In my haste to put my American Rat Rod together I forgot to put the retainer on the master link. While riding it at the Patriotic Pub Pedal the master link fell out and the chain come off and bound up the tire and I come to a screeching halt. Luckily someone had the idea and someone else the tool and coat hanger to do this and it worked great.

Today I decided I wanted something different from last year to ride on the Patriotic Pub Pedal tomorrow. I got home tonight at 5:30 and started with this Schwinn American frame I had stashed in the attic...


I wiped the frame down, sanded off stickers, primered it, painted it and put on the wheels off my black rat rod along with some other parts I had, took a 20 minute break for supper and at 8:30 I ended up with this...


I'd like to have done more but ran out of time. Maybe next year.

More photos here.

Received the first issue of Kickstand magazine today. "Celebrating the cruiser bicycle culture" is their tagline. There have been other similar magazines published in Europe but I don't believe they are still around. This is the first of this type to be published in the U.S. More info here.

While shopping today I spotted this at the store and at first passed it up but I had to agree with Ken so I ended up purchasing it.

We sold the Sun trike today to an elderly lady who was going to ride it around with her dog in the basket. We just didn't have a use for it. We usually only got it out for the bike fest. I think we had more money wrapped up in this thing than any other bike we've done.

Photos of it at the fest...

We had originally planned on taking our mountain bikes to Wyoming to ride a rail-to-trail but the weather didn't look good so we did a 180 with our direction and bikes and went to Galveston, Texas to cruise the sea wall along the gulf. Also checked out a great bike shop there called Island Bicycle.

Photos here...

Video ...



Continue reading "Galveston, Texas - Sea Wall"

Out running errands today and spotted this for sale. We don't need another tandem but it was too nice to pass up. We bought it hoping to pass it along to one of our bike club members who doesn't have a tandem. Edit 06-13-09: Someone from the bike bunch did take it.

Today was City-Wide Clean Up day and we spotted this thrown out to the curb while on a bike ride last night. Not for sure what I'll do with this. These diamond frame 3 speed types were never my favorites. I've cut up and stripped several Raleighs and Schwinns of this type and have the Racer that I never ride but there's something about this one I like. I think it's the black and white, the chainguard and the grip shifter.

I've come to the conclusion that this bike is a 30s Iver Johnson. I finally had some time to strip it down and clean the frame and fork some. I believe I will just be "rat rodding" it. I've entered it in the RatRodBikes.com Rat Rod Bike Build Off #4.

Today we rode the new Planeview path over to the Canal path up to 17th and over to DaNang on Broadway for lunch. Video ...

Getting the bike ready for our 3rd annual Tandem Night at the Thursday Night Pub Pedal. I swapped out the whitewalls for Kenda Flames. Not sure which I like better. Photo is from our ride tonight to Subway for supper.

My wonderful Mother made some seat covers and a basket liner for us. The seat covers are just to keep the dust off while the bikes are stored.

A short while ago we did something I swore I'd never do. Rented a storage unit. Pictured above are just some of our bikes. We've each still got several bikes at home to ride. Prior to moving some to storage the bikes were making it impossible to get vehicles in the garage and lawn and garden stuff from the shed. I tell myself this is temporary until I sort out what I want to get rid of but I know better. We've already increased the size of our unit once since we first got it and the garage is starting to fill up again.

Just bought this from a friend. I'd recently taken a liking to this frame style and had been looking for one. Don't know the maker, year or what I'll do with it.


Edit: I've since concluded this is probably a early 30s Iver Johnson.

Today is our bike clubs Spring Gravity Shoot-Out. We'll be racing these 2 vehicles. The one built from bikes I made last year and new this year a Jeep "Power Wheels" my Dad and I gutted, stretched and added a make-shift brake. More info on the event can be found here.