bike time V - dago workhorse - schwinn DX

Saturday night, wife's working, watching kids,
perfect time for the fifth installment of BIKE TIME...

postwar schwinn DX

This little hussy is a postwar Schwinn DX bastardized dago-style
 (see previous posts about that!)
It's one of those bikes that just loves to ride, go places and get back.
The DX frame was the lowest grade of the 26" schwinn line,
below the straight bar and cantilever frame styles.
I think they're one of the coolest designs,
although I wish this was a prewar version!

Of course I got this thing on good old craigslist, cheap.
It was pretty rough, housepainted blue over everything,
but the wheels and frame/fork were straight and that was all that really mattered.

facelift

After a month or so of riding around with bent cranks, bent pedals,  bent handlebars,
bent seat, shaky basket etc.
the bike proved itself worthy of being the new beater shop bike.

A long time ago I had made  fiberglass mold(s) for the DX tank,
and fortunately there was an unused one left over.
The tanks are basically the same from '39 to '50 something,
and its funny it had taken this long to actually find a DX frame to put it in.

(will probably insert pic of DX molds here...)

yup, there we go...

Schwinn DX tank molds circa '98

This frame has such bitchin patina on it,
it really deserved a (somewhat)  matching tank.

time

I love the look of cracked paint.

or rubbed?

One perk  of being a shitty painter is knowing how to do patina paint!

dx wing

The wing outline is actually from the original DX graphics,
which were accidentally embedded in the mold from the original tank.
There were some cool designs back then.

Gotta love the locking mechanism!
Someone drilled a hole through the headset for a bolt or lock.
When a bike has this much paint over it,
I'd suspect someone ripped it off long ago and tried to disguise it.
In SD they call it "murdered out", usually a bike thats spray painted black,
lots of them cruise the boardwalk.

badges,  we don't need no stinkin badges!

So the bars were swapped with the dago-style hi-rise bars - no apes here!
and I threw one of those BMX 3-piece bottom bracket kits with an aluminum crank, clunker - style.
It's a hipster fixie crank that I don't really like,  but its all I had.

If you have time check out this site...

Alan Bonds CLUNKERS

I love those clunkers, the original mountain bikes.

Around here it was popular to put BMX stuff on the cruiser frames.
I'll try to dig up a pic of my old one from high school.
I smashed my face pretty good when I broke the forks landing a jump!

drillium 

I took the campagnolo knock-off off another cruiser that was vying for the shop bike role,
(an aluminum monark silver king that twisted like a wet noodle, way sketchy)
so I might swap it out.
It's been on a couple long "critical mass" rides so not sure if its worth screwing with the gearing.
Maybe some more drillium on that ring will help it out.

slick

Anyway this thing had the baddest seat on it.

About as comfortable as it looks, good for a couple hours.

The shop bike gets the big ass Wald basket for hauling lunch and drinks and stuff.

Usually there's a flashlight taped to it but they're always getting whored out.

Originally this would probably have came with some truss rods,

not as cool looking as the Shelby versions but close.

business end

Lotsa Schwinn cruisers used a really beefy rim, called an S-2,
and fortunately this bike had a set with heavy duty spokes.
Not sure if you could see in that pre-upgrade picture,
but it was interesting as the fat tire was in front, and the skinny one in the back.
On a road bike I like having a fatter front tire as it doesn't get caught in the cracks as easily,
but on a cruiser it needs to be the other way,
like a hot rod, big and littles.

Carlisle Stud - made in USA

These are some old tires but they were too cool to replace,
lotsa tread left just a little cracking, no problem.
This one is a 1.75  Carlisle Stud. Not many of these around in any condition.

Uniroyal Nobby

The back one's (I think) a 2.10 Uniroyal Nobby.
Not really a good tire to skid with but man these things ride so smooth.

beef

That heavy duty wheel doesn't really match that chintzy rack,
but its rarely used anyway.
I think the hub is a Bendix red band hub but there is no paint, just a groove.
It might be an earlier version as I thought the hub came out in the 60's...
pgbikes
Just found this info.
It could be earlier as its not a smooth hub,
 there are some lighter grooves around the center deep groove.
Maybe a previous owner bought a wheel set after trashing the rest of the bike?
Could be, as the forged cranks were actually bent, which is pretty tough to do.

dago cruiser

Here it is in all its glory!
This thing loves bombin' down hills.
Let's roll..



Definitely a perfect bike for that Santa Barbara fiesta cruiser ride.

Chow.

TP