Grace: My baby from start to finish

D4NK

D4NK

New Member
Here is my first build for myself that i just recently finished....well sorta.

It started off by catching the motorized bicycle trend when i borrowed a whizzer from my brother in law and cruised with a friend who slammed a china girl motor into an old schwinn stingray.
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Since the whizzer wasnt mine i couldnt modify it and i really didnt like that. So i jumped on craigslist and found a Schwinn Jaguar frame that was about to go to the dump. It had no rear wheel, no gears, no brakes, front tire was shot, but this frame was perfect because it was the beach cruiser frame i was looking for but it had hand brake posts front and rear. This is what she looked like after i added a rear wheel.
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After cleaning her up a bit i flipped the handle bars for a vintage look and welded up an really lay back seat post. These two simple mods really changed the look of the bike.
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I hated the paint color and style and was on a budget so i sanded her down to bare metal all by hand, and i swear i will never, ever, ever do that again. It took forever and getting in every nook and cranny was a real pain. Her she is with all naked.
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I ordered a Skyhawk GT5 with CNS GenB carb from KingsMotorbikes.com, but since i live in good ole' california they can't, by smog law, ship me the motor. So taking advantage of my sister moving to Texas a couple years ago i had it shipped to her and she sent it to me. I open it up all excited just to see it was the wrong motor and carb. GREAAAAT! I shipped it back to Kings and they still had to ship the right one back to Texas and then it was finally sent to me. While all this was going on i had the frame and fork powder coated and got a rear wheel, new tires, a rear brake, and a new chain. I just got the motor installed and all dialed in. i have been riding her daily to break her in. Meet Grace:
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She will soon be getting a vintage bullet headlight, some sort of tail light, and a vintage seat.
 
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on a nice build. The Schwinn Jaguar is a solid foundation for a motorized bicycle and there are a lot of them around. Several members here use them, me for one, I have two Jags. Thanks for sharing your photos and story. Have fun, ride safe.
Tom
 
I can only post 5 pics per post so here are some more finished photos:

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And my personal favorite

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Nice looking bike; but you might want to re-do that rear sprocket!! The rubber rag joints are suppossed to go on both sides of the spokes to protect them & help hold the sprocket in place!
 
Thankyou so much!!!

VeniceMBs, great catch and thankyou for the tip. I just got done changing it right now. It actually worked out great because I needed to true the sprocket anyway.
 
I really appreciate it. Im really getting into photography and shes the perfect transportation and model! Here is my latest pic of her: (try to ignore the watermark, its a HDR image and the program i use is a trial so they watermaked the image)



GraceHDR1.png
 
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Great looking bike !!! really ..... random question .... I have a similar type bike that I am just start to build ....

One thing I am going to change is the handle bars .... doing the flip thing.... but how do you get them out of the tree to switch them ??? it looks like I would have to break it ??? or cut it out ??? Does that make sense ? or is there some way to swap them out that I am not seeing ???

Thanks again , nice bike ! keep it up !
 
You have to take off all the controls and grips. Then slide the bars completely out of the stem. After that just flip them upside down and slide them back through. It doesn't seem like they would be able to slide because of the bends in the bars but it will.
 
Pedaling With a Lay Back Seat Post?

D4NY-Nice bike. (^)I’m amazed how much flipping the handle bars and adding that seat post changed the look. Those side by side pictures tell the tale. I will be making that change this weekend.

But I have been wondering…I am 6 foot zip and with the seat that low if you had to pedal any real distance (out of gas, etc) wouldn’t that set up be painful to pedal?

When I ride my regular bike I have the seat post pulled out about as far as it’ll go so in can extend my legs on the down stroke.

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Isn’t fun the best thing to have? Arthur (Dudley Moore)
 
90 Degree Lay back Seat Post?

I have been looking around the “inter webs” (I can see my kids rolling their eyes) and haven’t found anybody selling that type of radical 90 degree bend on a seat post. Did everyone that has one make their own or is there somebody out here selling them and I am missing it?
 
Sorry for the extremely late reply

I saw some online but i had the tools and know how to make my own. Id really like to make a different one pretty soon though
 
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