# 1956 Racer Rebuild



## DesmoDog (Oct 19, 2022)

I posted a question about this bike earlier, but thought I'd make a (re)build thread for it. It won't be a restoration, it will be a rebuild. This is posted on a couple other forums too so it may look familiar to some. 

I've been casually looking at Speedsters and Racers for a while now. This one had been listed on Facebook Market place for a bunch of weeks when I finally saw the ad and for some reason I decided to get it. I'd rather have the next size larger frame but I'd have to get a later bike for that. Which coudl happen... but that'd be a different thread so on with this one. 





The serial number isn't actually listed in the database. That's what I asked about earlier and I'm comfy with the explanation that it was probably stamped on a day that there is no data for. Best guess is it was stamped in the 28th or 29th of June, 1956. 

Not a great picture, but when I was putting it in the stand I noticed it has a "Schwinn" script on the seat post. I hadn't seen that before, but this is earlier than most of the bikes I worked on in the past so I'm sure there will be a few things I learn along the way. As I said, I plan on rebuilding this,  not restoring it. It's going to have "incorrect" details when it's done. 




Speaking of incorrect details... I thought this was a fix for a broken kickstand when I first saw it...




...but upon further investigation it seems the early Racers had bolt on kickstands?

I'll be honest. One big draw to the bike was the front fender style. I could have bought a later bike in better shape for what I paid for this... but it would have a smooth fender. Gotta have the fin!




A later bike also wouldn't have the cool graphics! I hadn't seen these before either and I like them. 








The rear fender has taken a beating. I think I can work these out without destroying the paint too much?


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## DesmoDog (Oct 19, 2022)

Serial number on dropout. W95460




But it also has something on the bottom bracket? Much cruder but looks like it was done before it got painted, so???  "LPDJ2274" from what I can tell. Common opinion seems to be it's a Police ID. We had to register bikes as a kid, but they gave us stickers...




It's got the "upside down" trigger that actually works like a trigger instead of a thumbshift.




Winged headbadge. 




Messed up front brake




I'm not sure if this stem is original, but I want to replace it with something more, um, elegant? The headset feels indexed. Not just kind of notchy. Indexed. Like it clicks from one setting to another.




Everything is pretty crusty on this. The hub isn't exactly freewheeling and fancy free either.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 19, 2022)

It turns out the headset wasn't as bad as I thought. The real problem was the lower cup fell out of the frame when I pulled the fork. I'm not sure what's up with that, I haven't checked yet.




The kickstand was well on it's way to losing it's pin.




I like welded on kickstands. If I decide to repaint this at some point, would the natives pull out their picthforks if I welded a mount on? Full disclosure... I am now officially looking for a kickstand boss off an old Schwinn.

The bottom bracket was just as dry as the headset. I'm guessing the hubs look about the same but haven't torn into them yet.




I hadn't planned on using the seat anyway, but it's trash. Along with the rock hard "padding", the base is all messed up.




The seat post clamps were a lot nicer back then than the later stamped versions. I really like this.




When you're done stripping it down you end up with a 7.5ish lb frame.




And now the fun starts. The paint is just a little too far gone for the "patina" look I'm afraid - it's worse in person. I guess that means I have to start cleaning it up.




The stem and bars have flaking chrome on them which is an instant disqualification for me. Too many cuts from flaking chrome when I worked as a mechanic. No major loss. The Racer was aimed towards kids so the bars are smaller than on, say, a Breeze. I may just use the Breeze parts there too.

EDIT: Earlier in the year I bought a Breeze with a two speed kickback hub so I could use the hub on a Typhoon I'm putting together.  It may end up donating more parts to more projects.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 19, 2022)

I cleaned up the hub a little and found a date stamp. "56   10"   I'm surprised it's from that late in the year if the frame was stamped in June, but it is what it is. I'm more used to tire date codes, where the 10 would have meant the 10th week, not month, but the all knowing interweb says month so month it is. 




The hub felt pretty crunchy, just like every other bearing on this thing. It's been at least 30 years since I've rebuilt one of these (I was a Schwinn mechanic for about ten years back in the late '70s-80s) but I had to open it up and see what I was dealing with. I was pretty surprised what was in there!








