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POISON APPLE: '79 Schwinn Fair Lady Trike

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FN killer look , the stance is right on never would have thought to set up springer like that. The lower bearing race on most forks is exposed like that but you dont see it because it is upside down and water can not run into it. You will have to fabricate something for that.
Thanks! I can't take credit for the idea to set up the springer like that, though. @Reallybigtim, who's both on this forum and more notably on ratrodbikes.com, is the guy whose custom bikes inspired me to try that technique. He normally uses a lowrider-style springer on his bikes. Here's a few of the bikes he put together with this wild springer setup:
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He even managed to make this one rollable upside-down. That's cool.
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I had a feeling that the bearing's only exposed because it was never designed to be upside-down. I think my welder might be able to fix something up to solve that.
 
Ok, I got 5 different front 24" wheels in exchange for a couple Schwinn s-7 wheels earlier today. Some have mostly good spokes, others have some good and some bad. I figure that I could make 2 good wheels out of what I've got now. As for the rear wheel, I'm either going to need to find a replacement, or just replace the spokes. I'll figure it out soon enough.
 
Okay, I've been thinking more about my budget and the final "good enough" look for this trike. As much as I love the stance from flipping the springer fork steerer tube upside-down, I'd have to spend even more money to get the trike rideable like this, as I'd need to spend an additional $50-$80 on a taller set of handlebars, and I'd need to have a piece fabricated to cover the top fork bearings as the steerer tube was never designed to be upside-down.

Plus, from a designer's perspective, the seat and handlebars will both stick out like a sore thumb, standing nearly twice the height of the body of the trike, and nearly vertical, for that matter. Ultimately, I'd spend at least $100-$130, give or take, to have less-than-good-enough results, and that's without color-matching the paint for the wood tank and getting materials for the rear box.
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Here's where I think the happy balance of budget and aesthetics lies.
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Yeah, the stance looks goofy compared to the previous picture, but I think it's the best possible "goofy" given my budget. The seat, high as it is, doesn't look too out of place, especially paired with the handlebars where they're positioned. If I'm just going for the bare minimum, all I need to make this version functional is to get the wheels sorted out, and get a new chain. That means I could make this a functional rider for about $40-$50, since I don't need to get new handlebars and fabricate anything else. Plus, I could spend the extra money it would cost to make the other version to color-match some paint for the tank, make the rear box, and add some graphics to the tank and chain guard. All-in-all, I can have a good-looking first version of this trike to ride around on while I save up to build this trike the way I really want.

I know it's not much of an update, but I figured I'd share some of my thoughts about the direction of this trike as they come to me. I'm still going to try and illustrate the final "all-out" version of this trike sometime this week, but for now, I'm shooting for "good enough."
 
Why don't you go get a job and stop dragging this bike build out...Hustle N Flow!
I Love your trike and prefer the ProStreet "Low" look.
Respectfully~
 
Had a rather hectic week last week, but I was finally able to make some progress this week. I revisited my digital mockup on Monday, and between then and today, I made some revisions to my previous design. I probably won't have rear fenders on the actual trike until after I've finished everything else, but I really want those fenders in the final design.
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The first big change to my design was how I'd powder coat the frame. I remembered @Rat Pilot's StRATo Flyer from last year's RRBBO had this awesome "hidden" seat tube that helped highlight the unique shape of the frame, and I wanted to try it out on my trike.
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By making the seat tube satin black, it'll help highlight this "double appleseed" shape the tank helps to create.
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The next big change was figuring out the decals. The chain guard was where I really got the ball rolling. I got the idea for this stripe from a couple sources: the roof stripes on a '71/'72 Plymouth Roadrunner, The side stripes on Tony Angelo's Fishtail Cuda, and MUTT, a car from the Disney cartoon Motorcity.
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I also skewed the font on my username so it matched the slant on the rear of the chain guard. I also added a little 3, for "3 wheels." The tank decals took the longest to figure out. I wanted to have as much of the green paint showing as possible, but still have a cool design in satin black. I ditched using my "3D" apple icon, and went for a one-color icon. I wanted it to look like a blend of the classic Dodge Super Bee design and the modern Dodge Hellcat and Viper designs.
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I also did a quick mockup of where the bolts/screws that hold the tank together will go. I want to avoid putting decals over bolts or vice versa.
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I like the idea of having stripes going down the length of the fenders, but I'm still figuring out what exact direction I'm going with that. I'll worry about that once I get around to making a pair of fenders.
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All in all, I think I've found my final "good enough" design, and I'm itching to make it happen. I still have a few things to figure out, like the wheels and color-matching paint for the tank, but I'm confident that if I can't get the trike at least functional by the March 15th deadline, I can still make a great deal of progress by then.
 
