Thursday, September 6, 2007

Bike Of The Week: Overbite


An old Schwinn that I bought from a former salesman from Redeker's, where I work. Jim Bridges. He told me that he put many miles on it riding to and from work. Not content to leave it in the dirty vintage state that I bought it in, I got crazy after looking at http://www.bikerodnkustom.com/ for too long. Took an old Huffy frame and cut it at the top tube/seat tube/seat stay junction and flipped that piece around backwards. I wanted the look of an old board racer Harley, with the bars down low and the seat way back. So I put a star nut in the top tube of the donor piece, and bent the reflector bracket from the Schwinn up. Then ran a bolt through the bracket and into the star nut. Re-locate stem and bars to seat tube of grafted piece, bolt dropouts from grafted piece to original axle, and the front was coming together. Opted to run 2 front brakes since there were 2 mounts, so it has plenty of stopping power with the rear coaster brake too. "Overbite" Hooked the nose of the seat to the original (and firmly rusted-in) seat post and ran a bunch of electric tape around the second seat post to hold it there. Someday I will bolt it in place or use some stainless straps. Not fun to ride for very long, but I am planning to do BRR on it some year. Rode it at a car show/swap meet and got some mixed reactions. Some guys got it and some said it just looked silly. May paint the wheels black too. Always fun, never too serious, the way it should be! Later!

2 comments:

Rat House Marc said...

Two words: Hell Yes.

Jim Howe of Howe's welding in Ames did my frame.

Unknown said...

That is sick! I have no info on the swap either.....haven't been in a few years.

Peace