Rusty Racer

[Spokeshave]

I picked this up off CL in New Jersey last night. A rusty '62 Schwinn Racer with British fenders. No big whoop but it does have a cool story. It was the seller's grandfather's bike. He worked at the huge GM plant in Linden ,NJ. The bike had baskets at one time and he rode it inside the plant for whatever work he did. At night the employees who had plant bikes inside would drive them out throught the enormous parking lots and chain them to the fence. In the morning you would try to park near the fence and ride you bike to work.
I thought it was kind of cool.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

cool bike kinda ratty but that is welcome here

 

[Spokeshave]

I'll keep the rust but get rid of the branch and leaves in the front spokes.

 

[scrumblero]

some of the early Racers had peaked fenders.

 

[Spokeshave]

Really? I never saw one before. Thanks.

 

[deorman]

Can't tell if it's flaked in the picture, but Schwinn plated parts clean up surprisingly well most of the time. 0.02 :|

 

[Spokeshave]

Nothing is flaked. It seems like old Schwinn chrome comes back to life with enough WD-40 and a Scotch brite pad.

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

SWEET Nice patina :mrgreen:

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Nothing is flaked. It seems like old Schwinn chrome comes back to life with enough WD-40 and a Scotch brite pad.

Yeah Schwinn chrome is pretty tough.

 

[anon]

What's a British fender?

 

[MBblue6]

That actually looks to be a schwinn travele. Stainless steel fenders, and chrome chainguard top, along with diffrent decals. Cool find and cool story. Matt

 

[Spokeshave]

That could be. I aaumed they were fenders off a british bike because they look like ones off of a Hercules I parted out. The seat isn't a Schwinn but one made in Holland.

 

[dos cruiser]

Looking at the down tube decal, i think you may have a late 50's bike there. I had acouple of Schwinns that had decals like that on this one they were 56 & 58.

 

[55ColumbiaBuilt]

Interesting. At the Newport News shipyard in Newport News Virginia there are bicycles just about everywhere. Aparently, if someone needs to get from point A to point B in the yard, just jump on an available bike. Every bike I saw was 100% rust. The seats and tires were maintained and like new, and the chains were well oiled, but the rest of the bikes are solid rust. If I ever get back down there, I'll take a picture or two.

 

[ratina]

I have a 63 Traveler that has the same fenders in stainless with a 2 speed kickback. Post up the serial number

 

[Spokeshave]

Cool. I'm startig to think this old girl is a Traveler.