What's up fellers and felletes? My name's Adam, and I've been riding vintage bicycles since I was about 10 or 12 years old. It all started with a pair of older Schwinn beach cruiser bikes my grandparents gave me after they stopped riding, then I started getting addicted and buying up old bikes ending up with a nice '67 Schwinn Typhoon. Sadly I sold the Typhoon to a friend a couple years ago, and my current ride is a 1936 Chicago Cycle Supply "Cadillac" (hence the name..) I've got a small collection of bikes right now, and trying to work on getting more. Luckily I have a few friends getting into them now, and recently convinced my roommate he needs one too.
So anyway, I've been riding the crepe out of this thing lately, and hoping to rack up the miles this Spring and Summer. The story of my possession of the Cadillac starts about 7-8 years ago when I was in Highschool. I was going to garage sales with my girlfriend at the time and saw it at one for $20. I knew it looked really cool, and way older than my Typhoon, fell in love and decided to buy it. Not really knowing anything about bikes this old, and getting it from a very old man, I assumed it to be pretty much original, and have since realized that's not the case, which is actually easier on me, not having to worry about hurting some old original parts.
Anyway, it wouldn't fit in the trunk of my car, so I had my girlfriend drive the car to my house, and rode the bike home, and started tearing it down later that day to strip the paint and restore it. Thankfully, I have project ADD, and it sat until last winter. I brought it back up from my parents' basement and started putting it back together as is. I cleaned and lubed all the bearings, put new tubes in the old tires, flipped the handlebars, and cleaned and polished EVERYTHING. Once again, project ADD set in, and I finally finished getting it together just in time for the Greaserama car show in Kansas City last September where I won a raffle to get it pinstriped, thanks to Alleykat Pinstriping and The Eddy's bicycle club.
Since Winter is letting up, I've been riding it every chance I get, and plan to continue to do so. I even went ahead and added some lights and a generator so I can ride it at night. I do want to eventually find a headlight that matches the taillight better though. Last thing I did to it was built a little tank plate deal to fill in the area between the two top bars. I still need to sand it down and repaint it, but I'll rock it as is for a little bit. There are still some things I need/want to do to the bike like rebuild the front and rear hubs, relace the wheels, get a new chain and tires. I'm sure more stuff will eventually pop up, but that's my plan for now.
Thanks for looking, and here's some pictures for your enjoyment!
At Greaserama:
...and my Senior Picture from HighSchool...hahaha..(sorry, it's a picture of a picture.)
Thanks for looking!
So anyway, I've been riding the crepe out of this thing lately, and hoping to rack up the miles this Spring and Summer. The story of my possession of the Cadillac starts about 7-8 years ago when I was in Highschool. I was going to garage sales with my girlfriend at the time and saw it at one for $20. I knew it looked really cool, and way older than my Typhoon, fell in love and decided to buy it. Not really knowing anything about bikes this old, and getting it from a very old man, I assumed it to be pretty much original, and have since realized that's not the case, which is actually easier on me, not having to worry about hurting some old original parts.
Anyway, it wouldn't fit in the trunk of my car, so I had my girlfriend drive the car to my house, and rode the bike home, and started tearing it down later that day to strip the paint and restore it. Thankfully, I have project ADD, and it sat until last winter. I brought it back up from my parents' basement and started putting it back together as is. I cleaned and lubed all the bearings, put new tubes in the old tires, flipped the handlebars, and cleaned and polished EVERYTHING. Once again, project ADD set in, and I finally finished getting it together just in time for the Greaserama car show in Kansas City last September where I won a raffle to get it pinstriped, thanks to Alleykat Pinstriping and The Eddy's bicycle club.
Since Winter is letting up, I've been riding it every chance I get, and plan to continue to do so. I even went ahead and added some lights and a generator so I can ride it at night. I do want to eventually find a headlight that matches the taillight better though. Last thing I did to it was built a little tank plate deal to fill in the area between the two top bars. I still need to sand it down and repaint it, but I'll rock it as is for a little bit. There are still some things I need/want to do to the bike like rebuild the front and rear hubs, relace the wheels, get a new chain and tires. I'm sure more stuff will eventually pop up, but that's my plan for now.
Thanks for looking, and here's some pictures for your enjoyment!
At Greaserama:
...and my Senior Picture from HighSchool...hahaha..(sorry, it's a picture of a picture.)
Thanks for looking!
