This is my mess as it stands today. It started with a yard sale Collegiate that had lived too long leaned against the side of a garage through several winters to be ride-able. These things are everywhere for nothing, so I figured why not hack it up and have some fun with it. I also found a pretty messed up rat trap front fork, so decided why not add that to the rat project, with a few tweaks, like grafting it onto the narrower Schwinn front fork.
The first step was to chop the frame apart and add 10 degrees of rake to the front, then pull the seat tube back to parallel the head tube. The seat stays will soon be pushed forward to parallel the down tube. The aluminum tube shows where the seat stays will be extended forward to the down tube, in a squared off version of the old school layout usually done with radii. The seat will be cantilevered from the top tube. Handle bars are still in the thinking stage at this moment.
This project will also get a motor. I hate these little Chinese oil burners, but they are fun to ride. Will have to see about making it look like it belongs here. Also will be fabricating a tank to fit into the scheme soon.
The rat trap and Schwinn fork grafting job in its current state. Still a few tweaks to go before its complete. While I did diddle with flipping the rockers over (forward), it wasn't right on the more modern 70's straight tube frame, so I went back to its conventional configuration and worked on getting the lines to tie into the rest of the bike. The additional 10 degrees of rake was predicated on returning some trail to the geometry once the rocker system was added to the bottom of the original fork.
The upper structure will tie to the end of the spring pit to stabilize it and tie it to the neck. Machined the offset from the gooseneck for now. Will weld bars to it eventually. Going to make up some sculptural bit to hang on the front of the sprung fork bit.
The plan is to leave this bike unfinished and raw. I'll give the burned paint a bit of a rub to knock the loose stuff off, then shoot the whole thing in a clear coat, after doing a little patina work to make the various parts look like they belong together.
Have had fenders on and off the thing, as well as a chainguard... not sure any of that will make the final cut.
More to come as it progresses.
The first step was to chop the frame apart and add 10 degrees of rake to the front, then pull the seat tube back to parallel the head tube. The seat stays will soon be pushed forward to parallel the down tube. The aluminum tube shows where the seat stays will be extended forward to the down tube, in a squared off version of the old school layout usually done with radii. The seat will be cantilevered from the top tube. Handle bars are still in the thinking stage at this moment.
This project will also get a motor. I hate these little Chinese oil burners, but they are fun to ride. Will have to see about making it look like it belongs here. Also will be fabricating a tank to fit into the scheme soon.
The rat trap and Schwinn fork grafting job in its current state. Still a few tweaks to go before its complete. While I did diddle with flipping the rockers over (forward), it wasn't right on the more modern 70's straight tube frame, so I went back to its conventional configuration and worked on getting the lines to tie into the rest of the bike. The additional 10 degrees of rake was predicated on returning some trail to the geometry once the rocker system was added to the bottom of the original fork.
The upper structure will tie to the end of the spring pit to stabilize it and tie it to the neck. Machined the offset from the gooseneck for now. Will weld bars to it eventually. Going to make up some sculptural bit to hang on the front of the sprung fork bit.
The plan is to leave this bike unfinished and raw. I'll give the burned paint a bit of a rub to knock the loose stuff off, then shoot the whole thing in a clear coat, after doing a little patina work to make the various parts look like they belong together.
Have had fenders on and off the thing, as well as a chainguard... not sure any of that will make the final cut.
More to come as it progresses.