Other than being dry as a bone it looked good! No water had gotten in there so NO RUST. Happy days. The gold tone on the bearings wiped off with little effort. I just cleaned everything up and put it back together. Now it's smooth as a smooth thing, except for the pawls clicking of course. And with new oil in there they sound pretty good too. I didn't go overboard trying to make it look nice, I don't want to set any unrealistic expectations for the rest of this. 




After that I started to clean up the frame. The paint is shot, it doesn't clean up well at all. I'd really like to repaint it, but then everything else would have to be redone and the chrome parts are too far gone to stand up next to new paint. It's a slippery slope, best to just clean and rebuild at this point. Even so, when I see the red under the badge it's hard not to start thinking about what it would look like if it was all the same color again.


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## GTs58 (Oct 19, 2022)

👍


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## soddruntlestuntle (Oct 20, 2022)

I'm considering buying a first year Racer myself, so I'll be following your progress closely.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 20, 2022)

soddruntlestuntle said:


> I'm considering buying a first year Racer myself, so I'll be following your progress closely.
> 
> View attachment 1716450




I'm not sure that's a first year bike (I'm not positive mine is either). I don't think the Racer was available in black or that frame size the first year? The '57 catalog says black enamel but still doesn't have multiple frame sizes listed?

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure where I saw the colors availabe in '56 so maybe I'm wrong. The frame size though, that looks  like a 21" frame which would put it no earlier than '59 if what I'm seeing in the catalogs is correct.

What is the serial number on it?

That's the exact combo I'd like to find in a 1962 model...

On another note - the Racer is listed as a "Promotional model" for the first couple years. What does that mean?


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## J-wagon (Oct 20, 2022)

Heres some info on racer frame colors and sizes. 
Post in thread '1956 Racer rehab' https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/1956-racer-rehab.173168/post-1175730


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## SirMike1983 (Oct 21, 2022)

There are a couple options now for rebuilding the Sturmey AW hubs that weren't available years ago. Many years ago, the choices were to run the hub on oil throughout (clean out the hub, then 20 or 30 weight oil only, and just deal with the mess of oil running out gradually), or to use brown axle grease in the outer bearings (usually did not work out well - too sticky, drags the hub). 

The greases available today are much better than the old, sticky axle grease. I like Lucas green lithium grease in the ball ring race and in the outer cup/cone bearings. It does not drag the way the old axle grease drags, and it forms a nice seal that will hold in the 20 weight oil that you put in the center of the hub. It means oiling less often and much less mess compared to the old-school running with only 20-weight oil. I started out a long time ago as an oil-only guy in the traditional method, but I have to admit that since converting to slick green grease in the bearings and oil in the transmission, I've had good-running hubs with much less mess.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 21, 2022)

That is similar to what I did on this one. I was shy with the grease though, so I still got oil leaking past when it sat over night. I'm ok with that... it's a 66 year old bike, I'll give it a break.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 21, 2022)

I did some more cleaning today. The paint is so far gone it doesn't really clean up. A lot of rust and scratches and old touch up paint. I've decided not to substitute better looking parts from other bikes. I'll clean stuff up and remove rust, but if the part is still functional it's going back on, scars and all. The rear rim is a mess cosmetically but I'll de-rust it, replace the two missing spokes and re-use the others. The rim seems to be straight so it should work. Aside from rust on the front rim (though not as bad as the rear) the front wheel is in surprisingly good condition, it's straight and the hub spins smoothly. 






The crank went back together fine, everything was in pretty good shape once it was clean. The crank has the AS & Co mark but no date code. The headset was a different story. The adjusting cone was damaged (hence the indexing I noted before) so I switched out some of those parts with a Typhoon headset I had around. And I can't find the dang washer that goes between the cone and lock nut! It's always something. 

I put the seatpost and clamp in place mostly so I wouldn't lose track of those too!


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## DesmoDog (Oct 22, 2022)

BIG progress today. I put a pedal back together. 




Strangely satisfying to spin the rebuilt pedal compared to the original.


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## GTs58 (Oct 22, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> BIG progress today. I put a pedal back together.
> View attachment 1717805
> 
> Strangely satisfying to spin the rebuilt pedal compared to the original.



.          Those pedals  probably never had any loving since 56 when they were assembled.


