![benwilson_monowheel.jpg benwilson_monowheel.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ratrodbikes/data/attach/277/277894-benwilson-monowheel.jpg)
I'm thinkin' this would have to be considered a step thru...
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I don’t really know what I have here, but I am considering it this for the step thru class. I bought it for the head lights.
Doing research on bicycles sometimes sends you down some very weird wormholes...
As you know I will try to transform a vintage kids bike into my own version of a musclebike. From the same person that I got the workstand, I also got an adress of a workshop where I could get a bike and fork sandblasted and powdercoated for 65.- € which I consider a very fair price. So I thought about getting the bike powdercoated (a first for me) but immediatly felt sorry for the nice decals. So the next thought was; that mybe somewhere in the interwebs I could find the graphics to make my own decals without spending to much time doing designwork on the PC. So I consulted a well know search enging with the terms: "hope sports 6 speed" An here's where I landed:
https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/cycleparadise/cpt-2005099103-bi-037637570.html
(you will probably need to fire up your trusted VPN and pretend that your in Japan, otherwise the site won't work...)
Someone was gonna sell the same bike for 21,890 Yen, but men, look at that chainguard: pure 70's insanity!
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On the site with the search results of an image search several other wacky bikes caught my eye.... here we go wormhole...
According to the following site my kids bike was part of a big fuzz in Japan during the 70's and 80's, roughly translated as "bicycles with flashers":
https://middle-edge.jp/articles/I000192
This article explains the history of the trend:
https://middle-edge.jp/articles/t5MZK
It's really worth it to run both articles through a translation tool! Japanese seventies bike galore!
Here are a few videos I found on youtube about those bikes. It's getting pretty clear where the name of this trend came from...
(I think my bike is featured in this clip from 0:33 on, at least the rear rack seems to be the same...)
Have fun in the japanese 70's bike culture wormhole...
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