Sting-Gray

[Ulu]

I’d like people to think I’m “going gray”, but the truth is I’m turning white. Of course I’m talking about my hair. (My legs have always been that color.)

I don’t care for the color of this bike, or the fact that it says Schwinn on a frame that was clearly made elsewise.

I’m gonna scrape it down to bare metal and see what it really is. The welding is not great but it’s not bad. I might polish it up.

It’s going to get this black-and-white banana seat that I purchased from the local Lowrider shop. I took the upholstery off of it and put MUCH better foam inside so it wasn’t like riding on a skateboard.

I didn’t scarf the long edges of the foam, just the nose & tail, so it looks a little square shouldered after reupholstery. That may break down by itself in time. The cheap vinyl upholstery will probably wear out before it matters.

So that lends a black and white theme to the bike. I have a black and silver bike and I really don’t like it because it looks too murdered out.

I definitely don’t want this one to look murdered out. It’s going to have sunshine, coming through the rust.

. . . and maybe a black-and-white striped paint job. (My neighbor already made a Beetlejuice comment.)

I think it’s gonna get this Alex 26” front wheel since these don’t work at all with this tall bike. Besides, I’m gonna harvest this red and white frame for the chro-Mo tubing. I think I just have to heat it up until the brass melts and pull it all apart.

That’s another build though.

I think the rear wheels gonna be a Shimano seven speed 20 inch from the huffy girls bike I bought. I have a nice fat Subrosa street tire to replace the lumpy knobby on it right now.

Forks are going to be a set of rusty stinkray forks from Orange County Choppers. They have a 1.25” dia stem and I will have to cut that off and sleeve it down to 1.125”

Most everything else is in a pile.

 

[Endlesschain]

This should be interesting to see, I need that style of tyre for the drag stripper

 

[Ulu]

I may not get started for a couple weeks if I send those forks out to be sandblasted and powder coated.

 

[Ulu]

A couple weeks? Who the heck was I kidding?

Here I start mocking up the build.
Right off the bat, the steering stem fits fine and I thought it would be too fat.

It is too long, but it’s not a threaded stem so I just cut it off.

I knocked the star-nut out and it turns out it’s just the right size to fit the hole in my anvil.

OK it fits and I can get a good setting on the bearings.

 

[Ulu]

The trees worked out OK. The handlebars will be a problem.

But in addition to a lot of rust, these forks have a lot of built-in Rake.

So here’s the first full on shot with wheels and forks but as I said those bars are going to be a problem.

 

[Ulu]

I don’t think I can use these green triple trees.

It turns out that (in addition to the hideous green paint) I don’t like the green trees as well as the black ones structurally.

The designs are quite different and the green ones are considerably relieved by comparison, and not as strong.

In addition they use a design with slots cut through the lower steel plate. This weakens the whole thing further.

The black trees that I bought will fit these risers, but are both threaded stem & they are about an inch and a half too long for the headstock.

Rather than cut them off and weld them I will probably thread them down and lengthen the key slot.

 

[Ulu]

Or maybe not. . . That extra length gives me room for Springer attachment hardware.

So those funny looking handlebars are actually the stretcher bar from the back of a Kawasaki 1500 Nomad. It holds the bag/muffler hangers apart. On mine it also holds the chrome bumperette.

It has those welded eyes on the end that might house some cute little LEDs, or some wicked pike nuts. But I might also cut it up to use for a springer.

Getting rubber grips on there could prove a problem. Anyhow those risers will require custom handlebars. And some shaving . . . They are so blocky!

I have the suspension fork from the Huffy, which has springs and sliding bushings in a fairly primitive arrangement. So now I’m considering bits of those in a sprung fork of some type.

Between the fake huffy fork and the hokey stinkray trees I should be able to cobble up something functional and unattractive.

 

[Ulu]

I was thinking about this last night, as to how I would use that Huffy suspension fork, and I had a weird idea that it might look neat if I kept the compression springs on the inside as rebound springs, and put some chromed compression springs on the outside where you could see them.

All coaxial to the leg.

The springs I have are not chrome, so I might try to get some thing else at the Lowrider bike store.

 

[Ulu]

Well no work on the suspension fork idea, but I did rework the front end today.

I decided that I didn’t like those green trees at all and I set it up with the black trees.

I did not cut the stem off, but instead I added a spacer between the top cone & the top tree. I used a star nut & the OCC threadless type stem to set up the bearings.

I didn’t have the proper top cone for a threadless set and temporarily I used a shim in the top cone.

I decided to use the straight bars from the fake Schwinn but they are 1 inch at the center where the stem I had was only seven eights at the center. I ended up boring it out on the drill press.

I took the stickers and most of the glue off of these fork legs, but I have not yet attempted to remove any of the rust. I was going to put these in an electrolysis bath, But there’s something about producing hexavalent chromium.

I forget whether that’s when you put the chrome at the anode or the cathode. Anyhow I don’t want to make it because it’s deadly. I need to “refresh my memory” before I stick chrome in the vat.

 

[Ulu]

Well it all fits together but all the black is so ugly, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do with that crusty chrome. Anyhow, you can see the spacer that I added. It’s an anodized aluminum sleeve from some crazy motorcycle hand grips that I didn’t use.

 

[Ulu]

Well as I was afraid of, stripping chrome electrolytically does produce hexavalent chromium. I can still deal with it. I probably got enough acid to convert it to a less toxic phosphate.

Otherwise I am reduced to acid stripping. I may just go right to this step first.

I didn’t like the flat bars at all and I picked up some more stingray style bars today.

I also picked up another stingray seat but I don’t like the color. It’s kind of too turquoise. This sissy bar is too short.

Anyhow now I have a seat I can take apart and put back together and use for a model to make an even larger seat. And more importantly I won’t have to take apart the one on the bike I’m riding every day.

<edit>I’ve looked at that picture for a while now, imagining that bike with all the blue paint scraped off down to bare steel, brush finished and clearcoated.

I think the turquoise seat will be fine. It’s just the blue paint making it look odd.

 

[Ulu]

I think those bars look pretty good on this bike so far but, they are going to go back on my project bike and I have another slightly smaller set to put on this.

While this is going to be sort of an adult stingray I don’t want it so large that my 5’ tall grandchildren can’t ride it.

 

[Ulu]

So, there it is with the Mini-ape hanger bars, and I think they’re going to be OK.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

They match the fork width nicely. Do you have a shot from head on?

 

[Ulu]

Sorry, just those late-night garage shots. I will probably roll it out today and get some better photographs.

I’m gonna have to make some custom brakes for this bike because the hardware is not going to line up.

 

[Ulu]

They match the fork width nicely. Do you have a shot from head on?

OK buddy, I wheeled her out into the front garden and took some more photographs this morning, because it was so lovely out.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

This view is the sickness, perfect lines:

Looks like a giant syringe ready to spike the vein of the city. Deadly

 

[Ulu]

Well then here’s another one for you in case that first hit wears off.

This is a much lower perspective and I didn’t crop it so severely.

 

[Ulu]

I keep looking at this view and thinking of ways to make a headlamp which also reinforces the triple trees and makes use of all the existing holes and maybe even clamps those fork tubes more securely.

That’s not the headlamp that I was planning though…

It’s kinda big. About the same size as early Harley headlight.

Instead, I think I am going to do something with these.

The clear lens is a parking lamp that I picked up as a spare for my 1947 Plymouth.

The little beehives came as extra parts with my fake jaguar.

I have some strange things to make housings from.

 

[Ulu]

Here it is with the 7” KC jungletorch. I can’t carry enough batteries around to power this monster for long.