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## wes holliday (Oct 23, 2022)

My first new bike was a red Schwinn Racer about 1956-7 year.
Have to go look at the bike in my shop later on and see if the details compare to Desmo Dogs bike. Great article, looking forward to others.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 23, 2022)

Another day, another pedal. 




Then I had to work on some other things so not much progress today. Which is ok since I usually spend Sundays cleaning instead of working! But that's boring so today I cheated and also finished rebuilding the wheel for my (off topic) Sanctuary 7 cruiser.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 23, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> I've been casually looking at Speedsters and Racers for a while now. This one had been listed on Facebook Market place for a bunch of weeks when I finally saw the ad and for some reason I decided to get it. I'd rather have the next size larger frame but I'd have to get a later bike for that.



^^^From my first post in this thread

One of the reasons I didn't get much done today is I was trying to finalize a new purchase. For a few years now I've been casually searching for a 1962 Schwinn project bike. Today I picked one up. I got the frame/fork on ebay and picked it up in person since it was local. When I was there I asked about other parts for it and ended up coming home with the frame, fork, chain guard, and fenders. 




It's a February of '62 frame in the correct size for me. I don't know why that cardboard is taped on there, the frame is fine so it's not hiding anything. Yes I should have removed it before taking the picture. Oops. Anyway, it's got the finned front fender (woo hoo!) and the later graphics (Hmm...). It's also a coaster brake frame, there are no lugs for cables. I don't plan on doing much with it until the '56 is much further along but felt like showing it because, well, why not?! Purists, I'm warning you right now. When I get around to working on that one it's going to get a lot of "incorrect" parts, starting with graphics from the earlier bikes. You're just gonna have to deal with it!


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## DesmoDog (Oct 24, 2022)

The front brake was pretty messed up with a bent pivot and a missing nut. I straightened it out best as I could and stole the acorn nut off the back brake since it will be less visible(?). This is still missing the thin washer/shim under the adjusting nut but that's the life of a 66 year old bike that isn't being restored. It does what it's supposed to do now, which is an improvement over when I got it.




Rear brake got cleaned up too, and a nylock tossed on in place of the borrowed acorn nut.




The brake shoes on both calipers were well beyond useless so they got pulled. They are old enough that the rubber pads are replacable in the holders but I'm guessing the pads themselves haven't been available for years? If you installed these the wrong way the rim could pull the pad out of the holder and you'd have no brakes. I'm guessing the safety groups didn't see the humor in that. Later pads were permanantly crimped into the holders.

The stem is dropped in place. It's going to take all my will power to put a stem with flakey chrome on a bike, but I'll try. I'll knock off as much of it as I can to remove the sharp edges. Knowing me I'll then build the bike, maybe ride it once, and switch this stem out for something that doesn't have flakey chrome. But first I'll buy an entire bike just to get the stem, and the acorn nut for the brake caliper.




I also put the head plate back on. Don't be shocked if this plate happens to get lost if/when this bike is put up for sale. My '62 really needs one of these...




You're going to see loose/missing fasteners because a lot of the parts are being more or less set in place so they don't get lost. And so I get an idea of what's missing. I should probably start on the fenders next so I can put the brakes on for real. I still need a keyed washer for the headset before I can put the stem in though, it has yet to reveal itself. Maybe it wasn't there to begin with??? Hmm...


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## SirMike1983 (Oct 25, 2022)

If they are Weinmann pads, Kool Stop may make drop-in replacement pads for the refillable holders. Keep your old pads and see if there is a match available from Kool Stop online. Their basic black pads are fine for most uses (unless you're riding it in the rain a lot).

With the Weinmann brake calipers, you can buy replacement thin disc spacers and nuts from donor parts on eBay. They're still pretty cheap and plentiful. The double nut set up on the Weinmann is fiddly but a set of very thin wrenches helps.


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## flyingtaco (Oct 25, 2022)

Great match to my girls


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## DesmoDog (Oct 25, 2022)

SirMike1983 said:


> If they are Weinmann pads, Kool Stop may make drop-in replacement pads for the refillable holders. Keep your old pads and see if there is a match available from Kool Stop online. Their basic black pads are fine for most uses (unless you're riding it in the rain a lot).
> 
> With the Weinmann brake calipers, you can buy replacement thin disc spacers and nuts from donor parts on eBay. They're still pretty cheap and plentiful. The double nut set up on the Weinmann is fiddly but a set of very thin wrenches helps.



