Winter Project Wrapped Up

rkorson4209

rkorson4209

New Member
I bought a Schwinn riverside in November, and put a Grubee skyhawk kit on it, and rode it for like 4 or 5 times. I just wasn't all around happy with it, so I tore it all apart, and painted it Metallic Blue. I Foamed the frame, to help with viberataions. I put a Manic Mechanic Hub adapter, with a 38 tooth sprocket, and intake. I bought a BGF Dual start Centrifical clutch to put on it. Painted the motor all black with a silver head, I sprayed all the side covers with truck bed liner, inside, and out for sound dampining, then sprayed the outside of all the covers silver. I got a petcock, air filter, Motor mount, Plug wire, and ngk plug from Sick Bike Parts. I put a wide crank set, and dual pull brake lever from Spookey tooth. I cut pieces of tire tube, to glue strips to the motor mounts, back of cdi, and the bottom of the gas tank. I soldered and heat shrinked all the wiring. Heat shrinked nuts and bolts to hide a lil', and to prevent scratching on the cdi bolts. I used loc tite on every thing bolted down. All in all I have to say that I am very pleased at how this build turned out. Usually when i do a build I see things I wanna change. Not on this build, I can't find a thing to change on it. I was really surprised at how smooth this motor runs. It runs as good as my grubee which is broken in, I just know when this baby is broke in she's gonna run real good. I used my carb that I had tuned in from the grubee, so it started right away, and ran perfect. Heres my video links of it and my build pics.
YouTube - The cruiser running, lil ride. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIpEoXeAK3Y Schwinn Kustom Kruiser Project pictures by SBMotorBicyling - Photobucket Before
PC270121.jpg
After
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Nice job. I can see that a lot of thought and patient work went into that build which will pay off with trouble free riding for many miles and smiles. I agree about the BGF automatic. I bought the same one last summer and have a couple hundred miles on it. It has run smoothly and with good power, especially for right out of the box with no modifications. I'm wondering now what it would be like with porting. Maybe next winter I'll give it a makeover now that BarelyAwake has written a porting how-to. I also painted mine black and have it on my 39 Elgin. I have another yet to be run on a 63 American and notice that the pull cord has been upgraded to steel cable and the clutch handle is longer with an easier pull. For $160.00 with shipping it's a good value, I think.
Well, now that your Schwinn is all done what will you do next winter? Congratulations on a good job. Now that bike is really yours. How cool is that?
SB
 
Thank you silver bear much appreciated. Lol for some reason everytime I start a thread no one ever replies, so it was nice to hear that, fo sho. I know I will sell all my other motors now and only buy the bgf's. It is really nice to know that they upgraded them. I was actually thinking about changing my rope out, but figure I might as well wait for something to happen. Lol I was riding today and the bottom piece of the muffler fell off, and my bike took off like crazy, I actually like it alot more like this, but am unsure if it will damage my motor, oh well guess i'll have to put it back on for now, and order a SBP Exp chamber. Man I wish I could find some nice old cruisers like you. All I can find is huffys and magnas, no elgins or americans. As for another project, I have been stongly thinking about motorizing my redline chopper, Maybe with a jackshaft, running to the belt drive.
 
Finding old cruisers locally is kind of hard. I was very lucky last summer to find a 50 Schwinn straight bar at the landfill, but that's been the only freeby. I do frequent my local landfill with an eagle eye on the metal pile. I've found some good bike parts there. A few years back before I knew what I know now I bought a couple of old Schwinns to resell on ebay. I did nothing to fix them up, clean them up, did no research on them and at the time wasn't doing China Girl builds. What a dope. I paid about 20.00 for the pair, both men's bikes and if I remember right both skip tooth with rear racks. Sure, I made a little money selling them, but cant remember now if they were straight bar models or what. I think this summer I will again try running an ad in the local paper to see what turns up. That's how I found those other two. As for Elgins, I've had to resort to eBay since I live out in the boonies. As I write, I am firming up the resolve to find what I can locally in old cruisers. Being "an old one" myself, I like the old stuff best. Must be riding weather about now in Michigan. I got an email from home saying the ice is going out on the lakes already. Wow, I remember some years there was still ice for the fishing opener in mid May. I've got good weather here in Maryland for the next week so will be smilin' on me bike. You, too, I hope.
SB
 
niiiiiiiiiice vey niiiiiiiiiiice

i like the blue lol

BTW FYI JIC. The cable in the pullstart's is a garbage. You'll want to swap it out for the standard pull cord rope. I thought the same, it broke. All it took was one yank too far and it snapped, put in a rope tho and it was way better.

I likey!
 
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