Made some good progress this weekend! I began the teardown of all the 24 inch wheels I got for this trike on Friday, and as of now, I've only got one wheel left to disassemble! Here are all the wheels I had planned to part out to make 3 good wheels. Note how I already removed one spoke from the rear coaster brake wheel in the first picture.
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When I found out that they don't make spike nuts in the thread size I need for all my wheels, I just decided to forgo matching the 2 front wheel hubs in favor of using the quick-release hub from The Trashliner Trike's original front wheel. This'll go on the front front wheel, so transporting this trike and removing the front wheel from the springer fork will be that much easier.
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Extracting the hub turned out to be much easier than removing the tire and tube from the rim. I have now found that I hate steel bead tires for this exact reason: they're so hard to remove, you are almost guaranteed to mess up the tube, tire and/or wheel in the process.
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First night's progress: While removing the tire from the first wheel was a pain, removing the spokes from that wheel and 2 others proved to be oddly satisfying. I just shot some PB Blaster on the spoke nipples, let it soak for a bit, and all but 3 spokes on the blue Schwinn wheel came off without any trouble. I shot the last 3 stubborn spokes with more PB Blaster, plus the rest of the wheels I intended to take apart, and let everything sit and soak overnight. I cracked the garage door a bit to air out some of the fumes. What I should have done was just leave the whole dang garage door open, because PB Blaster smells as powerful as its rust-penetrating capabilities!
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Something tells me that the stronger PB Blaster smells, the harder it's working, because I decided to try taking apart the worst wheel next.
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Yeah, that wheel. I had already succeeded in removing one spoke without snapping the threads earlier, so I figured that I'd see just how many spokes I could remove without breaking the threads. First though, I had to take apart the coaster brake. These next few photos are here mostly for reference when I put this back together, just in case.
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Okay, to everybody who told me that the spokes on that wheel were shot, toast, broken or bound to break when I try to remove them, I just want to say:
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PB BLASTER FOR THE WIN!!!
Seriously, this stuff is magic in a can! I got every spoke to bust loose from those cruddy spoke nipples! Granted, some of those spokes will most likely have to be replaced, but most of them look like all they need is some Evaporust and that's it! The spoke nipples, on the other hand, are all toast. Luckily, I think I have plenty of good replacements to solve that issue.

Something else happened yesterday. I was browsing Craigslist again, and saw a couple free kids' bikes up for grabs nearby. I picked up this 20 inch Huffy, mostly because it has a black coaster brake hub, which don't have enough of. Unfortunately, it's a 28-spoke hub. I really need a 36-spoke hub. Still, those 20 inch wheels might come in handy later. I'd also try using the handlebars, but there's no way to separate them from the stem, at least from what I can tell.
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Today's progress so far: 9 out of 10 wheels have been completely disassembled. I started on the 10th earlier, but it's even more stubborn than those blue Schwinn wheels. I'm letting it soak in more PB Blaster before I start on it again.
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I'm genuinely surprised just how much I enjoyed taking apart these wheels. It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood games, Ker-Plunk, but with wheel spokes and hubs!
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That's not the best part, though. Since I've got these wheels almost completely disassembled, and Dad's schedule is open tomorrow, we're going to try and get everything sandblasted and powder coated tomorrow! I'm particularly excited to try out the new sandblaster nozzle, as the old one was absolutely wallered out! I remember having a lot of issues sandblasting my RRBBO15 entry last year because of that! (NOTE: The old nozzle and the new nozzle are both supposed to be the same size.)
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I've got a bit left to do in order to get ready for tomorrow, so that's all for now.

By the way, what do you guys typically use to clean grease off bearings and coaster brake parts? I've used Simple Green before, but is there a better solution?
 
@Bike from the Dead purple power, dawn dish soap, gas, brake clean, carb cleaner, rags, & Dollar Tree wire brushes.

I have thrown bearings in Gojo citrus hand cleaner with some dawn & water; the gritty citrus helps remove the inner crude in the cages (dilute just enough not to be runny) & agitate/shake it about every hour or until content. I also then use Red & Tacky for my repacking. Otherwise I ziploc bag & sharpie wtf they came out of; sucks having so many bb bearings & not remembering if they came from The China factory in a hurry
 
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