I stumbled across those Kool Stop pads during some late night browsing. I'm surprised they still sell them! I haven't compared measurements yet but I'm guessing they will work. I also looked at a picture I posted earlier and saw that one of the pads on this bike had been installed backwards and was making it's way out of the holder when I got it.

I'll check for the caliper parts. I never found the set up to be all that fiddly on these but they were the standard brake back when I was a mechanic, so I've had countless sets apart before. Plus I have the secret weapon you mentioned.




That came out of the "Bike Tools" tool box I inherited from my dad. He was a Jr High shop teacher and one of the classes he taught back in the day was bike repair. It's not an extensive set of tools but it's come through in a pinch for me on numerous occassions.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 25, 2022)

Apropos of nothing, I've got to say. Every time I see "'lil knee scuffer" under my avatar I chuckle. For whatever reason it makes me think of the Pixie kids bikes we'd sell. I always thought they were cool even though I was five sizes too big for them. Lucky kid...


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## DesmoDog (Oct 25, 2022)

I started working on the front wheel today. This is not a rim I would normally use, but staying with the "if it functions it stays" mantra, I'll give it a go. There isn't going to be much "chrome" left in some sections once it's cleaned up I'm afraid.




An aside - I hear people talk about cleaning rust off of chrome and how wonderful their elixer/method of choice is. Well yeah, those potions are nice for cleaning rust, but chrome doesn't rust. What is rusting is the steel underneath the chrome. You're not cleaning rust off of chrome, you're cleaning rust off of the steel that's exposed because the chrome plating is compromised. Nothing will bring it back short of stripping and rechroming it. Which is never going happen here. I have no idea what this will look like after it's been derustified, but the rusted areas won't be chrome anymore.

When I was looking for spokes for the rear wheel, someone was surprised at the length (290mm). Which got me thinking... as it turns out, this bike used a four cross spoke pattern on both the front and rear wheels. I tore down the rear wheel before I realized this, but here's what that looks like on the front.




Two of the first three spokes I tried to loosen were frozen. That didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy, but they turned out to be the only bad ones on the wheel. I sprayed a little penetrating oil on them, gave it about 30 milliseconds to work, then hit them with a propane torch. They came apart with no issue after that.

I was surprised how smoothly the front hub spun, to the point I wonder if it hadn't been rebuilt along the way. It looked pretty good when I took it apart, the grease was discolored but not hard like in the headset and crank.




The cones have no locknut. When I took it apart I found out how they hold it in adjustment - the threads are modified in the areas the cones sit. That's not a great picture, there is an obvious pattern that shows it's intentional. If I had seen that before I had forgotten about it. Seems to work ok though?




A little light rust on the hub but mostly just grime.




It all cleaned up and went back together nicely




I ran out of time/inspiration to tackle getting the rust off the rim tonight. That will have to wait for a later post.

I did knock the pads out of the holders though. I'll compare the measurements to the Kool Stop replacements and add them to my list.


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## J-wagon (Oct 25, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> The cones have no locknut. When I took it apart I found out how they hold it in adjustment - the threads are modified in the areas the cones sit.



Interesting observation. I have bike with no locknut, after few rides cones tend to self tighten. Not noticeable when riding but when I pick up front wheel spin has more drag. Perhaps I need to look closely to see how to hold in adjustment.


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## Eric Amlie (Oct 26, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> Apropos of nothing, I've got to say. Every time I see "'lil knee scuffer" under my avatar I chuckle.




At 25 posts you'll graduate to "Look Ma, No Hands!"


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## SirMike1983 (Oct 26, 2022)

J-wagon said:


> Interesting observation. I have bike with no locknut, after few rides cones tend to self tighten. Not noticeable when riding but when I pick up front wheel spin has more drag. Perhaps I need to look closely to see how to hold in adjustment.




