myself.
That got me thinking about a buddy from our bike group, who shows up with this from time to time on our Thursday night rides. MTB wheels, custom shifter. He thinks of it as a sort of urban assault vehicle.
From the first time I saw this one, I thought it'd be cool to build my own version of this type bike, and to incorporate bits and pieces of ideas from all the bikes above. That's the plan for this build-off. Here's what I've collected so far:
Bars are off a friend's Felt 29" cruiser. He's well over 6 foot tall, so he decided to replace these with some Big Honkin' bars.
Saw these at a swap recently and thought they'd be cool for something. Don't know if they're staying.
Bought this for a Diamond Back BMX project, then found another with the DB logo on it.
From the parts bin.
Picked this up at a swap in Kutztown, PA yesterday.
These are from the swap too. Don't be fooled by the single-speed freewheel; the rear wheel is dished for a multi-speed.
Another find from months ago that I picked up because I knew it'd eventually come in handy.
I can't wait to tear into this, but I'm a teacher and this is a crazy time of year... might take another few weeks till I can devote as much time as I'd like to it.
Here's a little backstory on how I got here and where I'm headed, for those who like rambling bicycle tales.
For a few years now, my favorite old bike to find and ride and wrench on has been the XS-size camelback-style Schwinn Speedster/Collegiate. This Craigslist find got me started. It was rough, with bent handlebars, battered fenders, and non-Schwinn wheels. I still have the oddball 40-spoke British rear wheel in the shed.
Around this time, I also picked up a girls' Collegiate in lime green (more on that later). I LOVED the way it rode, so I set out to remake this Speedster to be as close to a Collegiate as possible. After removing and replacing pretty much every part on the bike, I had myself an ersatz Collegiate 5-speed, built with a bunch of castoff Ross Europa parts and some chrome fenders from Niagara Cycle.
It wasn't long before I found a mens' Collegiate in great mechanical shape with great patina. It has been my go-to rider pretty much since I got it.
Since the Speedster was collecting dust, I decided it was a perfect candidate for a makeover. This is what it looked like at the end of RRBBO 15.
My son really liked the way this one rode, so I decided to build another one from a Facebook Marketplace rescue.
Then recently, I updated the aforementioned green ladies' Collegiate with an index-shifting 6-speed drivetrain for my daughter. It works great, and I got to thinking I wanted to update one like that for myself.
That got me thinking about a buddy from our bike group, who shows up with this from time to time on our Thursday night rides. MTB wheels, custom shifter. He thinks of it as a sort of urban assault vehicle.
From the first time I saw this one, I thought it'd be cool to build my own version of this type bike, and to incorporate bits and pieces of ideas from all the bikes above. That's the plan for this build-off. Here's what I've collected so far:
Bars are off a friend's Felt 29" cruiser. He's well over 6 foot tall, so he decided to replace these with some Big Honkin' bars.
Saw these at a swap recently and thought they'd be cool for something. Don't know if they're staying.
Bought this for a Diamond Back BMX project, then found another with the DB logo on it.
From the parts bin.
Picked this up at a swap in Kutztown, PA yesterday.
These are from the swap too. Don't be fooled by the single-speed freewheel; the rear wheel is dished for a multi-speed.
Another find from months ago that I picked up because I knew it'd eventually come in handy.
I can't wait to tear into this, but I'm a teacher and this is a crazy time of year... might take another few weeks till I can devote as much time as I'd like to it.
As the product of two teachers, and an 'educator' in my own right, I can relate. 
