I have been around the antique car crowd all my life and never did care for the attitude of most big buck stuck up collectors with the nose in the air look, then the rat rod movement started up and i felt right at home, I have two antique cars and although they aren't rat rods I still have the urge to build again, problem is that in my life I beat the you know what out of my body and it's hard to start and stick with a big project these days.
I did have a few bicycle projects laying around that I had never got to start and one day I started to put together a 1967 Schwinn Stingray 5 speed Fastback that I had found in the scrap steel container at my local landfill in 2000, I decided to build a Rat Ray as it had been sitting on the shelf for so long and I had enough parts to make it whole, I did not even know of the Rat Bike genre at the time and only found out about it after the bike was put together, imagine my surprise of finding like minds out there, I feel at peace now.
In the last ten months I have restored from the ground up a 16 inch Stingray Chopper in pink with purple flames for my granddaughter, a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in Red with black flames for when she gets older, a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in black with orange flames for her newborn little brother, (I'll find a 16 inch before he gets old enough to ride it) a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in blue for my nephew, a 1998 GT BMX bike for my nephew, a 26 inch Nirve Pink Panther girls bike for my Niece, two 20 inch aluminum frame BMX bikes for family members, right now my projects are a 1991 Gary Fisher Supercaliber MTB modded for the street, a 1972 5 speed Stingray fastback with everything updated (brakes, shifting, cranks, stem, etc..) a 1967 Schwinn Speedster with a Sturmey Archer three speed hub, 27 inch wheels, no fenders, mountain bike pullback bars, caliper brakes only, will be updating to a three piece crank also, (this bike really looks like it's name now) the future looks wonderful, I found my niche.
Mark
I did have a few bicycle projects laying around that I had never got to start and one day I started to put together a 1967 Schwinn Stingray 5 speed Fastback that I had found in the scrap steel container at my local landfill in 2000, I decided to build a Rat Ray as it had been sitting on the shelf for so long and I had enough parts to make it whole, I did not even know of the Rat Bike genre at the time and only found out about it after the bike was put together, imagine my surprise of finding like minds out there, I feel at peace now.
In the last ten months I have restored from the ground up a 16 inch Stingray Chopper in pink with purple flames for my granddaughter, a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in Red with black flames for when she gets older, a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in black with orange flames for her newborn little brother, (I'll find a 16 inch before he gets old enough to ride it) a 20 inch Stingray Chopper in blue for my nephew, a 1998 GT BMX bike for my nephew, a 26 inch Nirve Pink Panther girls bike for my Niece, two 20 inch aluminum frame BMX bikes for family members, right now my projects are a 1991 Gary Fisher Supercaliber MTB modded for the street, a 1972 5 speed Stingray fastback with everything updated (brakes, shifting, cranks, stem, etc..) a 1967 Schwinn Speedster with a Sturmey Archer three speed hub, 27 inch wheels, no fenders, mountain bike pullback bars, caliper brakes only, will be updating to a three piece crank also, (this bike really looks like it's name now) the future looks wonderful, I found my niche.
Mark
