Hi Friends,
Went on a little road trip this afternoon to Steamboat Springs, CO and stumbled into a cool bike shop called the Orange Peel. They had sort of a grave yard out back with mostly newer stuff but found an American Flyer badged bike under some vines and an unruly garden hose. Turns out the guy in the shop next door owned the bike and I was told to track him down. His name was Kent Eriksen and has been building custom titanium road and mountain bikes there in Steamboat since 1981. Apparently he took the bike in on a trade towards a new bike from a guy near Tuscon who is a Schwinn collector. He obviously modded this thing up before trading it in but I'm having trouble ID'ing the frame and what could be original and what probably isn't.
DSC_2007 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The bars and stem are 90's aluminum. The guy who built this up was concerned about shaving off weight in a hilly town. The original wheels are also long gone, replaced by Mavic MTB wheels with a modern front hub and a "Schwinn Approved" coaster hub in back. I'll end up using the hoops but wanted to put a 5 or 6 gear cassette on the back anyways so the coaster will get swapped out and once I find a nice drum brake I'll end up lacing that into the front wheel.
The chain guard looks period correct but not sure and the tabs that were originally there to hold it on are gone and there's some hardware store stuff holding the guard to the frame. The crank is Schwinn and the front springer looks authentic and has the "AS" bolts holding it all together.
newbike by skiphast04, on Flickr
The headbadge is American Flyer but is different in the details from every other example I have seen. No "Schwinn Built" script at the top and the hole spacing looks longer. Also, the filigree around the outside of the badge looks different to me than any other I have seen.
DSC_2024 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The two top tubes run parallel to each other- in other words they don't meet at the seat tube like some of the DX style frames. But the rear seat stays taper together at the top of the seat tube much like you see in the Schwinns during the DX error. Interesting...
DSC_2020 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The Brooks is definitely not original but was a nice touch and something I was looking to put on this once I get my Klunker project going anyways. Any tips on restoring or protecting this so it doesn't deteriorate further?
DSC_2026 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The serial number was found under the bottom bracket and the number I read was "07318". Saw an article about how RollFast used to make some of the American Flyer badged bikes and would use a serial numbering system like this and the front two numbers, when read backwards, indicated the year but 1970 just doesn't seem right with some of the features this frame has.
Sorry for the non-detailed photos. I will try to post some more close-ups tomorrow and if anyone wants to see something specifically I'd be happy to oblige.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Went on a little road trip this afternoon to Steamboat Springs, CO and stumbled into a cool bike shop called the Orange Peel. They had sort of a grave yard out back with mostly newer stuff but found an American Flyer badged bike under some vines and an unruly garden hose. Turns out the guy in the shop next door owned the bike and I was told to track him down. His name was Kent Eriksen and has been building custom titanium road and mountain bikes there in Steamboat since 1981. Apparently he took the bike in on a trade towards a new bike from a guy near Tuscon who is a Schwinn collector. He obviously modded this thing up before trading it in but I'm having trouble ID'ing the frame and what could be original and what probably isn't.
DSC_2007 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The bars and stem are 90's aluminum. The guy who built this up was concerned about shaving off weight in a hilly town. The original wheels are also long gone, replaced by Mavic MTB wheels with a modern front hub and a "Schwinn Approved" coaster hub in back. I'll end up using the hoops but wanted to put a 5 or 6 gear cassette on the back anyways so the coaster will get swapped out and once I find a nice drum brake I'll end up lacing that into the front wheel.
The chain guard looks period correct but not sure and the tabs that were originally there to hold it on are gone and there's some hardware store stuff holding the guard to the frame. The crank is Schwinn and the front springer looks authentic and has the "AS" bolts holding it all together.
newbike by skiphast04, on Flickr
The headbadge is American Flyer but is different in the details from every other example I have seen. No "Schwinn Built" script at the top and the hole spacing looks longer. Also, the filigree around the outside of the badge looks different to me than any other I have seen.
DSC_2024 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The two top tubes run parallel to each other- in other words they don't meet at the seat tube like some of the DX style frames. But the rear seat stays taper together at the top of the seat tube much like you see in the Schwinns during the DX error. Interesting...
DSC_2020 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The Brooks is definitely not original but was a nice touch and something I was looking to put on this once I get my Klunker project going anyways. Any tips on restoring or protecting this so it doesn't deteriorate further?
DSC_2026 by skiphast04, on Flickr
The serial number was found under the bottom bracket and the number I read was "07318". Saw an article about how RollFast used to make some of the American Flyer badged bikes and would use a serial numbering system like this and the front two numbers, when read backwards, indicated the year but 1970 just doesn't seem right with some of the features this frame has.
Sorry for the non-detailed photos. I will try to post some more close-ups tomorrow and if anyone wants to see something specifically I'd be happy to oblige.
Thanks in advance for the help!
