The worst condition bike you have ever bought.

[30thtbird]

36 Shelby

 

[bloo]

Oh that's easy. My 41 Schwinn B model. I saw it at a yard sale in 1976. God it was a mess. I was 11 or so and wanting a 26" ballooner badly. None were turning up. It was definitely not the fashion at that time. Despite the effort of the adults to steer me into something... anything... else, I had been riding a 24 Ballooner Huffy and wanted another. By then the 24 was just too small. It was also completely shot, but that's beside the point. Reading this site you would think ballooners were laying everywhere in the 70s, but not in my area. A whole month, maybe more passed, and nothing. I remembered the trashed bike at the yard sale, and started to take it more seriously. It was in an area that was about to be permanently flooded. I had been hoping for something a LOT better, or at least rideable as-is. My mom's best friend knew the people who had the sale, so I called to see if it might still be there. It was, and it came home with me. I don't remember what I paid. Too much. All the adults thought I was insane.

Sadly, I don't have a before pic of it. It had ape hangers on it, a broken sissy bar, a Murray chainwheel, and a pink banana seat. The frame and forks were bent. In retrospect, I think it had been run over by a car. I hope the kid was ok. There was no front wheel, but I found it in a nearby field bent with the brake parts missing and the axle out and laying next to it. There was no paint left on the frame, at least none on the outside. I found red paint inside the bottom bracket and either white or cream under the badge. There was some red and white on the back fender, which later turned out to not be a Schwinn fender. The front fender was missing. There were a lot of stripped threads.

It took at least a couple of months to paint it and make it rideable, and it was pretty shaky at first. I used this bike a lot. The paint job you see here is from the third "restoration" in the 80s. The first 2 times I reversed the colors, then put it back to red with white darts the third. More straightening happened each time. Every time I thought it was straight. Every time it was... not quite. It finally runs truly straight. That happened recently when I tore it down to make it roadworthy again during the covid lockdowns.

 

[Rivnut]

 

[Cory]

Oh that's easy. My 41 Schwinn B model. I saw it at a yard sale in 1976. God it was a mess. I was 11 or so and wanting a 26" ballooner badly. None were turning up. It was definitely not the fashion at that time. Despite the effort of the adults to steer me into something... anything... else, I had been riding a 24 Ballooner Huffy and wanted another. By then the 24 was just too small. It was also completely shot, but that's beside the point. Reading this site you would think ballooners were laying everywhere in the 70s, but not in my area. A whole month, maybe more passed, and nothing. I remembered the trashed bike at the yard sale, and started to take it more seriously. It was in an area that was about to be permanently flooded. I had been hoping for something a LOT better, or at least rideable as-is. My mom's best friend knew the people who had the sale, so I called to see if it might still be there. It was, and it came home with me. I don't remember what I paid. Too much. All the adults thought I was insane.

Sadly, I don't have a before pic of it. It had ape hangers on it, a broken sissy bar, a Murray chainwheel, and a pink banana seat. The frame and forks were bent. In retrospect, I think it had been run over by a car. I hope the kid was ok. There was no front wheel, but I found it in a nearby field bent with the brake parts missing and the axle out and laying next to it. There was no paint left on the frame, at least none on the outside. I found red paint inside the bottom bracket and either white or cream under the badge. There was some red and white on the back fender, which later turned out to not be a Schwinn fender. The front fender was missing. There were a lot of stripped threads.

It took at least a couple of months to paint it and make it rideable, and it was pretty shaky at first. I used this bike a lot. The paint job you see here is from the third "restoration" in the 80s. The first 2 times I reversed the colors, then put it back to red with white darts the third. More straightening happened each time. Every time I thought it was straight. Every time it was... not quite. It finally runs truly straight. That happened recently when I tore it down to make it roadworthy again during the covid lockdowns.

View attachment 2034592

Great story, great bike.

 

[iceman]

This was the first bike I fixed. It should have been parted out. Being in northern Canada at the time there were NO original parts around. So there are a lot of reproduction

parts on it. But I did save it and it rides great.

 

[tanksalot]

I’ve had several but this was an interesting one.

 

[GradyIII]

Still working on this '52 Hiawatha boat anchor.

 

[cyclingday]

Amazing! I was hoping you had a good one to share

Yeah, and to add insult to injury, when I got it, it didn’t have a kick stand on it, so I leaned it up against my fairly new pickup truck.
I was on the other side of the truck when I heard the sound of metal on metal, and crash.
When walked around to see what happened, the bike was laying on the ground, and there was a big scratch down the side of my truck!
I was thinking, you F’n piece of Sh’t!
All for a fricken rusted out Monark!
But, that’s what it’s all about.
Skin in the game, and the stories they tell.

 

[higgens]

Maybe not the worst ones I’ve bought but they are the most recent ones I’ve bought

 

[Jay81]

This Red Phantom comes to mind.

Here's another one. Heavily modified 36 Schwinn, home made moped.

This is what the next owner was able to do with it.