I am home with the five year old for the summer, so actual car projects are kind of tricky to pull off. Fortunately, I have discovered old bicycles. It began back in early June when I stumbled upon a 1973 Schwinn Speedster three speed on Craigslist.
Before:
After:
In the weeks since, I have picked up four more Schwinns, two Ralleighs and an old Murray. They join the early 70's Ross Barracuda 16 that was my first bike.
The beauty of old bikes is the fact that you can pick them up for next to nothing and, unless you're repainting them, you can strip one down completely and rebuild it in 24 hours. Plus, you get to ride a cool old bike when you're done. As a bonus, my daughter is getting involved with this too. We will disassemble, clean and rebuild a bike together and then spend the afternoon riding together. Everybody wins.
Here's a summary in the order that they showed up:
The 1972(?) Ross Barracuda that I got for Christmas when I was four or five. It was my first bike. My daughter has a new 20 inch Trek with training wheels that is still a little big for her. She wanted to learn to ride without the training wheels and she suggested that we "fix up the little bike downstairs" for her to learn on. Good enough for me.
After I outgrew the Ross, my father bought me a Raleigh Rodeo three speed for $7, which I eventually sold to the guy who would one day become my brother in law for $25. That bike is long gone, but it got me thinking about Raleighs. A Craigslist search turned up a 1966-ish girls Raleigh Fireball five speed with a vintage speedometer and redline slicks front and rear. It was about five minutes away from my house. This one is just being stored for now, but will eventually be restored for my daughter. This is a really nice bike.
As I mentioned, as a kid, I rode a Raleigh, but I wanted a Schwinn, and I couldn't shake the decades-old desire for a Sting Ray. I answered an ad for "an original 60's vintage Schwinn", which turned out to be a 1966 Murray Wildcat Deluxe, repainted in matte red. I bought it anyway. It was a good rider, but left me cold and it has become a parts donor.
Then, another girl's bike, a 1970 Schwinn Hollywood. One of the sad tragedies of the old bike world is that girls' bikes tend to be in much better condition than boys bikes, but are worth nothing. I got this one for $20. It has over a hundred dollars worth of parts on it that will find their way onto other projects.
I still wanted an early Sting Ray, and was starting to appreciate the beauty of single speed coaster-brakers over shifters, so took a chance on an eBay bike. It's a 1966 Sting Ray Standard. This bike is going to get a bare metal / powder coat restoration. I have the rest of the parts for it, but here's a photo that I snapped while I was unpacking it. Violet is a fairly rare color for that year.
I drove past an estate sale last weekend and decided to turn around and go back. I found a girl's 16 inch Raleigh for five bucks. It was filthy, but still has pieces of the original plastic wrapping on it. My daughter and I completely disassembled it and cleaned everything. She was anxious to start putting it back together and when I asked her what she wanted to start with, I fully expected her to say that she wanted to put on the purple seat or pink grips. She wanted to grease the bearings. That's my girl. She helped turn every wrench on this one and that afternoon, she learned to ride it without training wheels.
I wish I had taken photos of it when it was apart, but somehow I forgot to.
I picked up another frame off eBay. This one is a 1969 Sting Ray Fastback. It was cheap and in my favorite color, Campus Green. I will soon have enough parts to turn into a bike again.
And, finally, while looking for parts on Craigslist, I stumbled upon the bike that has turned out to be my favorite rider of the bunch. Again, it was advertised as a "mid-60s Schwinn", but I knew from the photo that it was much later than that. I saw knobbies and a black BMX style handlebar. I figured that I would trash that stuff and add some 60s vintage tires and bars. I made a lowball offer and the original owner accepted it. The bike was in fantastic condition, aside from having had a lot of dust on it. When I got it home and started to clean it up, I peeled a small sticker off the chain guard. Underneath, it said "BX. As it turns out, it was a one year only model (1978). It was Schwinn's response to the burgeoning BMX craze. The black bars and knobbies were original. It even had all the original reflectors and grips in place. Other than some worn (and easily replaceable) decals on the top tube, it is in fantastic condition. I didn't even have to use Naval Jelly on the chrome, but I did strip it down and regrease all the bearings. I removed the black bars to repaint them and put on some ape hangers for now.. I also added an early style sissy bar. This bike rides like it's brand new and the ugly black seat (Made in Italy!) is super comfortable. I really love this one.
A late 1950s 20" J.C. Higgins (with a 1963 Schwinn Stingray seat on it), a mid-1960s Columbia (unfortunately the tank and luggage rack are long gone) and I'm still riding the mid-1970s Schwinn Le Tour I bought in college.
I got both as projects for my 11 year old nephew and I to restore, but after getting a shiny new freestyle bike, he's lost interest for the time being. I think one will see pit bike duty soon. 
