Parts Bin Schwinn No. 2: 1958 Cantilever

[Porkchop & Applesauce]

Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing. Personaly I think ya hit a home run with that mock up! Just needs a tank and that fender bobbed! If you don’t build it….someday I might!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing. Personaly I think ya hit a home run with that mock up! Just needs a tank and that fender bobbed! If you don’t build it….someday I might!

Oh don't get me wrong, I'd love to build this Schwinn up like that previous mockup or even as an old-school klunker, but I also need to scale down the collection a bit. I've got plenty of bikes to work on right now as it is, so if I can't figure out how to build this Schwinn in a way that I'm happy with, then it'd be better for me to find it a new home.

That said, I do have a few more ideas left to try on this bike. I'll give you an audio clue for one of those ideas:

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Took a little longer to find the motivation to mock up this Schwinn than I anticipated, but I managed to fiddle around with it some more earlier this Sunday.

I tried seeing what it would look like with a pair of full fenders along with the flipped springer fork, but I still wasn't really feeling it.

It's another rough mockup, but I feel like this is about the look I'd want to go for with this Schwinn. I had another Monark chainring that bolted directly to the mounting tab on the frame, which I think looks better than the other one I had on earlier. Plus, with the more "stock" springer fork, the line on the chain guard now points at the front axle. I'd want to bob the rear fender though. I haven't decided on all the parts, but the overall stance of this bike, as mild as it is, looks the best to me at this time.

I'd like to find another fender to us on this bike though, as this fender is all dented and dinged to a point that I doubt I could repair it like I want. Unless I can find anybody with the tools I need, that is.

The next step for this Schwinn is to trace over my last physical mockup in Photoshop and play around with some ideas for paint schemes. I may go with black and chrome, but I have a few more ideas I'd like to test out as well. Hopefully I'll have those ready to share sometime this week.

 

[SirMike1983]

The second configuration looks better to me.

Setting the front wheel way forward, as in the first configuration, can lead to excessive head tube flop/dive in a turn, and if it lowers the frame, pedal strikes can become more of a concern.

The second configuration looks like it is relaxed enough to be comfortable and have predictable turning characteristics. The second configuration also looks like the reach to the handlebars would be a bit more comfortable.

 

[Porkchop & Applesauce]

If ya plan to Bob that fender….doesn’t that remove a majority of the damage? Only leaving a little bit to fix

 

[Porkchop & Applesauce]

If ya use that white seat from the first configuration on the second it’ll give ya more of the layed back sleek look and be a great rider too. Sometimes less is more. All I changed on this girls bike is the bars.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

The second configuration looks better to me.

Setting the front wheel way forward, as in the first configuration, can lead to excessive head tube flop/dive in a turn, and if it lowers the frame, pedal strikes can become more of a concern.

The second configuration looks like it is relaxed enough to be comfortable and have predictable turning characteristics. The second configuration also looks like the reach to the handlebars would be a bit more comfortable.

Thanks.

Personally, I'm more concerned about the look than the riding characteristics. I like the longer, lower, leaner & meaner look, but I don't think this is the right frame for that. In my opinion, Schwinn didn't make the most attractive cantilever frames out of all the bike manufacturers back in the day, but I have seen custom Schwinn cantilevers that I think look cool. I want to see if it's possible for me to build this one in a way I'm happy with, but it's kind of hard to make a good-looking bike out of a frame that I don't think is all that good-looking.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

If ya plan to Bob that fender….doesn’t that remove a majority of the damage? Only leaving a little bit to fix

It would remove the biggest dents, but there are still some dents and bends that wouldn't be as easy to fix. I tried capturing them on camera, but they don't show up as well as I'd like. Plus, I don't really know how to fix fenders that well. If I wasn't painting this bike, then I could just live with it and maybe hit the dents with a ball-peen hammer and some pliers to make them "good enough," but that's not the case. Unless there's a good way to fix fenders using only basic hand tools, I'd rather get a nicer, smoother fender. It'd be much easier to paint that way.

If ya use that white seat from the first configuration on the second it’ll give ya more of the layed back sleek look and be a great rider too. Sometimes less is more. All I changed on this girls bike is the bars.

View attachment 2081130

Not a bad idea, but if I'm building this bike to look more upright, I'd rather have a cushier, springier seat. I might use a layback seat post to move the seat back a little bit, but we'll see.

I definitely agree with the "less is more" mentality depending on the project. I went that way with the last bike I built earlier this year. I had planned to throw some wire baskets and maybe a toolbox on this Schwinn klunker, but it just looked better with less stuff on it.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Knocked out my digital mockups for this Schwinn over the past week. Even after my last physical mockup of this bike, I was still rather ho-hum about building this Schwinn, but as soon as I traced over it in Photoshop and got everything "painted" one solid color, I was kind of knocked out by the newfound potential this Schwinn had! I ended up coming up with over 60 different paint schemes and color combos that I liked! I'm not going to show every one of them, as most of the differences are just down to colors, but I'll share some of my favorites.

As much as I love all the other ideas I came up with for this Schwinn, there was one idea I came up with early on that I loved better than the rest.

See, I have 2 cans of Rust-Oleum Hunter Green and 1 can of Rust-Oleum Almond spray paint I've been itching to use on a project. Not only that, but I had this idea for lightning bolt scallops for a while, and I figured it'd be fun to try it on this bike. And to top it off, that Hunter Green paint reminds me of the green Park Tool bearing grease I use on all my bikes. Add that all up, and you get... Greased Lightning!

...And I'm not going to call it that. For starters, I've never seen any version of the movie or play that song's from, and more importantly, after looking up the song on YouTube and a summary of the story on Wikipedia, I really don't want to make any references to anything that raunchy. That's just not my style.

Still, I loved the initial concept and paint scheme, so I toyed around with it some more and came up with a better name that still had a bit of an edge: SHOCK THERAPY.

Building these vintage bicycles has been some of the best therapy I've ever had to help me get through these last few years, and sometimes it's shocking how much potential some of these bikes have! I was almost ready to pull the plug on this project and just trade it at an upcoming swap meet, but after this last round of mockups, I've found the energy I need to bring this Schwinn back to life once more!

 

[CURTIS L LINDGREN]

Well now , you have certainly taken some time and effort on this project. The ones that seem to look the best to me were the very 1st one shown from your photoshopped paint schemes - the blue( blueish grey ?) and flat black . I thought that looked really nice that way. The second one that I really liked was the one that had the "58" in the upper tank area. The last one "Shock Therapy" was a looker as well. Shock therapy works in two ways................1st like you describe "Therapy " as in working on bikes is therapy for you ( and many others) I know it is for me........but also it does have a springer! hence "Shock" therapy ..........get it ? Nice work on your mockups and thanks for sharing all your work and ideas , this ones been a long time coming . Awesome work !