1969 Schwinn Pea Picker

[Bleecker]

Nice is that a joe seat ?

What's a Joe seat...?

 

[sworley]

Joe Crawford, he's the new Pete seat

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

What's a Joe seat...?

Joe Crawford, he's the new Pete seat

He does beautiful work but even he can not get the lighter color Pea Picker seat material. Someone will come across a NOS stack of seat covers and they will be as valuable as gold.

 

[The ZUCK]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[razinhellcustomz]

I feel very fortunate to have friends who work at the local bike show in town. Not only are they really helpful with the goofball stuff I find myself wrenching on, they also give me a heads-up on cool stuff that pops up for sale. Such was the case last week when I got a picture message or two of a vintage Pea Picker. A guy brought it in and said bringing it here was better than putting it out on the curb. It was his wife's childhood bike and he wanted it out of his shop. He left the bike and his phone number, we were all led to believe he wanted very little for the bike.

So I called him an hour or so later - super nice guy and he mentions that he's not sure if it's worth $x0 or $x000. OK, not free or cheap... I told him my intentions with the bike and shot him an offer that ended in two zeros instead of three but at least not one. As with anyone today with a smartphone, he was keenly aware of what some of these were fetching. I explained that while his is a decent example, it does have many broken, missing and incorrect parts on it that will take several hundred more dollars to correct. They slept on the offer and called me the next day to accept my offer. He was happy that I was local (the bike has been in central Iowa since new) and was not going to flip it. He has also been happy to receive my text updates of the restoration process.

My plan is to blow it apart and clean it this winter, returning it closer to stock. So far I have sourced a new Joe C. seat for it and other misc small bits. It was "fixed up" around the early 2000s and that's when the replacement seat, rear tire and cables came on. The SN is MDxxxxx so I plan to build it up with a mix of year-end transition parts/style. I do not like front fenders on Krates so it will have that '68 retainer but all else will be '69 stuff.

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I have a 69 Campus green Stingray Deluxe that is all orignal paint with a bent fork that probably meant with the same fate as your bike. I may take my bike and put on a springer fork that I have and make a faux Pea Picker sort of. . Nice find and keep us posted. RideOn. Mark.

 

[sworley]

Finally got around to taking this apart and getting some parts in Evaporust. It always amazes me how well old Schwinn paint and chrome clean up.

 

[Skunkrivercycles]

Excited to see it all finished!!

 

[sworley]

Been awhile since I’ve worked on a multi-speed vintage bike, I forget how many little parts there are. Taking my time on this one, plugging away little by little each day.

At this point the parts are clean, greased, polished and ready for re-assembly. Which is good, I have a new project arriving tomorrow and I’m sure that will eat away at my focus…

 

[razinhellcustomz]

Been awhile since I’ve worked on a multi-speed vintage bike, I forget how many little parts there are. Taking my time on this one, plugging away little by little each day.

At this point the parts are clean, greased, polished and ready for re-assembly. Which is good, I have a new project arriving tomorrow and I’m sure that will eat away at my focus…

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I just picked up a 68 Apple krate from @bobsbikes, so I got my next project on the burner right now.

 

[sworley]

Feeling pretty good about buttoning this up. It was a thorough job on this one including rebuilding the sissybar. I added heavier springs and new pins, caps and bumpers while I was in there - and removed an Iowa cornfield of dirt out of there. I've never done that job before and it was a PITA, but the CABE was super helpful with articles from folks who've dealt with them before: https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/schwinn-krate-sissy-bar-assembly.226285/page-2

I always like to get a bike as close to stock looking so that includes cable routing, clamp positions, hardware orientations, etc. Again, CABE to the rescue! What a great place. https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/1969-schwinn-pea-picker.158761/

Next I will have the local shop fine-tune the derailleur and brakes so it rides the best possible way.