Vintage Bikes Anyone?

Lanterns, stoves, etc... anything old!

Vintage Bikes Anyone?

Postby Juneaudave » Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:50 pm

Many years ago...Marcia tossed the mountain bike I bought her for a single speed Sears Spaceliner (with a basket(very imporant))!!! She rides that all the time and I've been thinking it could easily be a camp bike to carry along...any other old bikes out there? Sorry about the pic..it just doesn't do this jet age marvel justice!
Image
User avatar
Juneaudave
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 3237
Images: 380
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: Juneau, Alaska

Postby doug hodder » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:48 am

Dave...did that one have a light in the front of the fork? Cool!!! That's what I need for on the front of the Rocketear....male version of course! I've been looking for some really nice old bikes, but all I have found are beaters. I'm looking for a balloon wheeled bike, late 40's early 50's Schwinn, like I learned to ride on. Baskets, they were mandatory back then, I figure that's where I can carry my cocktail! Doug
doug hodder
*Snoop Dougie Doug
 
Posts: 12625
Images: 562
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:20 pm

Postby Juneaudave » Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:08 am

Are you kidding? HeadLights and a horn (beep, beep)!!! Marcia loves the wide seat and upright peddling position. When she bought it at a garage sale, I started looking on ebay. Seems like there is a big market for vintage bikes and parts.
:lol: :lol:
User avatar
Juneaudave
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 3237
Images: 380
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: Juneau, Alaska
Top

Postby Aaron Coffee » Thu Dec 25, 2008 9:42 am

Don't know what you consider vintage, but I have a Fleetwing Jetsatar Super Delux. A german knockoff of the banana seat crate bikes. This one has a three speed with the shifter in front of the seat on the bar(not sure what that bar is called but we called it the "nut bar"). The rear hub is dated 1970. I always wanted a Schwinn crate bike. My sister bought it for me at a garage sale for $20. The banana seat and sissy bar are missing. I eventually want to restore it.
If I could shut my brain off, I could save myself alot of time, money and effort.
User avatar
Aaron Coffee
1000 Club
1000 Club
 
Posts: 1000
Images: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:40 pm
Location: Elk Point, SD
Top

Postby Steve_Cox » Thu Dec 25, 2008 11:46 am

I have a 1940 Swiss Militarvelo Bicycle in pretty good condition, it's a fun rider. I don't have a picture of mine, but it looks like this one.

Image
Steve
User avatar
Steve_Cox
4000 Club
4000 Club
 
Posts: 4903
Images: 196
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:46 am
Location: Albuquerque New Mexico
Top

Postby Laredo » Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:00 pm

what I want is a three-speed 20'' Texas Ranger brand banana-saddle bike with the tall sissy bar, both fenders, and the wide-and-high handlebars.

I've only wanted one of those for Christmas since, like, 1967.
Mopar's what my busted knuckles bleed, working on my 318s...
User avatar
Laredo
Donating Member
 
Posts: 2017
Images: 0
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:42 pm
Location: West Texas
Top

Postby doug hodder » Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:21 pm

Crate bikes in good condition bring fairly good dough. The gears were nice as the original Sting Rays had a low gear ratio and you'd peddle your ass off trying to keep up with the regular bikes, but they did do a great wheelie!

Nice ride Steve! Doug
doug hodder
*Snoop Dougie Doug
 
Posts: 12625
Images: 562
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:20 pm
Top

Postby raprap » Thu Dec 25, 2008 1:54 pm

Steve_Cox wrote:I have a 1940 Swiss Militarvelo Bicycle in pretty good condition, it's a fun rider. I don't have a picture of mine, but it looks like this one.

Image


Looks like that one has been adapted to 27" or 700C wheels. The original "Swiss Army Bike" had 28" wheels to accomidate a Mauser sheath that went down the front fork.

It's not the rims that hard to find, but that old rubber is something else and I don't think Coker makes retro tires.

