Excited for my first attempt at a real big-boy buildoff. This bike has been through two different buildups with me, and neither one stuck, so maybe the third time's the charm. I made myself leave it hanging in the shed till today.
I am using a 1992 Murray Monterey frame I got right here on RRB back in 2008 when I first stumbled upon this forum. I traded some Black Friday Krate parts to someone named GTCOMA and got this:
At the time, I didn't know what I really wanted to build... I wanted a cruiser. I wanted a Spaceliner. I wanted a strandie, though at the time I didn't know that's what it was called. I wanted multiple gears. I ended up with this (don't laugh too hard):
It never really got off the ground, and I got frustrated and started playing with musclebikes and kinda forgot about it. Then a few years ago, I found a local group to do weekly pleasure cruises with. The 20-inchers were fun but got old fast, and I wanted to put together some 24- and 26-inch rides for variety. So I built up this pair for me and my son, inspired by the 26-inch BMX Cruisers thread here in the Other Bikes section. I used lots of parts off junker Wal-Mart kids' BMX bikes and it showed.
I think the concept was okay, but the execution with dinky parts was the problem. I only rode this one a couple of times, and on the last ride I cranked hard somewhere and bent the front sprocket just because it was a flimsy piece of junk. So back in the shed it went to have parts robbed off it over time.
This is what's left of it, and what I'm starting with now:
Man, that soda can seatpost shim has GOT to go.
The plan now is to do a BMX cruiser/strandie the right way, or at least as close as I can get with this frame. I've been stockpiling some parts that i think will be a major improvement:
You all may have noticed me asking about two-tones on burgundy in Bike Talk last week. This is the bike. I am debating doing a cream/off-white head tube and trying my hand at scallops. Looking for a better Murray headbadge, and looking at lots of vintage Murray bike pics for inspiration (which is where the name JetCruiser came from; they had a lot of names like JetStar and JetFlite and like that). I love the look of strandies built off vintage frames, and I am hoping I can carry off a vintage look on this one with some creative graphics, though I might lose my nerve and just leave the paint the way it is. Also wondering about using a guard. I like the idea of using it as a canvas for cool retro graphics, but I feel like if I'm going for a BMX feel with a Sugino spider and chainwheel, I should probably skip the guard. I guess I have the next 4 months to experiment with the details. Build is underway!
I am using a 1992 Murray Monterey frame I got right here on RRB back in 2008 when I first stumbled upon this forum. I traded some Black Friday Krate parts to someone named GTCOMA and got this:
At the time, I didn't know what I really wanted to build... I wanted a cruiser. I wanted a Spaceliner. I wanted a strandie, though at the time I didn't know that's what it was called. I wanted multiple gears. I ended up with this (don't laugh too hard):
It never really got off the ground, and I got frustrated and started playing with musclebikes and kinda forgot about it. Then a few years ago, I found a local group to do weekly pleasure cruises with. The 20-inchers were fun but got old fast, and I wanted to put together some 24- and 26-inch rides for variety. So I built up this pair for me and my son, inspired by the 26-inch BMX Cruisers thread here in the Other Bikes section. I used lots of parts off junker Wal-Mart kids' BMX bikes and it showed.
I think the concept was okay, but the execution with dinky parts was the problem. I only rode this one a couple of times, and on the last ride I cranked hard somewhere and bent the front sprocket just because it was a flimsy piece of junk. So back in the shed it went to have parts robbed off it over time.
This is what's left of it, and what I'm starting with now:
Man, that soda can seatpost shim has GOT to go.
The plan now is to do a BMX cruiser/strandie the right way, or at least as close as I can get with this frame. I've been stockpiling some parts that i think will be a major improvement:
You all may have noticed me asking about two-tones on burgundy in Bike Talk last week. This is the bike. I am debating doing a cream/off-white head tube and trying my hand at scallops. Looking for a better Murray headbadge, and looking at lots of vintage Murray bike pics for inspiration (which is where the name JetCruiser came from; they had a lot of names like JetStar and JetFlite and like that). I love the look of strandies built off vintage frames, and I am hoping I can carry off a vintage look on this one with some creative graphics, though I might lose my nerve and just leave the paint the way it is. Also wondering about using a guard. I like the idea of using it as a canvas for cool retro graphics, but I feel like if I'm going for a BMX feel with a Sugino spider and chainwheel, I should probably skip the guard. I guess I have the next 4 months to experiment with the details. Build is underway!
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