ISM 0003 - Nu S'cool Rail

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RustyGold

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'failure to launch, pt. deux too'

I remember the first bike I put together as a kid. It was a purple/violet 20" cantilever schwinn with flipped dropbars and a mattress saddle off of a road bike. I believe it would have been the summer before 1st grade (the first (Boise, Idaho) of six schools in four states that I attended in my 1st grade year)...so, '74. There were a couple semi-complete bikes in a shed behind the house, I took it upon myself to put something together so I could ride with the kids in the neighborhood. The reason I remember the bike, because one day, probably the first day I put it together, the group of kids were taking turns jumping a well packed mound of dirt. I know I did it a few times, but what sticks in my head is the time that I jumped only to have the front wheel come off the bike in mid-air (no lawyer tabs, evidently, and not properly tightened as I was only 5/6 years old :grin:), the landing that followed is the cement the binds this memory firmly in place.

This build has nothing to do with that bike :crazy:...but, has to do with that bikes' legacy. From that point on, all most all of my bikes were what I referred to as 'curved frame' bmx conversions. When I needed a different bike (due to breakage, theft, boredom), I would find an old curve frame (cantilever)...just frame, or sometime frame/fork...usually in a ditch or at a yard sale. I had no idea what these bikes looked like complete, and never heard of, or recollect seeing, a muscle bike (actually, my only new bike as a kid was a muscle bike, I just didn't know it...it was my 'chopper'...a '77/'78 Western Flyer RamRod II) until I started getting back into bikes in my very late 30s. I would buy/trade/scavenge (off the previous bike) all the required bmx parts to make it my bmx bike.

After discovering, as an adult, how the whole bmx thing started...and having been exposed to the variety of frame types that would have existed in those early years to be made into the first generation of bmx bikes...I have thought that the Huffy Rail would have made one of the coolest early bmx bikes. I recently ran across a Rail in RRB's very own For Sale section...and made the deal!

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The Nu S'cool portion of the title refers to the parts I plan on slapping on this bad boy. Long top tube, short chainstays...this is thee proto-new school bike :bigsmile:...so, I'm going to play on that, and use modern parts (fat tires, 1-1/8" threadless stem/forks (hopefully), tall bars, etc), mostly because I find new school bmx to be kind of silly and this is a way to mock it :cool2:...and secondly, because I'm too big to be comfortable on the usual 20" vintage frame...but this thing in looooonnngggg.

Edit...since I couldn't get to it quickly... just posted the for sale pics.
 
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I still have my bmx, not sure if I feel attacked or I'm jealous of the 22 inch top tube. 21.5 was about the longest I could find when I rode alot of street 01-08ish :rofl:
 
That thing is cool! And it looks like it could actually be pedaled, too. :wondering::wink1::happy:

So, I guess I don't know what I'm really looking at here? Why does it look so long and low compared to most 20" cruisers of that age?
 
Great base!! I grew up on muscle bikes which morphed into the MX era. Many of my friends beefed up their old muscle rides so I can relate to your theme here. Have fun man!!
 
That thing is cool! And it looks like it could actually be pedaled, too. :wondering::wink1::happy:

So, I guess I don't know what I'm really looking at here? Why does it look so long and low compared to most 20" cruisers of that age?
...of that age? It's a Huffy Rail muscle bike from the 70's not a cruiser. Rails are one of the coolest muscle bikes IMO (if I had one it'd be in class 1) Screamers, Rails, Raleigh Choppers and Krates oh maybe add Apollos and Spyders and you've got a pretty good list of muscle bikes. It looks long and low because it was built that way to begin with, it's an actual Muscle Bike!
 
Remember seeing that in the for sale section. You pounced on that quick. Had one of those "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me Loose Wheel" incidents as a kid too. Except it was in the grass and the fork stuck and flipped me over the bars. Low speed and small jump though.

BMX Rail?....:39:....I wouldn't take that over any "sweet jumps"...:D

We must be close in age. Started 1st grade in '73.
 
So, I guess I don't know what I'm really looking at here? Why does it look so long and low compared to most 20" cruisers of that age?
As mentioned...this is a muscle bike in it's original form...

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...but I'm a Muscle bike heretic...or BMX purist...either way :grin:.
 
As mentioned...this is a muscle bike in it's original form...

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...but I'm a Muscle bike heretic...or BMX purist...either way :grin:.
All my motocross bikes had a skinnier nobby in the front than in the back, and a banana seat of sorts...so I'll be thinking along those lines with my "muscle bike" builds.
Doubt any apes will find their way onto any of them though.
 
Dang. Well, the new shop area will be exciting. Looking forward to seeing photos of that!
 

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