Hi All,
I'm a 46 year old father of 3 (2 grown daughters and a 13 year old son who is about an inch taller than me, and sports a size 16 foot), married for 26 years tomorrow. One of my daughters gave birth to the cutest little girl you'll ever see, last October, but, since I'm only 46, we don't use the "G word" around me, and that's why I have the handle 'Big Daddy'.
I'm also a life long car and motorcycle guy, having grown up riding and racing dirt bikes in south Florida in the 70s, then street bikes at the age of 12, and cars at 15 when I discovered that Friday night dates don't really like to be picked up on a Honda 550 Super Sport.
I've always loved nostalgia, and Americana. There's nothing much cooler than tailfins and chopped tops, especially if they have a great patina.
However, this is a bike forum, so let's talk bikes. The first bike I can ever remember owning was what I called my "army bike" it was painted camoflage, had a toy machine gun that mounted on the handlebars, a fake walkie talkie that mounted on the tank, and it came with an army helmet. I'm using a photo of me on that bike as my avatar. I wish I knew the brand and model of that bike, and could locate one to buy. My second bike was (I think) a Sears Spyder which got stolen. Later bikes were nothing to comment about.
I now have a 2005 7-spd Schwinn Jaguar that I want to rat out. My son has a 2004 chrome Stingray as well as a 2006 Schwinn Corvette, and both my wife and youngest daughter have pearl pink 7-spd Schwinn Roxies with springers. Although I am completely new to this, I have some mechanical background, and with advice, and guidance from more experienced forum members, I hope to build several rat and kustom bikes in the next few years, and intend to have my grand daughter riding a red Sky King tricycle by the time she can walk.
OK, I've run my mouth enough on this post. It's time for me to get over to the HowTo section, so I can ask a question about ratting out my bike.
