Murray Beach Comber/AMC VII

[ParkRNDL]

Well, this is my starting point. I picked it up maybe 10 years ago at a yard sale looking like this. The sellers said it had belonged to their son, and he loved to ride it, but sadly he had passed away.

I have always wanted to build it up into something cool as a tribute to its former owner. I found a color-matching rack and tank online (maybe Fleabay?) and tried to get them to work even though the tank was clearly for a girls' bike and only fit upside down, and even then not very well.

So I gave up on the tank. I thought the rest looked pretty good, but never rode it much.

A while later, I got it in my head to make a 26" BMX cruiser/strandie out of it.

Still never got ridden a whole lot. I gave it to my son to take to college. It got stolen from the bike rack outside his building. Then he saw it outside an academic building on campus. He called a buddy for backup just in case and stole it back. That turned him off having a bike on campus and he brought it home.

I got to working on other projects and cannibalized it for parts.

The poor thing is sitting in the basement now like this.

The plan at this point is to dismantle a couple of past builds that also aren't getting ridden and use parts of them along with other bits I have been collecting to make this something cool again. Expect the rack to make a comeback.

Oh, and I found this on Fleabay a couple months ago. You can't tell from the lighting in this pic, but the color is a perfect match.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Well, this is my starting point. I picked it up maybe 10 years ago at a yard sale looking like this. The sellers said it had belonged to their son, and he loved to ride it, but sadly he had passed away.

View attachment 229786

I have always wanted to build it up into something cool as a tribute to its former owner. I found a color-matching rack and tank online (maybe Fleabay?) and tried to get them to work even though the tank was clearly for a girls' bike and only fit upside down, and even then not very well.

View attachment 229787

So I gave up on the tank. I thought the rest looked pretty good, but never rode it much.

View attachment 229788View attachment 229789

A while later, I got it in my head to make a 26" BMX cruiser/strandie out of it.

View attachment 229790

Still never got ridden a whole lot. I gave it to my son to take to college. It got stolen from the bike rack outside his building. Then he saw it outside an academic building on campus. He called a buddy for backup just in case and stole it back. That turned him off having a bike on campus and he brought it home.

I got to working on other projects and cannibalized it for parts.

View attachment 229791

The poor thing is sitting in the basement now like this.

View attachment 229784

The plan at this point is to dismantle a couple of past builds that also aren't getting ridden and use parts of them along with other bits I have been collecting to make this something cool again. Expect the rack to make a comeback.

Oh, and I found this on Fleabay a couple months ago. You can't tell from the lighting in this pic, but the color is a perfect match.

View attachment 229785

Great project! Great story!

-From the angle in the pic’, the tank and rack you had on there looked great to me!

 

[Son of Kradus]

I thought the tank and rack looked cool too!

 

[JA331]

Great project! Great story!

-From the angle in the pic’, the tank and rack you had on there looked great to me!

I thought the tank and rack looked cool too!

same

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Always a good solid frame choice, looking forward to seeing what direction you take it this time.

 

[Funkme]

What a story, I would of played a trick on the thief to teach them a lesson...
I actually have a tank,guard and mudguards. But are red. You just made me think of my winter build...
Glad you have the bike back, now lets see what you can do with it, and ride it...

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I have to agree, the tank looked pretty sweet in there, I wouldn't abandon that idea just yet

 

[marshall hudson]

I'm going with the along with the crowd on that color matched tank. Fits the space pretty well from my view.

 

[kingfish254]

I've always liked that color blue. Look forward to the next rebirth of cool on this one.

 

[BobbyStillz]

I'm going with the along with the crowd on that color matched tank. Fits the space pretty well from my view.

I tried the same thing on my first build. It fit the space nicely, but your tank LOOKS amazing too!

 

[ingola]

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

I’ve always been a fan of memorial builds. The first RRB raffle bike started out as a Monterrey that was the same color.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Hmm. So I am in what you would call a quandary. I have a dilemma. I'm perplexed.

Now that the school year is over and I can take a breath (and we got that pesky water heater leak out of the way and in the process reorganized the basement), I finally dragged the old Murray carcass up from the dungeon to look it over and maybe get started.

Poor thing...

The original plan called for me to use these wheels I got at a swap in February:

A friend pointed out that it might not be a great idea to use a quick-release hub in a horizontal dropout like that, and also that using Phil Wood hubs on a Wal-Mart frame might not be the best match anyway. I had to agree that he had a point.

So I started thinking about this bike, which was my RRBBO project from a couple of years ago. I rode it a bunch that summer and then forgot about it. I figured it'd be a good use of parts to rob the drivetrain and some other bits I used on this bike to build up the Murray. So I dragged it out too.

Then I made the mistake of riding it up and down the driveway.

I had forgotten how nice it was, how smooth it shifted. Now I'm beating myself up at the thought of taking apart a perfectly good working bike. Basically, I have to convince myself that the end product will be worth it and that I'll end up with a bike I like even more.

Something I'm keeping in mind to help sway me: on our group ride last week, our host loaned out an old Schwinn Cruiser 5 for someone to ride. What a cool bike that is. I'm going to use it as inspiration for this build. Which I realize is ironic, since that's the kind of bike this Murray started out as, but I think it'll look and work better with the upgrades I have in mind. I already have some big fat whitewalls, a few sets of Wald 803 or very similar bars, and a big springy Schwinn touring seat. Combined with the index-shifting drivetrain off the Collegiate project and some other touches, it should work pretty well.

