My projects

TheOtherStyle

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Mar 31, 2009
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Ok folks, I am now officially engaged in moped projects. 1 or 2, I don't know yet.

Today I went with my mom to my neighbors barn to pick up a couch. And came home owner of both a vintage Schwinn Super Sport and a lawnmower rear gearbox/axle.

The Schwinn Super Sport is a beautiful bright blue with a chrome fork, almost in mint condition, save for a slightly dented fork and scratched paint on the rear legs just under the seat (chain or cable perhaps). The bike has apparantly been near a fire or EXTREME heat, as while the leather seat (yeah....its definately vintage) is in excellent shape, the tires are blistered and burned on the gum brown sides, and the plastic that covers the brake handles is bubbled and melted.

The axle from the mower is extremely greasy and gunky. It is a gearbox/axle combo, complete with shifter, belt pulley, and bolt on belt guard (goes around the back of the pulley to keep the belt from shifting off). I'm not sure if the wheels that are on it are keyed or splined, but upon cleaning it up I will surely find out.

My ideas:

The Schwinn will resemble a crotchrocket upon completion (in a good way of course). I plan to upgrade the wheels, crankset, deraillurs, fork, and possible the handlebars. I'm going to go from 27" to 700cc wheels, as the tire selection for 700cc is much wider. This will allow my to use 700x38 tires and tubes to better handle my weight (I'm fat..it happens) and the weight of the motor and a few extra pieces.
The fork I have in mind has mounts on the legs to allow the use of cantilever brakes. While I give Schwinn credit for putting sidepull brakes on the bike, they are still single mount horseshoes (mount to the bike with one central bolt).
Other things I have planned for the bike are a cheap carbonfiber-look motorcycle fairing designed for stuntbikes. It is approximately 12"x12", and includes a pair of 15w headlights. I also found a nice set of LED taillights for a motorcycle. they are mounted to a license plate frame, that I can mount to a nice bike rack i found.
On the rack I will have a nice set of rainers (one-piece 3pocket saddle bags for bicycles. The bike came with a speedometer, to which I will add a few leds for backlighting. I will mount a motorcycle battery inside the top bag on the rack to power the headlights and taillights. Since the fairing and taillight piece both have 2 lights each, I will wire each side independantly. Use one side for regular night riding, turn on both sides for heavier weather (see and be seen).
The handlebars I have in mind aren't the normal ram-horns, and should allow me to use a thumbthrottle, and a normal ATB style brake lever with a light switch built in (for the brakes). Since I won't be using the regular ram-horn bars, I can put both brakes on a single lever on one side with the clutch on the other.
I will be using an 80cc slanthead motor (since I keep hearing they are the best) stock to begin with, mods to come after break-in.
Mods to come to the motor will include tuned pipe, pocket bike muffler mounted to the back of the bike (exiting the rear like a crotchrocket), different carb, thinner headgasket, and whatever else is recommended.

When done, the bike will definately resemble a sport-bike, but still be fully capable of peddle operation (I'm not worried about the extra weight, back when I was in school I found it fun to ride around with a flight bag stuffed with books strapped to my back. Talk about a workout :D ).


For the mower axle, I will definately make a pusher out of it. I plan to remove the mower wheels and tires, and replace them with gokart hubs that I will mount trailer wheels/tires to. Taller tires will grant me a higher speed, and I will use a centrifugal clutch on the motor with the transmission locked into the highest gear (if it is indeed multi-speed, I haven't checked that far into it yet).
I should also be getting a vertical shaft mower to hack up (from the same neighbor), so the motor will be used with the axle. The mower/motor I'm eyeballing is a 2.5hp. I figure I can make the pusher for my mom's mountain bike, so that she can ride along with from time to time, but still ride without it if she desires. I can most likely use a brake lever and kill switch combo for the throttle and ignition, so it will be easy for my mom to put on her bike and use.


Anyway, those are my ideas for now, I will post pictures when I get the bike and axle home.


Looking forward to riding with the rest, Lumpy
 
! you have a gem of a speedo there! make sure you blow out all the old grease in the shaft if it is a cog driven antique!
 
not cog driven i dont think, but it does have a tab wheel to spin off the spokes of the rim. maybe that is cog driven, idk, i havent looked at it yet other than to load it into the neighbors van lol. i should have pics tomorrow.
 
cool!
it would be a cog drive speedo. make sure you ask someone some advice on how to overhaul it because parts for them may be hard to find!
 
the speedo appears to work from what i could tell. as i pushed the bike from one end of the barn to the other i saw it flicker a little. a fresh greasing is something i will for sure do though.
 
Ok folks, here they are, pics of the Super Sport and the axle. The frame of the SS is awesome, almost no trace of welds, it's a smooth bike. The speedo is a Sears unit. Brooks saddle, Weinman brakes, and of interest...no serial number anywhere on the bike.

The axle is a 3 speed. Forward, reverse, neutral. It even has a disc brake, small, but it works. I'll have to get some de-gunking spray, and get the whole thing cleaned off, but I didn't see any ID tag of any sort on it. Maybe it will show up upon de-gunking.


I'm throwing the pics in a Photobucket folder for viewing, since I use dialup at home. I want to be able to see responses to the thread lol.

http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/theconstantevolution/moped/
 
Man, lumpy, that live axle/gearbox is a really sweet find. I been looking for one like that for quite a while to make a Honda Gyro style three-wheeler with.
 
As far as I can tell, it's a basic, F/N/R gearbox. If I end up not using the axle for a pusher, I'm thinking about making a go-kart of sorts with it. Smaller pulley, with a decent pulley on the motor..... :D

But the Schwinn will definitely get the above described treatment :D
 
Yeah, I really like this one. I'm actually thinking about not MB'ing this one.....

I have an older Raleigh roadbike in my shed as well. I think its a Raleigh... I know Schwinn's have value, and if I'm gonna mod one of the two roadbikes I have, I'm thinking hard about modding the Raleigh instead. The Schwinn is just too nice lol. I'll upload pics of the Raleigh later.

Also, I was inspecting the transaxle earlier, and I was wrong, it isn't a single speed. Rather, it is actually at least a 2 forward speed transaxle. Nah....not gonna make a pusher from it after all. Smaller pulley, modded vertical shaft 4 stroke..... I smell a go-kart in the works :D

Regardless of which roadbike I choose, I do plan to remove the ramhorns. I have problems with my wrists and hands, and it's hard for me to stay on them for too long anymore, even when riding regular. I'm looking at these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350188398429

Not straight, but they will allow me to not lean down so far on them, so it shouldn't be so bad for my wrists.
 
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