I've had that happen as well. I used one of those finned spacers from the 1960s Schwinns to hold the drive side cone in place and prevent it from self-tightening. The locknut can work as well. I have several 1940s Schwinns that use locknuts. The British solution is the stop ridge machined into the axle. But I definitely like having something there to keep the drive side cone in place.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 26, 2022)

Eric Amlie said:


> At 25 posts you'll graduate to "Look Ma, No Hands!"




I figured it would change again soon. I couldn't find the list of names it will change to though 

I got one of the rims cleaned up.

It looks ok here




But this shot shows a more realistic condition




The cleaned rim is the same one as shown in post #22


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## Eric Amlie (Oct 27, 2022)

The rims look pretty good.
They'll fit the patina of the rest of the bike when you're finished with it and not look out of place like new rims would.

Here are the list of titles based on post count as best as I've been able to figure them out:

On Training Wheels                                 1-9
Lil Knee Scuffer                                        10-24
Look Ma, No Hands!                                25-100
Finally riding a big boy's bike                  100 – 499
Wore out three sets of tires already!       500 – 999?
I live for the CABE                                    1000 – 1999?
Cruisin' on my Bluebird                            2000 – 4999?
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe                  5000 – ?


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## Oilit (Oct 27, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> I figured it would change again soon. I couldn't find the list of names it will change to though
> 
> I got one of the rims cleaned up.
> 
> ...



Your bike won't look new, but then it isn't new. It _will_ look like an old bike that someone has taken care of, which is a great improvement over how most of them are found.


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## DesmoDog (Oct 27, 2022)

I laced up the front wheel today. Here's a shot from a reality check I did to see how I was doing getting it dished correctly. The clean up on the rim turned out better than I was expecting, it will fit in fine with the look of the rest of the bike. Of course it will also start to flash rust the minute any condensation gets on it but we can't have everything!




I thought I could get away with installing the tires off a donor bike I have from another project, but no. They're too far gone. Putting pressure in them starts to open up the splitting instead of hiding it like it does sometimes when it's minor. Time for new tires I guess. I also had plans of using the tires off another donor I was going to buy for yet another project, but this morning when I looked at the ad again there was a sale pending. Oops, that's what I get for putting it off I guess. Anyway, here's what it looks like with a tire on it. The tire was spinning when I took the shot, I thought it might blur the moving stuff and make the tire look less trashed.


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## Oilit (Oct 28, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> I laced up the front wheel today. Here's a shot from a reality check I did to see how I was doing getting it dished correctly. The clean up on the rim turned out better than I was expecting, it will fit in fine with the look of the rest of the bike. Of course it will also start to flash rust the minute any condensation gets on it but we can't have everything!
> View attachment 1720850
> 
> I thought I could get away with installing the tires off a donor bike I have from another project, but no. They're too far gone. Putting pressure in them starts to open up the splitting instead of hiding it like it does sometimes when it's minor. Time for new tires I guess. I also had plans of using the tires off another donor I was going to buy for yet another project, but this morning when I looked at the ad again there was a sale pending. Oops, that's what I get for putting it off I guess. Anyway, here's what it looks like with a tire on it. The tire was spinning when I took the shot, I thought it might blur the moving stuff and make the tire look less trashed.
> View attachment 1720851



A good coat of wax will help with the flash rust. And keeping it indoors when you're not riding. Although when you've collected enough bikes keeping them in the house becomes another problem. 🤔


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## DesmoDog (Oct 29, 2022)

With the generous help of a member on another forum who sourced some spokes and a headset washer for me, I was able to make more progress on the Racer today. 














The tires are just rim protectors, they're both further gone than I thought so I'll be ordering new ones. I need to knock the rear fender back into shape before I install it. Or do I? I'll clean it up before I decide. I'm not going to use the grips or the stock bars either. They're both just too far gone. Not gonna do it! I'll probably use the bars off the donor Breeze. 

So a chain, tires, seat, grips, maybe brake cables and it should be rideable? The trigger shifter seems a bit messed up but I think I can fix that. Oh yeah, brake pads too. That's not a huge list... this thing shouldn't take all that much more time to get back on the road.


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## DesmoDog (Nov 4, 2022)

Work continues on this but I ran into some tech issues and couldn't post pictures for a bit... I think they're solved now.

