You know the phrase "when one door closes, another one opens?" Well, at the same swap meet where I parted ways with my first klunker, I picked up the frame that would become my second klunker. I got this bare 1950 Schwinn step-thru frame out of the free pile at the 2023 Haysville, Kansas bicycle swap meet. I thought I'd cut it up for the tubing bends to use on a custom bike, but I liked the original blue and white paint so much that at the start of this year, I decided to see if I could throw it together with some spare parts I had laying around.
I found a fork and some BMX handlebars with a shade of blue similar to the frame, and while my initial mockup didn't look like a klunker, the core concept was already there.
At the same time I was mocking up the Schwinn, I was watching a couple YouTube documentaries on klunkers and mountain biking. In one of those videos, I spotted a blue step-thru Schwinn klunker, and it got me thinking. I really wanted another klunker bike, and since I was still learning how to ride off road and thus would be riding only on level gravel trails, I could probably get away with using a step-thru frame as the basis for my next klunker build. (I still stuck a scrap seat post down inside the frame where the top tube intersets the seat tube, just in case.) Plus, ratrodbikes.com was having their 2024 Off-Road Build Off at the time, and I wanted to participate.
Here are those 2 klunker documentaries I mentioned, for your viewing pleasure.
In the process of building this Schwinn, I actually found this awesome gravel trail not far from home that had some nice turns, gentle elevation changes, and some really nice scenery. Once I finished building my klunker at the end of March, that's the first place I took it out to ride.
My favorite part of the whole build is the handlebar/truss rod setup I came up with. I got the idea to mount the handlebars by the crossbar from another bike I saw here, but I came up with this nutty idea to run the truss rods through the handlebars on my own. I was going to use a set of chome truss rods I had mocked up earlier, but one of the mounting tabs broke off and I couldn't easily repair it. So, I made my own truss rods using a modified reflector bracket, some steel rod I bought at an estate sale years ago, and some fender braces I had no attachment to. I actually used the last day of my hobbyists' welding class to make those. I'm pretty proud of how those turned out.
I ended up naming this klunker
Belle, as a reference to both the Blue Bell ice cream plant close to home, and Tulsa's former Bell's Amusement Park, where I used to go as a kid. Admittedly though, I got the idea for the name when a couple boys who rode the bike at a VW car show kept ringing the little bell I threw on at the last minute. They thought that bell was the most fun thing ever!
I actually reused a lot of the parts from my first klunker build, including the crank, chainring, and tires to build this klunker. What's funny is that I built this Schwinn mostly out of parts I got for free, including the frame! I don't believe I spent a dime on this bike aside from maybe the $8 tube of grease for the bearings and wheel hubs!
