(MBBO#04 Class 1) '68 Junior 7

[Chad T]

So my son got this wild idea to put a bunch of gears on a Stingray Jr. I bought him this 7 speed Schwinn mountain bike to use for a donor and found a '68 Junior frame for cheap so here we go.

Not sure what all will get used and replaced. Plan now is to use a Varsity/Scrambler 39t sprocket on the front. I may get him a cassette that has an 11t top gear to give him some speed but he should have no problem getting some RPMs going with the short cranks. Haven't tried fitting anything yet. Back rim is 135mm MTB width so will have to do a big spread.

This will be the bike that keeps me busy. He was alll for making it ratty but now he wants me to paint it. We havent decided on a color yet. He originally wanted dark metallic brown which I thought would be cool. Now he want's a black and white fade which I'm not sure about.

I'll have more time soon On my 6th day of an 8 day work stretch right now. It's to the left in this pic. You can see the donor bike a little farther to the left.

I better get back to work....I'll post some better pics as soon as I can.

 

[OddJob]

Chad T, so...you've got two bikes going this time around? Wow, you are going to be busy! Fun working with your son on this one!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

This sounds cool!

Luke.

 

[Fv2]

Another cool project

 

[CRASH]

My son also wanted black/white. I'm not a fan so I told him no. It could work if black was your base and you faded white into it. Or used some stencils for the transition. But I'm personally not a fan.

With brown you have a lot of color options you could transition. Brown is a neutral and anything would work with it. Orange looks very 70's. Purple would really pop. etc etc etc.

Tell him you don't care what he wants, that you want to win. And only winners get sprinkles on their ice cream.

 

[Roadie64]

I think the black and white look awesome. I built my niece a Schwinn 10 speed girls bike that was black and white. She loves it!

Which led to the color of this trike I built and was commissioned to "finish as I would".

I say if he wants black and white, do it. You will be a big "winner" with him, and that to me would be all that I would be concerned about.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Black and white always looks cool!

Luke.

 

[kingfish254]

Great that your son has the bike bug now!

 

[Chad T]

Tell him you don't care what he wants, that you want to win. And only winners get sprinkles on their ice cream.

Yeah I was hoping he would stick with the brown. I like the idea of doing a fade of some sort tho.

I think the black and white look awesome. I built my niece a Schwinn 10 speed girls bike that was black and white. She loves it!

The black with the white seat/grips looks great. He wants all white with black faded in from the ends.

Should have lots of time to decide. Might take a while to make this one a runner.

 

[KJV]

Have fun

 

[ChicagoMuscle Guy]

Father and son projects are great, nice plan with the junior!

 

[Chad T]

Thanks for the encouragement fellas. Got the first bit of work done on this today. Spread the rear dropouts and test fit the cranks. He wanted the longer cranks off of the donor bike so that kind of sealed the deol for me on keeping the front fork. This will give him a bit of extra clearance. He's got the concept of raising your inside foot on a turn now so hopefully he's ok with the close to the ground pedals.

Ordered some alum shaft collars to try and mount the rear brake with. Front brake is easy with the black fork on there.

That's probably about it for me this week. Back to work tonight.

 

[OddJob]

Thanks for the encouragement fellas. Got the first bit of work done on this today. Spread the rear dropouts and test fit the cranks. He wanted the longer cranks off of the donor bike so that kind of sealed the deol for me on keeping the front fork. This will give him a bit of extra clearance. He's got the concept of raising your inside foot on a turn now so hopefully he's ok with the close to the ground pedals.

Ordered some alum shaft collars to try and mount the rear brake with. Front brake is easy with the black fork on there.

That's probably about it for me this week. Back to work tonight.

Looks like your / his concept is coming together nicely! Rat on!

 

[Chad T]

Finally got around to attaching this rear v-brake....a light bulb went off when I saw this set of Schwinn sissy bar clamps in my toolbox. I also had some extra long v-brake bosses from the Manitou MTB fork I used for a sissy bar on my Scrambler clone.

It looks to me like the forces involved here may balance each other out. Can't call this a success until I get a chance to test it but it looks like it could work. I have a brake booster brace deal just in case but really don't care for the looks of it if I don't need it.

After much pondering he decided he liked the baby apes. Looks like a few sets of these popping up this year. They are Wald 870s and if you order a set online for $11 like I did they have the most amazing looking chrome on them.

This is the old crusty set off the Murphy..(JC Penny Murray that was living here for a while).

He said he wanted a shifter with an indicator like my Sturmey shifter on my Huffy. This one is interesting. You actually pull a trigger with your index finger to upshift. It's pretty cool.

Put the chain and derailleur on there today. Won't make one rotation without the chain falling off.

Oh boy...here we go again. (Last year I did a 1X9 Fastback and 1X10 Stingray) Was hoping this 7 speed would be easy..

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good! I hope the chain issue is easily solved!

Luke.

 

[Chad T]

Thank you Luke! I hope it resolves easily as well. Since the chain guard is made for a smaller sprocket it fits real tight up to the chain ring. I was thinking about taking a piece of cam chain guide for a car and attaching it to the inside of the guard for a keeper/guide deal.

Tight chain guard can make a pretty good keeper. That's what was keeping the chain on my Fastback but I didn't realize it. When I painted it I moved the chain guard away from the sprocket to keep it off the shift cable and the chain popped like crazy after that.

 

[Chad T]

Looking good! I hope the chain issue is easily solved!

Luke.

Wasn't too bad. Needed to ad a washer behind the chain ring and a washer inside the dropout on the drive side of the rear axle. That got it close enough where I could clean up the teeth on the front chain ring to make it work.

Put on a new freewheel and chain, added cables and she was ready to run.

Sissy bar clamps working well so far for the v-brake. I can do a big skid with all my weight on it no problem. Not the prettiest shift cable stops but I was able to piece this together with parts I already had.

When the boy got home from school we took her out for a test drive. Worked pretty good. No chain drops and he was able to coax a nice skid out of it.

Had to switch back to the big apes. Not enough real estate on the baby apes for a shifter and brake. Kind of like the way the Varsity sprocket fills up the wing tip guard.

Little clunkery with the knobbies on there. I told him he could do all the skids he wants with them though before we put on the good tires. He wanted the same tires as my '64 Stingray. I got him the big logo Odyssey Chase Hawk. Front tire is a CST Operative.

So there it is a '68 Junior Stingray with 7 speeds, 1 1/8 threadless and v-brakes. It actually all went together fairly smoothly.

Now I guess we'll see how long he wants to ride it around before we tear it down for paint. Gonna do the white/black scheme he has in mind. Probably do a pearl white mixed with some silver/charcoal and black metallic fade. We'll see. He seems to know how he wants it to look.

 

[OddJob]

Love the shot with your son and the two bikes! Jr bike looks burly with the knobbies on it....but will be really "slick" with the new rubber! Looks like he has it all the way up in 1st gear.....how do the lower gears work for him? That chain ring is off an adult road bike...?...it does look muscle-y though, I'll give you that!

 

[Chad T]

Thanks OddJob. Yes the chainring is the small ring (39t) from a Varsity. It was also used on a lot of the Schwinn Scramblers. That's what gave me the idea. A bigger ring would probably be better with the 20 inch wheels but it's hard to fit much bigger on this short frame. The Stingrays with gears all had the 52t mag sprockets. Seems to work ok for him. He's still getting used to the gears.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool!
The tire choice is epic, looking forward to seeing them on there!

Luke.