THE RICKPAULOS COLLECTION

[rickpaulos]

found abandoned out the back door.

Coast to Coast. bent frame. >>> recycle bin

Mongoose freestyle bike. Weighs as much as if it were made of gold. I think I have a rear wheel to match.

Schwinn Delmar frame. A minor dent. .38? Build material.

 

[rickpaulos]

in alpha order

Free Spirit LeGrande cheap Sears mountain bike 24" wheels.

Huffy. This was a donation, then the donor sent someone to get it. That person returned it about 7 hours later wanting lights, locks and an electric motor. Yah, sure.

Hyper Commute. low end walmart bike with all stamped steel parts.

This one is interesting junk. JC Penny UltraLight with 27" aluminum wheels, alloy crank on a 1 to 3 piece conversion bb. Shimano Tourney brakes with suicde levers that actually work. The rear brake cable routing was messed up from the factory. I wonder if it came with stem shifters. The downtube lever cable housing is very unusual. Typical Huffy frame construction so I'm sure it rides quite poorly. So many of the 1970s bike boom 10 speeds sold at the department stores were pretty awful, especially those with 26" wheels. They tried to "upscale" this bike with better parts but the frame just ruins it. Just a reminder that China doesn't have a monopoly on making lousy bikes. Another item is it is a larger frame. JC Penney sold some of their 10 speed bikes with 23" frames as the only size option.

Customers seat on his eChopper. Leather on steel. looks cool, Looks not comfortable.

Matching Next All Terrain Shock bikes. So heavy. Neat place for the headlight.

Next Flare

Raleigh Jazzi. Decent quality bike. More photos later for Macro Monday.

Roadmaster MTN Sport SX. Less common version with shock fork.

Schwinn Falcon. More bike industry stupidity with caliper brakes on painted rims.

Schwinn Frontier ladies version. Actually a nice bike.

Schwinn Mesa Gs. bright yellow & blue model. Sold before I could take a photo.

Schwinn Predator. 1985 Giant build. Father-Daugher repaint project. They even painted the pedals pink. Nice solid ride.

1975 Schwinn Suburban. Need tires, tubes, rim tape and a complete repack. Should clean up nice if someone wants to do that.

NOS Sears packaged Cateye Reflectors.

Best of the lot. Trek 7100 Multitrack. Front rim bent, seat torn.

 

[rickpaulos]

I found a page for the JC Penneys Ultralight 27 in the 1979 spring summer catalog. List price $159. It might have been in other years but not all the catalogs are on line yet. "Minimum leg length of 34 1/2" so yeah, only 1 frame size.

 

[rickpaulos]

3 Murray Squirt bikes today.
A couple of the wheels are shot but I have access to period replacements.
The guy I got them from worked at a local grocery store chain where they were promo bikes. He said they had been in his garage since new, about 10 years ago. More like 40 years. made in USA Murrays. Very RED. A Bit washed out in the photo. Need reassembly and tuning up. They would make for good coaster brake conversions. Get rid of those feeble steel side pull brakes and friction thumb shifters.

View attachment 266733

Started on one of the Murray Squirts today. Full dismantle. Ground off the cable stops. Masked off the decals and touched up with brush on Rustoleum. Perfect color match. BB & HS repacked. Ground off the rivets holding the 3 sprockets and guard together. This is getting a coaster brake conversion. Rims painted. Sprocket painted. The factory riveted the sprockets and guard before paint so there is no paint on the hidden sides of the sprockets. At some point this frame had an undersize seat post in it and someone cranked the bolt down so much it caved in the seat tube a bit. Easy fix. Just pound a larger post in.

LeeChi brake lever was copyrighted 1991. Bike made in Lawrenceberg, Kentucky. Near Louisville. Same place they made the Schwinn Varsities in 1984/5.

 

[rickpaulos]

Wheels done for the first Murray Squirt. Aluminum rims are from some boxmart mtb. Painted white. White wall tires. Kept the original Wald front hub with the 3/16" axle that fits. Rear hub is a coaster. I replaced the axle with a much longer axle to match up to the 135mm spacing on the frame. Needs a chain and brake arm clamp to finish it up.

 

[rickpaulos]

Sekai GT Deluxe 2700. Donor said he got in it 1980 but the serial suggests it's a 1977 build. Note the lack of top tube cable stops and no water bottle bosses. Suntour Cyclone rear der.
View attachment 268036

Started tuning this bike up and riding it. BB repacked as the factory grease had seized up after 47 years. Very little wear. First ride, flat tire. chain not running smooth.
Chain totally worn out. 1/4" extra length in just 12 inches.
new chain installed.
The front derailleur broke on the stand. The aluminum body broke off at the hinge.
Suntour Cyclone with bottom cable housing routing.
Replaced a similar vintage but cheaper Suntour from the parts bins.
Noticed the head set wasn't working well so I pulled the fork expecting more petrified grease but no, it had newish phil wood grease. Oh!, the steerer is bent. Just enough to crack the paint and to rub on the bottom cup that was causing some binding. So now the search is on for a matching fork. Basic Japanese fork used on millions of 10 speeds in the 1970s. 198 mm steerer in silver.

 

[rickpaulos]

June 15 intake in alpha order

Eastern Trail Digger bmx.
rear wheel isn't oem on this bike but it is an Eastern Nitrous. 14mm axle. 9 tooth cog.
"Cro mo down tube" I take that to mean the rest of the frame is not. MSRP $449

Customers Firestone Pilot. Highly customized. copper wire lacing on the seat. Longhorn fender adornment.

GT Timberline. Just needs wheels.

Haro Vector V-0.

1999 Magna Outreach (looks unridden)

Mongoose Ledge 2.1. busted rear derailleur. Aluminum frame. Will sell fast once fixed.

Raleigh M20. Nice bike.

Roadmaster Granite Peak. IMO one of top 10 selling bikes of the past 20 years. I said top selling, not top quality.

Schwinn Continental. 22" frame. With factory fenders.

1982 Schwinn World. Steel cottered cranks! Made by Giant in their first year or so. scrapper.

Vista! The donor said it was a Schwinn Super Sport. Not. A Schwinn sticker stuck on the head badge doesn't make it a Schwinn. About the only non-schwinn bike with a flat blade fork. Well why not, they were trying to copy Schwinn bikes.

And what is this? Found in the bottom of an incoming box of parts. ISIS Overdrive bb? 48mm threading? Heavy so I'd guess it is not for some high tech carbon bike. It could weigh more than some carbon race frames.

 

[rickpaulos]

1989 Fuji Ace

Suntour Blaze derailleurs, Suntour Edge crank. needs shift cables. Mongoose seat. Air.