(I don't have a picture of his Cruiser, but this is the same idea)

 

[ParkRNDL]

What a difference a couple of hours makes!

Robbed the wheels off the red Collegiate build and swapped out the tires with some mega-fat Cheng Shins I had here before bolting them up. Then added some bars (very close in style to Wald 803s, but not exactly the same) and a seat that's been waiting for an assignment like this. And then my favorite touches, a color-matching rack that was acquired online back when I got the bike and a color-matching guard that I snagged off Fleabay a few months ago in preparation for this build. I liked the guard even more because of the Roman numeral VII on it, which works because the bike will be a 7-speed.

I am amazed that the bike is from the '80s, the guard is likely from the '70s, and the rack seems to be from the '60s and they all work perfectly together in addition to being the same color.

First problem: the crank smacks the guard every rotation. Not like a little scrape that you can fix with some judicious coaxing/bending of the guard, but a full-on contact foul that pushes the guard in probably half a centimeter as it rotates. I'm hoping this crank off a Schwinn 10-speed has a little more lateral room between the drive side arm and the frame, otherwise I'm going to have to get creative.

Besides addressing that, the brakes need to be swapped over from the red bike. Hopefully they are plug and play. I was worried that these bars are wider and would require the cables to be longer, but if you check the pic of the red bike they are all way too long to begin with, so I might get lucky.

Then the rest of the drivetrain. I will need to buy a new derailleur cable with a full-length housing since the Schwinn frame has cable stops and the Murray does not. Derailleur, shifter and chain are coming too.

If I can get the guard sorted and the drivetrain comes over with no major issues, this will end up being a pretty light build. I'll have to try to make it stand out with graphics or something. I am thinking the Murray seat tube sticker and head badge sticker are leaving by way of a heat gun. Anyone know anything about AMC brand bikes? I feel fairly certain that they are not related to the AMC that built the Gremlin and Pacer.

OH HEY BUT WAIT A MINUTE.

I was just thinking "what would be a good model name that sounds like Klunker or Cruiser 5 that ISN'T either of them?" Then I typed "Gremlin" and had an epiphany. Maybe this could be the AMC Gremlin VII.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Aaaaaand we have brakes.

That basket is just something I'm thinking about; if anything I'd attach it to the rack with zip ties. Not sure if I like it.

Question regarding rear brake fitment for someone who would know better than me: Did I put the spacer on the wrong side of the frame?

I have that big spacer between the brake caliper and the brake bridge, and then a small spacer underneath between the bridge and the nut holding it all together. Should the small spacer be between the caliper and frame, and the large spacer under the bridge with the nut holding it on? (Does that make sense?) I thought I had seen bikes with flat brake bridges like that use a spacer where I put that one, but it just seems like that would give the caliper a lot more leverage to twist away from where it'd be useful under braking.

 

[GeePig]

I am not sure whether you would notice anything under normal braking, but it might judder in the wet and be hard to get maximum braking unless your lever is quite big.

It does look good, and it is something I am now considering for my rear brake, because my pads barely reach up to the wheel, as I am using a 24" wheel instead of the original 20" wheel.

That brake certainly looks cool.

 

[OddJob]

I'm going with the along with the crowd on that color matched tank. Fits the space pretty well from my view.

@marshall hudson , you should jump in on a build! Bring us something cool, you've done it before late in the game!

 

[OddJob]

@ParkRNDL , Rick that is the usual placement for the spacers, but typically on a bike with a 'tube' shaped brake brace. And then the spacer closest to the brace is concave so it sits on and kind of 'into' the tube more. I'm a little worried that with the flat surface, your brake caliper might migrate a little under heavier brake load.

Since it's a flat surface, you could use other washers to create a mount that would keep the caliper closer to the frame and eliminate some of the leverage.

 

[ParkRNDL]

@ParkRNDL , Rick that is the usual placement for the spacers, but typically on a bike with a 'tube' shaped brake brace. And then the spacer closest to the brace is concave so it sits on and kind of 'into' the tube more. I'm a little worried that with the flat surface, your brake caliper might migrate a little under heavier brake load.

Since it's a flat surface, you could use other washers to create a mount that would keep the caliper closer to the frame and eliminate some of the leverage.

That’s kind of what I was thinking. Sounds like some repositioning of the caliper and spacers is in order.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Well, folks, we got gears. Seven of 'em.

I ordered a nice new Jagwire derailleur cable with gray housing to match the gray brake cable housings, but it's from a Fleabay seller in China and I have no idea when I'll get it. So I got impatient and bought 6 feet of plain black housing from the LBS and rigged it up with a cable I had around here. Took it for a little ride up and down the block and with a little adjusting we are good to go. I might just take it for an afternoon cruise on the bike path a little later.

So now it's down to cosmetics. I am thinking about taking off the MURRAY lettering on the seat tube and putting a copycat pinstripe design like Schwinn Cruiser 5s have in that space. Also looking at fork darts and decorations, specifically in the few pictures I have found online of AMC bicycles:

I'd like to try to create a reasonable facsimile on our Cricut, as well as the aforementioned pinstripe art. I have something else in the works for the head badge.

Still wondering about a name to put in a small graphic on the top tube. Maybe stick with BeachComber?

hmmmm. Gotta get it out and ride it, maybe the bike will tell me.