I ordered a chain a while back. It was half price. When it showed up, it was also half length. Just like it said in the description I kinda glazed over... so I've been waiting for my next parts order and not all that stressed about getting this done until it gets here. 

I did pound out some of the dents in the rear fender. 




It's not perfect but it fits the rest of the bike as is so I'm good with it. I also put a new rear tire on it. And this would have been a good time to put a new chain on it...








I was missing one of the brake cable fittings, so I improvised with some aluminum.




I'd show the after shot but I never took one. You'll just have to wait until I install it. 

I also cleaned up the bars in prep for putting the brake levers in place so I can hook the brakes up. But I only took a "during" photo. 




I put a new front tire on too, but didn't take one of that. Imagine a shinier version of the one shown earlier. As an aside - it's true, the Kendas available for this size rim are a pain to seat correctly - I ended up using the same lube I use when installing motorcycle tires. With that they slipped right into place but I've never had to do that to a bicycle tire before. 

The last thing I did tonight is work on the shifter. It's a true trigger and not a thumb shifter




But it's all bent up and doesn't work








A few minutes with a needle nose pliers and it works again, but still looks a little tired. Just like the rest of the bike so we're good. I didn't take pictures of the current shape. Imagine the same trigger a little less bent and more functional. 

This thing is actually pretty close to being rideable. An hour or two to hook up the shifter and brake cables. The chain should be here early next week but I haven't found a suitable seat. I'm probably going to end up banging the original one a little straighter and running that until I source something else.


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## Eric Amlie (Nov 5, 2022)

Nice job on the fenders.
I assume you'll give that shifter a few drops of oil.


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## DesmoDog (Nov 5, 2022)

It's funny you said that. When I was half asleep this morning (actually right around the time you posted it) I was thinking about what type of oil I was going to use to lube it. Same stuff I put in the hub probably. (Not 3 in 1 or WD40...)

I was also wondering why there's a hole in the trigger's face and the marking on the internals? Was it Shimano that used a bellcrank on the hub? That had a mark to use when adjusting it. But the trigger will sit in the same position no matter what the cable adjustment is, so that's not it. It can't be a gear indicator* - you can't see it while riding and only one gear is marked anyway if I rememember right. 

*I'm of the opinion that gear indicators serve no useful purpose anyway. I've had this conversation regarding motorcycles, and no one has been able to tell me what decisions they make based on the information a gear indicator provides. I think they're a waste of space on the dash but that's a thread for a different forum.


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## DesmoDog (Nov 5, 2022)

According to UPS, the rest of my parts should be here on Tuesday. In prep for that I set some other parts in place to see if I was missing anything. Along the way I proved to myself that the fork is bent. No surprise with all the other stuff that's bashed out of shape on this. I noticed it when I couldn't get the bars to line up with both the axle and the crown of the fork. If I still had access to the fancy Park tools I could fix it easy enough. I'm not sure how I'll deal with it without the tools though. For now I'll leave it and press on. 

From there I decided to check the frame. With a quick and dirty set up the frame looks to be spot on, which was surprising.




The distance from the seat tube to the string is within half a millimeter from side to side. Sweet.

I haven't had any luck finding an appropriate seat so I thought I'd try to straighten the frame on the one it has. When I looked closer I found one of the springs had broken and been "fixed". Along with the bends, I'm not sure I want to deal with it. If I could find a couple springs it might be worth pulling the whole thing apart and working on it, but in the meantime I slapped on a seat from a '66 Breeze. That got me thinking - I wonder if the frame/springs from a later seat could be modded to work under the '56 seat? It looks promising, maybe I can find something with a trashed cover and use it as a donor.




Here's the brake cable fitting that used to be the aluminum rod that I showed earlier. Oooh. Ahhh. Magic! This shot also reveals another secret. I bought some replacement brake pads that were less expensive than the Kool Stop inserts. They're too long and hit the frame if the brake is allowed to open all the way. But once they are installed/adjusted the cable won't allow the caliper to spring open that far so I'll go with them.




Nothing is tightend down, I need the grips to know where the levers need to go. They're in the same shipment as the chain. But here's how it sits now.




Speaking of grips... I was thinking about "coke bottle" grips for my next bike but can't seem to find any reproductions for bicycles. Are they out there? They are easy to find for motorcycles. The only thing there is I'd have to buy two sets to get a pair for a bike since the throttle grip has a larger ID. But they're cheap enough that isn't out of the question.

