The "Casey Jones"

[two spot]

Howdy all,

This is my best bud Casey:

Casey is named after the worlds most famous railroad engineer Casey Jones. Casey likes running along side while I go for a bike ride so I decided to build up my old (newer) Schwinn in his honor.

The bike in question is a 2003 Schwinn "panther". I am also trying to turn water to wine, to a degree, I have never been fully satisfied with the looks of the Chinese made Schwinn. It would have been nice to do this build with a Chicago made frame but it was one of those use-what-you-already-got situations.

Here is the frame before:

Grinding paint:

Destroying the evidence:

The frame and chain guard is stripped and sanded:

I cut a tank plate from 1/8" aluminum plate. I made the tank plate flat on the bottom to square off the look of the bike a bit. Pictured here with the template:

That's it for the progress pics. I am actually close to done with this build so Look for completed picture in the gallery. :mrgreen:

Regards,

Two Spot

 

[GodHatesCleveland]

Destroying the evidence:

Yes!!!!!!!!! When someone can prove to me that Chinese manufactured bikes exceed the quality of those assembled during the balloon tire era, I'll eat those words. In the meantime I'll eat tons of yummy Chinese food, they sure got that one right....

I'm interested to know what pieces you'll use to attach the tank plate to the frame. I might be doing something like that in the future. How will you protect the frame from scratches?

Casey looks like a great dog. I had a German Shepherd who loved to go for rides with me. Like most German Shepherds, she was incredibly intelligent and a tremendous athlete. It only took her one day to learn how to run next to the bike, and on the second day we were up to full speed, literally 15-20 mph. I can send you the technique for training dogs to run aside a bike on a leash, but now that they have commercial product available it might not be necessary.

You could probably rat rod one of these products if you wanted to. I just know that running next to the bike was one of the things my dog really loved. We ruled the world when going for a daily ride.
http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies..._WalkyDog___?gclid=CNLdnKXv1JQCFRhhnAodpFxhqg
http://marketplaceadvisor.channelad....aspx?sfid=25275&i=140763826&mpid=7619&dfid=1

 

[two spot]

Thanks for the dog links! I'll have to study those. Casey already does a pretty good job on bike rides. But there is always room for improvement! The tank plate is mounted to the frame using shaft collars. After paint, I gave the frame a matte clear lacquer overcoat. It seems to be adequate scratch protection so far. See the finished pics in the gallery:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8617&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Regards,

Two Spot