I actually first signed in here back in September. I was THRILLED to find there was a forum for old ratty bikes besides the Schwinn one, and posted a few times, but things got busy and I haven't been around much. A recent flurry of yard sale and other finds, along with the end of the school year, has me back here. Since there's now a formal intros thread, here's a formal intro.
My name is Rick, and I'm a 37-year-old dad of 4 and a schoolteacher. As a kid, I LOVED my bikes... my first 20" bike was a Rollfast Frankenstein that Dad bought at a yard sale. I remember it was painted red with a brush, it had middleweight type low bars, and it had a 2-tone blue and white banana seat. then my first NEw bike was a brown Kent 3-speed musclebike with red and yellow trim. I broke that one in half eventually. Dad was always cool about letting us bring stuff home on bulk pickup day... he actually drove us around in his Chevy Citation hatchback and let us throw bike after bike in the back to take home and cannibalize. I had a Huffy BMX built entirely from junk parts. Then high school hit, and I got a string of sensible 10-speeds... and then I got my license and the bikes pretty much went. After college, I got a Mongoose mountain bike, back when Mongoose wasn't in Wal-Mart yet. It got some good use... it's still hanging in the garage, actually. Right after we got married, my father-in-law bought an old house, and he found a Firestone Pilot girls' bike in the basement, in very good shape. Now that's hanging next to the mountain bike in the garage. But then we grew up and had kids and got all responsible and all that...
and then, about a year and a half ago in a thrift store, I found a pink department-store Ross-manufactured girls' Polo Bike in very good shape right down to it's flower-power seat. I couldn't leave it there--it HAD to come home with me. My plan was to find a boys' frame to transfer the parts onto. It didn't work out quite like that, at least not for long, but at this point I have 4 ratty muscle-bike-era riders to cruise around the block with the kids, along with the aforementioned Pilot and a 70s era Ross Europa waiting for some attention.
My taste in bikes is a little different from most here, as well as my skill level... I prefer 20" muscle bike type cantilever frames, and I don't cut and weld... it keeps me busy enough just mixing and matching parts as I find them.
Here are pics of the current riders...
Each of the 20-inchers has a story... I'll post them in the pictures forum with a little narrative...
thanks yall for checkin' 'em out! hope my little 20-inchers are okay here...
EDIT: hey now that I'm looking closer... my bikes should probably go in the Other Bikes forum, no?
--rick
My name is Rick, and I'm a 37-year-old dad of 4 and a schoolteacher. As a kid, I LOVED my bikes... my first 20" bike was a Rollfast Frankenstein that Dad bought at a yard sale. I remember it was painted red with a brush, it had middleweight type low bars, and it had a 2-tone blue and white banana seat. then my first NEw bike was a brown Kent 3-speed musclebike with red and yellow trim. I broke that one in half eventually. Dad was always cool about letting us bring stuff home on bulk pickup day... he actually drove us around in his Chevy Citation hatchback and let us throw bike after bike in the back to take home and cannibalize. I had a Huffy BMX built entirely from junk parts. Then high school hit, and I got a string of sensible 10-speeds... and then I got my license and the bikes pretty much went. After college, I got a Mongoose mountain bike, back when Mongoose wasn't in Wal-Mart yet. It got some good use... it's still hanging in the garage, actually. Right after we got married, my father-in-law bought an old house, and he found a Firestone Pilot girls' bike in the basement, in very good shape. Now that's hanging next to the mountain bike in the garage. But then we grew up and had kids and got all responsible and all that...
and then, about a year and a half ago in a thrift store, I found a pink department-store Ross-manufactured girls' Polo Bike in very good shape right down to it's flower-power seat. I couldn't leave it there--it HAD to come home with me. My plan was to find a boys' frame to transfer the parts onto. It didn't work out quite like that, at least not for long, but at this point I have 4 ratty muscle-bike-era riders to cruise around the block with the kids, along with the aforementioned Pilot and a 70s era Ross Europa waiting for some attention.
My taste in bikes is a little different from most here, as well as my skill level... I prefer 20" muscle bike type cantilever frames, and I don't cut and weld... it keeps me busy enough just mixing and matching parts as I find them.
Here are pics of the current riders...
Each of the 20-inchers has a story... I'll post them in the pictures forum with a little narrative...
thanks yall for checkin' 'em out! hope my little 20-inchers are okay here...
EDIT: hey now that I'm looking closer... my bikes should probably go in the Other Bikes forum, no?
--rick
