Official Jalopy thread

[langsmer]

This thred is intended for Jalopy bikes! The original rats. By jalopy I mean crusty paint, bald tires, rusty fenders, etc. This isn't for those shiny new Electras, or classy rods. Were talkin bikes you pulled out of the swamp and put some air in the tires! Here is my personal favorite jalopy. She spent her life in rural wisconsin before I found her. Trust me, the crappy picture makes her look quite a bit classier then she really is! I call the bike the Turd Ferguson. Its a 1947 Autocycle. Unfortunately I had to stick a set of wheels from another bike on it because the spokes were snapping! I need to find an old headlight in similar condition to the bike.

pre wheel change

 

[MadMick]

Re: Official Jalopy thred

Here's The Witch...

She's haunted by evil spirits and the ghost of all her owners, cursed by the most evil and shunned by the holy, possessed by a horde of demons, poisonous and er..... she hasn't washed for several decades so she stinks but she just doesn't care. If she looks at you sideways you're history. Note the suicide shifter under the saddle.

Made in England mid to late 1910s, discovered in a barn .I paid £10 ($20) for her dragged her home and set about getting her roadworthy without losing any of her... er... charm. Her tyres had long since perished away, her saddle so dehydrated out that it sucked a whole can of Brooks Proofhide.

I sacrificed an Indian Atlas roadster in her name, he gave up his 3spd coaster Sturmey wheel, tyres and tubes, which meant that I could leave the old rod brakes hanging off. To a casual observer she has no visible means of braking, (most folk in the UK have never used a coaster brake) which just adds to her spookiness. I filled the tyres with Stans No Tubes sealant so she doesn't get punctures. More spooky!

I happened to have a saddle from the same factory knocking around the warehouse, I've dedicated the old cracked wrinkly one to another project.
She really does smell pretty bad, I've not cleaned her and you can smell the rust and the old grease and since my work is out in the country she rides through plenty of 'organic material'. She'll ruin your clothes if you stand too close.

 

[karfer67]

Re: Official Jalopy thred

this is the first time i can remember anyone calling these bikes jalopys and i love it. cool thread my original 52 panther might pass for one but i just cleaned her the other day wiped the dust off she looks too purrdy. i need a jalopy

 

[necessaryevil]

Does my Hawthorne count? All original except seat recover and tires ( I have the originals ) No crust or rust, just a decent survivor.

 

[Rustinkerer]

Shoot, I coulda just posted ALL my bikes on THIS thread!! :lol: ~Adam

 

[Markm]

Shoot, I coulda just posted ALL my bikes on THIS thread!! :lol: ~Adam

hehehe... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[JoeyMac]

Allow me to introduce y'all to Bernard.

There is a story behind him, I got him almost a year ago, at the end of last summer. I had been commuting on my hydrid and mountain bikes for 6 months, after having gotten back on a bike for the first time in about 7 years. I decided I wanted something simple for cruisin around the hood. I found this on craigslist for $25, as is. The guy who sold it to me was a bike guy, and had done the single-speed conversion himself a few years back, and given it to a friend to use on campus where she worked.

I think she painted these blue spots as theft deterrant.
He ended up getting it back and it sat in his backyard because his garage was already filled with bikes, and that's why it got all rusty. But it definitely still rode, really rickety and wobbly, but still fun. So I bought it, and I ended up commuting on this thing to work a lot for the next month, slow-rolling on the sidewalk. With this and my girl's '64 Schwinn Co-ed, we got a few other friends into cruising, and soon, we were all hunting down more cruisers, which led us to the pile of vintage bikes at a barn where I found my first SpaceLiner, and the rest is history. I guess you could say that this bike started the weekly Rochester Wednesday Night Cruise ride which now draws at least 20 riders every week, and what got me started fixing up old cruisers and eventually on this site.

Bernard got decommisioned after a while, because the rusty spokes started to break and one of the pedals was siezing up. But I have plans, to bring him back to life, sans-fenders and brakes, and with a rusty pair of coaster wheels and some dirty old whitewalls I have sitting around, to preserve his "jalopy-ness". But I have to dig it out of the pile first.

See ya soon, Bernard.

 

[sensor]

gone

 

[sensor]

and also gone!

 

[Markm]

Sensor: Thats SWEET!!! Flintstone cuz no brakes? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[sensor]

Flintstone cuz no brakes? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

partially.......the no brakes and its from the stone age of bikes :wink:

 

[langsmer]

Jalopy Cycle: A modest bicycle with little more purpose then transportation, and pride in jurryrig skills. There is little intended aesthetic value in these vehicles, and what is done to "spruce up" a jalopy is generaly done on a extremely meager budget. The general public would usually precieve these as ugly, or in need of complete overhaul.

Also note* true Jalopy cycles are usually seen in the form of vintage bicycles.

So, this would lead one to conclude that Mr. JoeyMac's bicycle is certainly a jalopy, where Mr. Sensor's bicycle, although absolutely beautiful, and well worth laying your cheeks upon for a Sunday ride, or even to a grizzly hot rodder on hipster brawl at the local divebar, is not in fact a jalopy.

Also note, the meaning of the term "Jalopy Cycle" is to be interpreted by the individual. The the listed definition is just suggested.

For example, we will use the Metro Van exuation, first used by Sr.Isac Lipton at Harvard university in 1895.

Excellent and vintage, yet not a jalopy

Wherein this van, exhumed from the caves of Kines in Greenland sometime around the turn or the century, would certainly be considered a Jalopy.

 

[sensor]

ill take mine out now.......but........
unrestored, original rust.......hmmmmmmmmm whoda thunk that 80+ years of unrestored rust wasnt a jalopy :?

 

[langsmer]

Your bike is welcome here for certain, that is just my interpretation, its such a beautiful cycle.

"Also note, the meaning of the term "Jalopy Cycle" is to be interpreted by the individual. The the listed definition is just suggested."

 

[karfer67]

lets not go into this again for all. this all just turns back into the whole what is a rat rod deal that we all end up getting pissed at one another and so on. i am not sure that i would call sensor's bike myself a jalopy but i would deffenetly not call evil's sweet ride a jalopy either. put it this way at the hooligans dia de los hooligans show we had a best jalopy award that was given to the car that looked like the most likely to break on the way home or made you think "wow they actually made it here in that?" that is exactly what i thought when i saw joey mac's ride that sucker is a jalpoy to the tee. all these "classes" of bikes are open to personal preference and i really dont like them at all other than to say they are all cool kustom bikes. pretty, shinny, rusty, crusty, striped, cut, chopped, ground, lowered, tall, who cares they are all cool and are 100 times cooler than most other bikes we see when we are cruising around. whew im done.

 

[sensor]

didnt take it personally..i was just confused is all....the reason i took the pics out is if it didnt fit in here it shouldnt be here :wink:

 

[skoda]

Both of these sport the ominous "Deebo Squeak" when riding.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

^^ ohhhhh, i love the second one

 

[karfer67]

sensor no worries i am always confused 8)

 

[MonsterMetal]

I think my Corvette belongs on this thread... Notice the custom steering wheel off a John Deere...

She is "As found" with air in the tires and a little lube on the chain... Rode her today

And the Hawthorne is not quite a rider yet but getting close..