Schwinn Kingsize Rat

[greenephantom]

This bike started out as a middleweight Schwinn Kingsize American. Taller than the standard Schwinn cantilever frames by a couple inches. It came to me with the horrible purple repaint and little else. I've turned it into a heavyweight with some early post-war flair.
Cut the rear fender stay on the frame and used a frame tool to get the proper bends to clear the wider fender. Snapped of the remains of the fender stay, one day will braze a wider heavyweight one in place. Fork is a pre-war Schwinn locking with the tall neck. Fenders are deeeep Monarks, early 1950s. Badge came with the bike, it's a tall oval from Haack's bike shop in Wisconsin, somehow appropriate. Rack is Schwinn 6 hole, guard is Schwinn, wheels are late 1970s HD Schwinn S-2s, tires are 2.35" Bontrager Solanas.
Still some more details to finish. Needs a crusty deluxe rear reflector housing and a weathered lense for the fenderlight up front. And I'd really like to ditch the cloverleaf ring for a pre-war style 'spiderweb' style Schwinn ring. And I'd like to do some better paint than the random colors that parts came in, but that's going to have to wait a bit. Going to kludge together some different decals to make the chainguard read "Rat King". Ah, things to do.
Cheers, Geoff

 

[GTV]

That's very cool, I like those frames. Do you still have the orginal fork? Isn't it a little longer than the standard fork?

 

[Carbon]

Love those fenders, reallly adds a nice 50's touch. I'd like to find me one of those larger frames to, looking good so far.

 

[Elnutty]

Hey Jeff it's Lee that used to live in Portland how have you been ????

 

[sleepy]

The Solanas are the perfect size/look for this bike. 8)

 

[iven]

def an eye catcher already, i like it how it is :lol:

 

[dogdart]

the Purple & green actually look pretty good together .

 

[greenephantom]

Thanks for all the kudos on this bike. For the time being I'm using it as my neighborhood get-around bike. This one has been sort of the "proof of concept" bike. Makes me want to do another one with much cleaner parts and then have paint done properly in two (or three) tone green. But at the moment don't want to throw down for another pre-war fork or deep Monark fenders in excellent condition.
I do still have the original fork, top threads are slightly tweaked if I recall, usable but kinda bunged.
Cheers, Geoff