Rap
Kentucky Pool Made a Fool out of me.
Instead of Tennessee River it looks like I'm headed to the deep blue sea.

JHartford
User avatar
raprap
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 243
Images: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:28 pm
Location: Where ever the wheels stop rolling
Top

Postby halfdome, Danny » Thu Dec 25, 2008 2:31 pm

doug hodder wrote:Crate bikes in good condition bring fairly good dough. The gears were nice as the original Sting Rays had a low gear ratio and you'd peddle your ass off trying to keep up with the regular bikes, but they did do a great wheelie!

Nice ride Steve! Doug

Doug, this is a friends collection in San Diego that collects Crate/Stingray bikes. He has more hanging from his open beam family room. His wife is a real sweetheart to put up with it all in the house. My son & him grew up together and my son has a couple too. I found a brand new Stringray at Walmart a couple years ago for about $88 far cheaper than any replacement part. He is parting out that one to fix up his stingrays.:D
Danny

Image
Image
ImageImage
"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing". William Feather
Don't accept "It's Good Enough" build to the best of your abilities.
Image
Teardroppers Of Oregon & WashingtonImage
User avatar
halfdome, Danny
*Happy Camper
 
Posts: 5882
Images: 252
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:02 pm
Location: Washington , Pew-al-up
Top

Postby Juneaudave » Thu Dec 25, 2008 3:04 pm

halfdome, Danny wrote:
doug hodder wrote:Crate bikes in good condition bring fairly good dough. The gears were nice as the original Sting Rays had a low gear ratio and you'd peddle your ass off trying to keep up with the regular bikes, but they did do a great wheelie!

Nice ride Steve! Doug

Doug, this is a friends collection in San Diego that collects Crate/Stingray bikes. He has more hanging from his open beam family room. His wife is a real sweetheart to put up with it all in the house. My son & him grew up together and my son has a couple too. I found a brand new Stringray at Walmart a couple years ago for about $88 far cheaper than any replacement part. He is parting out that one to fix up his stingrays.:D
Danny

Image
Image


Holy cow...I looked "Stingray Crate" on ebay...your friend has some $$$ sitting there.
User avatar
Juneaudave
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 3237
Images: 380
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: Juneau, Alaska
Top

Postby grant whipp » Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:05 pm

Geeezzz ... you guys are bringing back some memories ... :) ...

Way back when, I wanted one of those Stingray bikes, but my Dad couldn't afford one ... so we saved my allowance for a few months and went down to the Western Auto Store and bought a banana seat and a set of apehanger handle bars, went out into the garage and bent up a tall sissy-bar/rear-seat-support out of electrical conduit, and hung it all on an old 20" frame I'd already been riding for years ... I used that for the first couple of years on my paper route, then the local paper had a contest for their carriers, and the prize was a metalflake blue 5-speed Stingray, just like in this pic:

Image


Yeah, I won the bike! I don't think I'd had it 6 months before I'd made a new, super-tall sissybar for it and put a tall riser on the handle bars to make them even higher (they had to be at least shoulder height!). Just as I was finishing up my "career" as a paper boy, Dad moved us out into the "country" where we had 5 acres surrounded by 100s more of open wild hilly land, and the "chopper" Stingray just didn't cut it out there in the woods! So, off came the banana seat, sissybar, and handlebar riser ... and on went a solo saddle and we heated the bottom corners of the apehangers and pulled them together a bit and welded in a cross-brace, then we replaced that girder front fork with the standard front fork from my "old" bike ... lastly, we took off that "slick" rear tire and put on a fat knobby one, and matched it with another fat knobby on the front ... viola! ... I had a BMX bike before there was such a thing! Tore up those hills on-and-around our property for a few more years before I got my first motorcycle ...

Thanks for the memories, guys! What are your's?
(Hey, I'm allowed, right! After all, it's my birthday ... :R ...)

Hope you all had a great Christmas ...

CHEERS!

