1936 Schwinn Double Bar Roadster Project

[Tikibar]

And so it begins...

Been wanting to join the 'Roadster Club' for a while now and had picked up this double bar frame from a fellow Caber. Looks like house paint over not much og paint, so I could go either way - keep the house paint and build up a crusty rider or go all-in with a restore and paint.

Looks like it had an oval badge. I have something in mind, but will wait until the end to place a badge.

First I'll do an initial assembly and see how well I did collecting parts. There's always a few surprises along the way and a dress rehearsal assembly of the parts should sort out what's here, what doesn't fit, and what's missing.

The serial is S7977, which I think dates it to 1936. I'm aiming to make a Model B67 out of it. This is an earlier model Roadster, with a drop stand, crossbar handlebars, flat fender braces, and a skiptooth phantom style chain ring.

I noticed that the seat tube is cut down about an inch, so a longer seat post will be needed.

To start the assembly I began cleaning the chrome parts on the fork. Turns out the bottom ball bearing race was broken and was only being held together by some old dried up grease. Had to raid the parts stash to find another one that would fit.

Got the fork assembly on, but there was another surprise which is that the frame's head tube was a little bit smaller than the cups I had planned to use. Again back to the parts stash, until I found a slightly smaller pair of head tube cups. It's a tiny difference in diameter, but enough that the bigger cups won't fit. I've noticed this before, the earlier '30's frames can have smaller head tube cups than the later frames. This also goes for the cups on crank in the bottom bracket.

Next, it was time to clean the parts in the bottom bracket. Only had a sweetheart chain ring on hand, so that will have to do for now, until I can source the other style of skiptooth sprocket shown for the Model B67 in the catalog. Also going to go with prewar Torrington 8 pedals.

I made sure to use the correct bottom bracket for this model year, so the bearing cups would fit the frame. Had to do some scraping and cleaning of old grease to prep for the cups. They went in smoothly and fit like a glove.

Since this is just a dress rehearsal assembly and I plan to pull it apart again for more cleaning and possibly painting, I decided not to grease or lube it for now. I have a motto when it comes to building parts bikes...'first, make it go, then make it pretty'. The pretty part will come later, for now I just want to make it go, to check if I have all the parts and if they are working together.

The bottom bracket assembly came together without a hitch and spins nicely. The Torrington pedals also went in, but the left feels a bit sticky, so may have to disassemble that later to check the bearings. I keep some NOS bearings on hand in case of replacement. The pedals are a great design, but if the lube isn't maintained and dries out over the years, water can get in and rust the bearings until they fall apart. I almost always have to rebuild pedals, whenever I pick up an old set.

I got the truss rods on ok, but these had been house painted silver long ago. Fine for a crusty old rider, but may need upgrading if I go the route of a full repaint.

Realized I don't have any ballooner tire tubes on hand, as we used the last set on my wife's Panther last weekend. No sense in putting on the wheels without tubes, so I'll stop here. More to come...

 

[Bill in Bama]

“First make it go then make it pretty”
Wisdom to live by! I have a few painted frames that never went anywhere! Or bikes that just never got finished correctly!

 

[Tikibar]

After going through my fender pile, only one set of fenders worked with this frame. Seems the tab on the rear fender is a little narrower than any of my other frames, and this was the only rear fender that fit.

This rear fender isn't bad. Might clean up better and has just a couple small dents that I may be able fix. The catalog image of the Model B67 shows that the rear fender wasn't flared at the end, it was straight like this one, so this might be a good match. The catalog also shows a dropstand, so I went ahead and mounted a dropstand clip.

The front fender is cut on the back, so for now I'll mount this one and see how it fits, but may opt for a flared fender later. At least the front fender has the longer indents, so both the fork blades and the truss rods fit nicely.

Both of these fenders also sport flat braces, which would be correct for the B67.

I'm not sure what year these fenders are. I haven't gotten the hang of telling the differences yet and it would be nice to know how to date prewar fenders from Schwinn. If you know the year of these fenders I'd appreciate if you'd let me know.

Picked up a couple of tubes and rim strips from the local bike shop. I was planning to use blackwall tires, but only had these whitewalls with the chain patterns on hand. Later on, I'll check on getting some blackwalls and maybe a pair of clay colored tires and see which look best. But for now, using what is available and going 'full tuxedo' on the coloring.

These wheels both have New Departure hubs onboard. I've rebuilt many a Model D, so this one shouldn't be problem. But I'll get to the hub rebuilding later. Right now, I'm on a mission to get enough assembled to go for a test ride!

When building a bike from parts, there is a moment of truth when either things are fitting together or they are not. And that moment arrives, when the wheels are being set into place.

Wheels are not flexible and cannot stretch. They have multiple components coming together into a confined space. Everything has to be just right for the wheel to spin freely without rubbing on the fenders and for the braces, truss rods, rack legs, and drop stand to connect together onto the axles.

I also changed out the truss rods from the angled type to the curved ones, to better match the B67 catalog pic. But the holes in these truss rods were slightly too small for the the axle, which was strange, since the front axle is a standard diameter. A metal file and some elbow grease fixed that. But then the rods themselves were a little too long, pushing the wheel lower than where it needed to be, and didn't allow the wheel to seat fully up into the fork blades.

In the meantime, the flat braces were a little too short and it was a struggle to pull them down enough to go over the axle. Despite the rods pushing down and the braces pulling up, I managed to get the wheel into place. I'll have to sort that out later and consider changing parts. If the parts are the right parts, they should fit in smoothly without a hassle.

The back wheel presented similar challenges and had even more alignment issues than the front wheel. First off, it needs a 54 link + master chain and I had only a 53 link on hand. Cobbling together an extra link with two master links left only one possible position for the wheel on the drop outs, which made it something of a wrestling match to get the two sets of flat braces and the drop stand over the ends of the axle. Plus getting the wheel straight, so it didn't rub the fender or pull the chain too tight was another test. After an epic struggle between man and machine...man prevailed. Whew!

I've got a men's Mesinger seat on order being restored, and had only this lady's seat on hand, so it will have to do.

Next up are the handlebars. I chose this top-nut style to match the B67, but also because It's a great deco design. The gap space on the stem was almost too narrow to allow the crossbar to slide through and the knuckle was too tight for the knurling on the handlebar. Both situations required some 'persuasion'.

Don't know if these bars are prewar originals or repops, but they have some nice patina that makes them look at home with the rust and house paint.

The chrome hockey stick chain guard I'd planned to install wasn't cooperating. The clamp on the front where it attaches to the downtube was just a little too long and would have pushed the guard out to where it would have hit the dog leg crank, so the guard is left off for now.

Still lots more to do, but with all the main parts in place, I stopped to take a few photos.

At some point in the building of a parts-bike, the magic happens, and it stops being a pile of parts and starts being a bicycle, and I would say that point is when it goes for its Maiden Voyage.

 

[Ozark Flyer]

I’m diggin’ the bike bro!