I had it out of the stand and sat on it to get a feel for the size. It'll work, but the '62 and it's larger frame should be perfect. I rolled back and forth on it a little and wondered how long it has been since the bike would do that? I couldn't even roll it over to my car when I bought it!  Even the paint on it looks good to me now. Oh sure, if you get close it's pretty rough, but from a few feet away it looks pretty good for a 66 year old bike that got ridden hard and put away wet.

It may not be obvious in that photo but the seat that's on there is off of a violet Breeze, so it doesn't come close to matching anything... I'm not too proud to ride it like that until I find something better though! For now it just keeps the bike from sliding out of the stand. The seat post is so small the grip is questionable.


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## DesmoDog (Nov 8, 2022)

The chain and grips showed up today, so I put the this thing together and took it for it's first ride in who knows how long. 












Some of it cleaned up better than I thought it would, some of it didn't clean up at all... but it rides pretty dang nice for a bike that wouldn't roll when I got it. I now have zero plans for repainting it, this is what it's going to look like (except for the seat) for as long as I own it. It's a survivor, that's cool with me.   

The shift cable needs to be adjusted, it found neutral towards the end of my short ride. That wasn't unexpected, the cable seemed loose to start with but all the adjustment was gone already. As I was putting it away I realized I can move the cable anchor near the headset to get more adjustment out of it so that should be an easy fix. 

I just volunteered at a local bike repair co-op so maybe they'll have the tools I'll need to put the fork back into alignment? We'll see. If I'm just riding along it's fine, but gets annoying when I look down at it. Everything is just a little off...

But it's pretty much done. I'll adjust the shifting and maybe tweak the trigger position but other than that all it needs is a seat that doesn't clash with what's left of the paint and it'll be good to go. Well, except for the fork that is. 

I'll probably add some before/after pictures at some point but I have other things i'm supposed to be doing rigt now, so that will have wait.


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## GTs58 (Nov 8, 2022)

Nice job on saving that survivor, looks good.  👍


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## SirMike1983 (Nov 8, 2022)

Those trigger shifters are fully serviceable by knocking out the pins from the back, disassembling, straightening everything, setting the spring tension, then reassembling and flattening the pins on an anvil. Some of them improve vastly and on some you have to replace all the innards.


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## Drosentreter (Nov 8, 2022)

I have a fork in red off a 57 racer if you’re interested. Along with a seat/seat parts. And other parts. Pm me with what you need.


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## Eric Amlie (Nov 9, 2022)

I applaud your decision to not repaint it.
I think it looks good just like it is...looks it's age.
The bike deserves a rear reflector.
I covet your downtube decals which are missing on my '57 model.


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## flyingtaco (Nov 10, 2022)

Seen this on market place. Not sure if it would be correct for your bike, but it looks like mine


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## soddruntlestuntle (Nov 14, 2022)

DesmoDog said:


> According to UPS, the rest of my parts should be here on Tuesday. In prep for that I set some other parts in place to see if I was missing anything. Along the way I proved to myself that the fork is bent. No surprise with all the other stuff that's bashed out of shape on this. I noticed it when I couldn't get the bars to line up with both the axle and the crown of the fork. If I still had access to the fancy Park tools I could fix it easy enough. I'm not sure how I'll deal with it without the tools though. For now I'll leave it and press on.
> 
> From there I decided to check the frame. With a quick and dirty set up the frame looks to be spot on, which was surprising.
> View attachment 1726070
> ...




It's not correct, but I put an early seventies lightweight saddle on the '64 Racer I'm resurrecting; and while it may not be age appropriate, I think it looks good, and it's very comfy.


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## Eric Amlie (Nov 15, 2022)

I would say that if you actually intend to ride the bike, not just look at it, replacing the seat should be considered de rigueur.
Remember that when sold new, these bikes were targeted at young people who weighed maybe half of what we do.
Those original seats were not intended to support our weight comfortably.
As you can see from the pic of my '57 Racer(posted earlier in this thread), I replaced the saddle with a Brooks B72 which I find quite comfortable.
I'm a bit over 190 lbs.


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