Grant
Celebrating Retirement after over 32 Years of Building, Promoting, Supporting, Supplying, Living the Lifestyle, and Loving Teardrop Trailers!
"Life Moves a Little Slower When You're On Teardrop Time"
The nature of Life, itself, is change ... "Those who matter, don't mind, and those who mind, don't matter."
Image
User avatar
grant whipp
Teardrop Manufacturer
 
Posts: 1815
Images: 117
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:00 pm
Location: Jefferson State ('tween CA & OR!)
Top

Postby Dean in Eureka, CA » Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:11 pm

What'd they call the blue one?...
I only remember the Apple Crate (red), Lemon Crate (yellow) and wasn't the green one was called the Lime Peeler?...
I had an Apple Crate and I too stuck a tall sissy bar on it as well. 8)
User avatar
Dean in Eureka, CA
The Fogcrawler
 
Posts: 4997
Images: 69
Joined: Thu May 11, 2006 8:44 pm
Top

Postby doug hodder » Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:21 pm

In '65 I had a 24" Schwinn peddle back 2 speed. Removed the fenders and got some semi-knobby tires for it....it was my mountain bike. Also took a hand brake off a bike, set it up with a rubber band and used to play like we had a clutch. Good training for the next step. We had some dirt hills near the house, started on bikes, really wore them down once we all got the motorcycles. Really drove the neighbor hood nuts with the sound of a 2 stroke going "wing ding", cuz of course you had to pull the baffles. I'm sort of searching for a "campground cruiser" bike to fix.

Dean...there were pickers, peelers and crates. Didn't remember a blue one.
Grant...was it a red line slick? Doug
doug hodder
*Snoop Dougie Doug
 
Posts: 12625
Images: 562
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:20 pm
Top

Postby grant whipp » Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:55 pm

doug hodder wrote:... Dean...there were pickers, peelers and crates. Didn't remember a blue one ...


I never kept up with what was called what, and come to think of it, that bike might not have been a gennie Schwinn ... as cheap as our local newspaper was back then, it could very well have been a knock-off of one kind or another ... :thinking:

... Grant...was it a red line slick?


Honestly, Doug, I can't remember! I do know that I was on my third replacement slick (again, Western Auto) when I switched over to the knobby.

I also recall that my banana seat sat a couple of inches further back than those in the pics, and then I remembered why ... I'd gone down to the W-A and gotten a replacement seat post clamp and slightly longer bolt, then somehow combined it with the one on the original banana seat so I'd sit back those extra couple of inches. Even back then, I was a good 6" taller than most of the kids my age, and my legs needed that extra room ... besides, it made riding those wheelies from the saddle for blocks at a time soooo much easier ... and soooo much cooler! :thumbsup: ... :lol: :lol: :lol:
Celebrating Retirement after over 32 Years of Building, Promoting, Supporting, Supplying, Living the Lifestyle, and Loving Teardrop Trailers!
"Life Moves a Little Slower When You're On Teardrop Time"
The nature of Life, itself, is change ... "Those who matter, don't mind, and those who mind, don't matter."
Image
User avatar
grant whipp
Teardrop Manufacturer
 
Posts: 1815
Images: 117
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:00 pm
Location: Jefferson State ('tween CA & OR!)
Top

Postby halfdome, Danny » Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:08 pm

Dean in Eureka, CA wrote:What'd they call the blue one?...
I only remember the Apple Crate (red), Lemon Crate (yellow) and wasn't the green one was called the Lime Peeler?...
I had an Apple Crate and I too stuck a tall sissy bar on it as well. 8)

Lemon Peeler. Notice some of those bikes have disk type brakes. :D Danny
ImageImage
"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing". William Feather
Don't accept "It's Good Enough" build to the best of your abilities.
Image
Teardroppers Of Oregon & WashingtonImage
User avatar
halfdome, Danny
*Happy Camper
 
Posts: 5882
Images: 252
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:02 pm
Location: Washington , Pew-al-up
Top

Next

Return to Vintage Camping Equipment

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest