For Old Guys Only

Hub Shiners work great, and provided a couple more reflectors! And, one accessory that I now have is a "Spinning Bell" where the bekk stands up un it's edge, and when you flip the lever, it spins and sound very much like an old dial telephone, How bout that?

Used to be glass reflectors in the ends of the handle bars, also!

Mike

and dont forget the streamers from the grips and the playing cards clothes pined to the chainstay for that motorbike sound! LOL Sometimes its nice to be old! oh and the biggie was tying baloons on to the chainstay so they could rub up against the spokes for that really big sound!
Joe

ya! miss pop's... been about 20 yr's he worked 2 job's to make end's meet. time fly's by faster and faster then it's over. shoulda listened better,miss him alot still! Donald Patrick Bell member of the U.S.A. 1940 olympic team and a better father than i'll ever be..

Yea, it's been 32 years for me. Always seems that he left yesterday.
Dad would have been 104 June 21.

Field of Dreams. A great movie Tom.
Hope your Father in Law is feeling better.

Steve.

I do remember those leather hub cleaners but I don't think I've seen any since the 70's.
I think at the time I regarded them as being something only seen on higher end bikes like the British roadsters, "old people bikes". Maybe on some 10 speed Schwinns too.
Me and my group of buddies didn't think they were cool. They were something "grown ups" had, the old people who wore leather shoes and trousers, not jeans and sneakers. They also always had rubber bands around their pant legs to keep them out of the chain grease. Not cool. We liked getting dirty, that was cool.
Slick back tires? Cool. Baseball card in the spokes? Cool. Well, until you were nine or ten. After that if you still did it you were a baby and might get lumped for it.
Back in those days I was rockin' a 1975 Sears Free Spirit Spyder, purple, with a purple sparkle banana seat and purple sparkle grips. I remember the day I got it and put it together. All the reflectors and the streamers that came with it went right in the garbage. My sister got the girlie version, light blue with flowers on the seat and a white plastic wicker basket with big plastic flowers on it. She had dad put hers together with all the reflectors and the streamers too. Not cool. I never once rode that bike ever, she stole mine all the time.
With a Spyder I was marginally cool. Once I put a slick on it I was cool. If you were lucky enough to have a Schwinn Sting Ray you were really cool. If you lucked out and had a stick shift on your bike you were a bona fide rock star.
Balloon tire bikes were not cool in those days. A kid who had one of those was obviously so poor he had to ride his dad's old hand-me-down bike from when he was a kid. If you were spotted riding a ballooner in my town you had better be fast because you were definitely getting chased and lumped.

"Flabergeezers"? I'm not surprised at the stick in the spokes replies. My favorite though was to loosen the front axle nuts if I wanted to get even with somebody. He was fine until he popped that next wheelie...

You young guns should hang out with us old guys. We know stuff.

I don't remember where I saw one of those leather things, but I have seen em. Then I macrame'd my own with hemp.

My father passed back in 2000, so I'll be riding one town over to his place Sunday.

Ah, those were the days! When I was a kid we couldn't afford to spend the money for a bike. My FIRST bike is the one in my avatar!

Terry

Leather loops forever... Find a bike with a leather loop on the wheel and you got a good one ,real steel rims ,bombproof cranks, real crome! I found a first year new departure rear hub (cira 1898) that could stop a tractor,leather loop and reflector intact.

My Dad died in '87 at 75. I'm 74 and hope I can beat his time. He was a great guy and one **** of a mechanic.
How about shooting firecrackers off in your handlebars? Just light one off and stick it in, sounds like a 12 gauge shotgun. It would get your attention.
buzzard

Buzzard, I'd forgotten about that. We used 4 inch fire crackers.

One of the local youth plugged his bars with some wood that he pounded into them so he could push the firecracker in then a marble wrapped in kleenex after it.
He'd ride around with the handle bars facing out and light the firecrackers as he rode along shooting at things.

Worked great until he hit Mr.Davidsons plate glass window in his furniture store. Might have gotten away with it if Mr. Davidson wasn't sitting at his desk watching it all unfold.

Steve.

Back in the late 90's, I put over 30k miles pedaling on a '96 Schwinn Cruiser Six that sported the hubshiners. For a short time Schwinn was reproducing em them under the "Schwinn Classic" name, complete with reflector dots for only $8. I made mine slightly heavier by sticking a couple of felt stickydots on the back with adhesive. They worked great! I've been meaning to make some for my huge polished Sturmey drum hubs - they have a 2.3-3.2" hub diameter!

Back then you could also get a repro "Schwinn Classic" teardrop bluedot reflector that fit nicely on the Wald fenders for a mere $20. Nowadays, that thing is super-rare and expensive, wish I would have stocked up lol

The above post reminded me of the blue dot Ford tail lights!

Terry

Hey guys check this out...
"Old Guys Hill Climb"
@JournalStar.com
Click on video
I'm gonna take a ride on the MB down there tonight.
buzzard

Stinky Finger said:

Back in those days I was rockin' a 1975 Sears Free Spirit Spyder, purple, with a purple sparkle banana seat and purple sparkle grips. I remember the day I got it and put it together. All the reflectors and the streamers that came with it went right in the garbage.
..................................
With a Spyder I was marginally cool.
.......................................
My favorite though was to loosen the front axle nuts if I wanted to get even with somebody. He was fine until he popped that next wheelie...

You young guns should hang out with us old guys. We know stuff.

Click to expand...

This could have been from my past. My Spyder was blue with a tan seat (though it probably was white when new......Texas sand changes things.

My brother completely dissassembled his and changed the wheels to mags (when they first came out) On his test drive the front wheel was wobbly, he poped a wheelie to slam it back into place, when he went down hard to bump it in place it was no longer there......He just got out of a cast, I remember my Dad's frustration at having to make repeat emergency visits to the Doc.

I love my Dad and he is still with me, even with everything we did growing up, he made sure we got what we needed, and what we didn't need he got us the best he could afford. I wish I still had that spyder.....to me it is worth more than a Harley.

got them dot's on my '53 belair..

Grease and dust removal was the name of the game. Had to have em to be cool. Mud flaps, cards, tassels etc. some of that stuff I did not do. lol