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I'm not in favor of rat bikes!

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Hey just saying my bike money fund is pretty thin most of the time so I make do with what I have and I have never had anything more than trash find bikes or the most exspensive bike i ever purchased was $60 1/4 of my check at the time. I enjoy my vintage rides and know when to leave the good ones alone. I gladly make my riders out the house painted parts bikes I can get ahold of in my area. I still get the same thrill riding them as anybody does on a bike. I like nicely restored bikes just as much but havent come across a bike worth restoring besides one that I have and is my username and I'm slowing gethering parts for that one. Don't knock it till you try it! It's a great chance to be creative and it gives me something to call mine as I like vintage cars too but those are out of my reach most of the time cause the cheapies really arn't ever worth the hassle.
 
Custom or Rat???

I reading through the posts in this thread, I'm now confused. When is a custom a custom and not a rat bike. When is a rat bike a rat bike and not a custom. How do I categorize these...

Custom or Rat??? :confused:
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Custom or Rat??? :confused:
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I am a poor judge in these categories, but I would say custom x 2 as neither looks pulled from a dumpster nor has any Halloween decor on them.
Chris
 
I love that X-53 and it reminded me of my one mild custom - It's a prewar Western Flyer I'm putting together as a rider, so I thought I'd add it to this thread. Fortunately, Joe did a nice job of stripping off the blue housepaint before offering it for sale here on the CABE. I kinda' liked the look so I'm gonna' just preserve the bare metal.

My question is this - Can someone tell me what type of headlight(s) would have been on this model? Obviously I'm not too concerned with complete originality for this bike, and I do have a great old car spotlight with matching patina that I could retrofit for it, but thought I'd see if the correct light(s) would be a good look too.

Roadmaster used a fork light bracket similar to yours, here is a Roadmaster light that is on ebay now, not mine by the way.

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1933 chicago schwinn liberty will send pictures if interested. Call hamp 918-333-332

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So I guess Bob doesn't care for my bike! Because I am going to restore this I didn't want to spend countless hours on metal work and glass smooth paint. Iam also a motorcycle guy (car guy too) and always loved the looks of the early board track racers such as the side-valve Harleys, Indians, and of course the Merkel! This is nothing but a diversion for me and the majority of my collection is original, unrestored bikes including four Phantoms. I'm something of an eclectic so I like to have a little diversity. If ya ain't having fun why do it? v/r Shawn

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rATS AND LoWrideRS

I got in to the hobby by building a rat rod/lowrider cruiser ....a 26 inch 1970s schwinn middleweight frame that no one wanted. 95% of it was repro parts but i was happy as a carribean clam in those early years. It is far cheaper and more liberating to build a cool custom i must admit. Then I saw the evolution of the bicycle books and my curiosity and the money in my wallet went for a wild ride. When i think about putting 900-1300 into a schwinn phantom project...deep in the back of my mind i think about how i could just as easily have a cool cruiser for less than a quarter of that. Around here there was a trend to build mountain bike klunkers(stripped down balloon schwinns mostly 1930s to 1950s bikes) and sell off the fenders plus other accessories or keep them for another project. It is better to keep them on the road no matter what results than to see any bike in a land fill. A moment of silence for those bikes that are now in bike heaven.
 
Disagree

Is the lazy way out of restoring a bike. Personally I'm sick of them and the whole 'rat' mentality. But as long as they're doing it to houspainted bike, or bikes that were partially complete or rust buckets to start with, makes it a little easier to stomach. Part of Americas new direction-- lowest common denomiinator thug culture of what the media tells the gullible is 'cool'. The result? Armies of mindless followers opting for the same Bling status symbol of mediocrity. I will however say that I've seen some creative work in the rat realm, but the majority is the usual predictable vintage satin black frame with mixed make vintage parts and then the made in China bling 'add-on' ingredients to top it all off. Some people will go the extra yards to do something exceptional. Any one see Dawalts shaftie? Pretty remarkable. But that's a very small percentage of the rat custom scene... most are pretty >ick< ghetto!

I think it's lazy to look at a prefectly restored bike hanging on a wall. I ride my bikes. Really ride them, everyday - even in the Colorado winter. I spend several weeks riding and fine tuning the seat height, handlebar angles, etc to make a comfortable and fast ride. Each bike gets a total rebuild at LEAST 3 times a year out of necessity. I never remove or damage original paint, I only repaint bikes that have been previously house painted. I don't cut the bikes or chop them into barely ridable pieces of 'art' either, don't understand that mentality at all, but if you own it, do as you will.
Last summer my friends & I rode an unrestored '40 Schwinn DX in a cruiser relay race downtown and won the race by a lap and a half. We beat skinny kids on skinny tire bikes with shaved legs and drilled out hubs, we beat teams with 5 speeds on their bikes. We won not only the race, we won oldest bike and oldest team. We won because we ride our bikes, not by sitting on our 'lazy' asses and spending thousands on a bike that is too valuable to ride.
I truly appreciate the restorers out there, don't get me wrong, but to call 'rat' bike riders lazy is just ignorant. When is the last time you went on a 40 mile fat tire bike ride? We did last weekend and will do it again all summer long.
My bikes are loved and upgraded as needed, but all with vintage american parts. It's like the old motorcycle saying, 'it's not what you ride, it's that you ride' So, I'd suggest putting together a bike that you can ride, take a fall on, maybe get a scratch or two and go outside and put in some pedal time.
 
Besides..

One never knows when the next aerocycle or bluebird might be born with all the creative ideas out there that will define the generation of a time and people...right?
 
I just kind of like to think of it as a rolling parts storage area....with a Bob U seat.

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