Last night in the Werewolf den!

Well, I got a new pad located over in the big city of San Francisco !

So..............

Lets Party !!!!

1938 Schwinn New World out for a ride down the coast of San Francisco

back to the good old story of whats new in the shop..............

Its been busy building stuff for all kinds of projects and helping out around the area. Props goes to Jim C down in Santa Barbara (Recap of the film fest) for throwing a super rad bicycle film fest weekend for the first time in Santa Barbara. Everything went super smooth, the guys got the ducks in a row and the key to the city, Nice job Jim !

I started working on my Gravity Speed Bike fork, its kinda of a odd duck being a right sided aero fork, who knows yet ................ I put the Avid brake on the front of the fork as well so that I can make a neat little scoop to pull cool air to the caliper so it doesn't over heat, not that I will really use the brakes but why not.

 

Beside the forks, I started messing with the rear foot pegs. Because the bike doesn't pedal it really doesn't need a bottom brack but, when I was building the frame, I got so excited about it, I decided to put a bb on it just incase I ever wanted to make it a ridable bike. Here the info behind the cranks, don't be fooled, theres a bit of info about the layout.

because it doesn't have a chainring I decided to cut off the spider and make both crank arms look the same, by the way, I got these super nice cranks at the bicycle swap meet that Jim threw for the film fest last weekend. 20 buck !!

So by making some press fit stainless steel pieces that press in to where the pedal threads use to be I made it convert the right and left threads in to just normal 3/8-16 theads so I could bolt up some cool RSD motorcycle pegs on it. The neat part about making these little stainless steel inserts is that the crank arm side with the chainstay has the insert welded to the frame so that once you tighten the foot peg it locks the crank arm to the chainstay and creates a structural connection using the bottom bracket as the other connection point. Kinda a neat way to lock in the cranks arms as well so that on the left side the crank arm is just floating next to the wheel creating a very unattached look. well I am tired and I got a long day tomorrow of welding titanium rocket looking things for who know what and who so peace out.

Its super small behind the black peg but you can kinda see the little stainless bung that fixtures the crank arm to the frame.

Saturday ...................

I did most of the welding on my dads frame today and took a break mid-day to relax and take out the 1938 Schwinn 6 day race bike down the harbor coast. I love riding that bike and nothing makes it better then 75 deg sunny and a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge!

the white Schwinn Madison & the 1938 Schwinn New World Track

I love the front end on this machine - all 1940s style with Wald bars

This beast was all hand fillet brazed with chromoly tube - not bad for 1938

I also started working on the downhill gravity speed bike. I was doing a group ride in San Fran last week and out on the route they have a section that is over 3 miles of downhill cornering and fresh tar road. It is SOOOOO cool to coast the whole way for miles, the goal of the group ride is to see who can coast the farthest at the end of the 3 miles. I did it on my 1938 Schwinn and I was almost at the point of breaking the coaster brake wheel because its so long and with the sharp corners you need to brake at some points.

the right side with the rear end

with Paul from Atomics 12 dollar banana seat

the left side without the rear end

its about the size of a bmx bike with 26 inch Crossmax Lefty wheels

I also kinda threw together the 1984 Schwinn Madison track bike ( rental bike at the Velo track in LA from the 1980s), this was a trade up from Jim C of Cranky's bike for making the new helmet racks. And since Jim has 2 more rental Madisons and I know Jeff from Bike Jerks has one, we should have a race of the rental Madisons. I have wanted a Madison for a while, because I am a Schwinn dude and this was one of the last hand welded Non-Paramounts to roll out of the Chicago Plant in the 1980s and they only made a bunch of them for a short few years.

good old Chicago......

Atomic Cycles - Van Nuys,CA

Anyone that doesn't know Paul and hasn't been to the shop needs to go! Its a lost treasure of a shop, filled with odd things and a lot of Schwinn parts!

 If you need any Schwinn repair work done on a old machine that needs some life - this is the dude to bring it to!

I love this video, if you have seen the old Ford commericals you will know where the idea came from.

Project Christmas - day 1

Fridays, I have off and don't have to weld and fab for Uncle Sam's Labs and Clorox. So today I decided to start a little project or maybe a larger sized one, of building my dad a bicycle for Christmas. shhhhhh..... Don't tell him, its a surprise, he won't find out...............

Long story short, every year I build my dad a bike and never give it to him because I fall in love with it or like last years cargo bike experience, I broke it in half in Hollywood from over loading it with about 500 pounds of building supplies. ( see my older post for the electric cargo bike ).

So this year I decided to start about the same time as every year, building my dad a bike, but this time I HAVE to give it to him..........

The plan.............

Well maybe I won't tell you, and just leave you to come back as I build it for the next few posts

sorry I didn't take many pictures while I was building, I was so pumped while I was building!!  I took a step back after 8 hours today from when I started and realized I didn't even take any pictures while I was building.

Building all this crazy robotic medical and aerospace concepts at work has me dialed in to fabricate faster then the camera can take pictures for the blog.....

Don't worry there is a lot more at come on this ride ....

yep thats Jim C's 29er coaster brake wheel

8 hours + Coffee and Mt. Dew

=

The Bastard Child of a 1940s Schwinn and a 29er mountain bike

4130 and enough room for the fatty in the rear

Theres some reasons for the weird frame layout, you will see later

the only picture I took today during fab, because I was so pumped up how easy this simple little magnet makes life, worked so well, I called StrongHand and asked for more!

 Its got an on and off switch, do I need to say more?