What can you do with a Brown Banana?

[Jim Barnard]

It seems to me, that these Apollo bikes were always shunned. I always thought of these as the bike you had if your Mom ran away with the Fuller Brush Salesman and your Daddy drank the dole. The pedals were kind to shoe-less chirlins for a reason.

I have had many in the last 2 decades (even an NOS one) and never saw fit to keep any. I rode one in the NYC 5 borough ride and discovered that if you pinched the awful saddle twixt your thighs and leaned the handle bars to one side, the frame would flex almost 4 inches (without breaking!)

I recently parted one out and was surprised how much interest in the parts there was. I started looking online and was pleased to see that the right model has become VERY appealing to me and, it seem many others.

I LOVE the "Metallic Poo" color especially when it had a white saddle and a giant stick shift on the top tubes with an early "APOLLO" screening on the flat tube.

Here is one that has joined the collection against all odds. Super cool with the chain guard and not the ring. Did they really make 1 billion 100 million of these? (Probably not sequential)

I salute this cheap and beautiful muscle bike:

 

[parkrndl]

I've always been a fan of these, probably in part because as a little kid, I frequently heard Bob McAllister's voice on the TV show Wonderama announcing the "Ross Apollo 3-Speed" as a prize for lucky members of the studio audience. It also helps that when I was in elementary school, a kid on the next block had one in Metallic Poo with the 3-speed thumb shifter and I always loved it.

So 10 years or so ago, when I got back into tinkering with old bikes and saw a brown Apollo frame and fork in the back-room boneyard of the LBS, I had to bring it home. I pieced it together with a variety of junk that I scrounged up and to this day it's a cherished rider.

Then last year I stumbled upon this at the Spring Carlisle Collector Car Flea Market and doubled the number of Apollos in my collection. It cleaned up well enough to be a nice beater/rider. It's only missing the console cover and front fender to be complete (and the tires aren't correct, but I don't play at that level anyway).

I totally agree that they are floppy and noodley compared to any decent cantilever frame, but I love riding them anyway. They get a TON of attention anywhere I ride them.

 

[Jim Barnard]

I've always been a fan of these, probably in part because as a little kid, I frequently heard Bob McAllister's voice on the TV show Wonderama announcing the "Ross Apollo 3-Speed" as a prize for lucky members of the studio audience. It also helps that when I was in elementary school, a kid on the next block had one in Metallic Poo with the 3-speed thumb shifter and I always loved it.

So 10 years or so ago, when I got back into tinkering with old bikes and saw a brown Apollo frame and fork in the back-room boneyard of the LBS, I had to bring it home. I pieced it together with a variety of junk that I scrounged up and to this day it's a cherished rider.
View attachment 1115506

Then last year I stumbled upon this at the Spring Carlisle Collector Car Flea Market and doubled the number of Apollos in my collection. It cleaned up well enough to be a nice beater/rider. It's only missing the console cover and front fender to be complete (and the tires aren't correct, but I don't play at that level anyway).
View attachment 1115510
I totally agree that they are floppy and noodley compared to any decent cantilever frame, but I love riding them anyway. They get a TON of attention anywhere I ride them.

You just have to smile when you see these go by...

Well done!

Jim

 

[Beach Bum III]

I've always been a fan of these, probably in part because as a little kid, I frequently heard Bob McAllister's voice on the TV show Wonderama announcing the "Ross Apollo 3-Speed" as a prize for lucky members of the studio audience. It also helps that when I was in elementary school, a kid on the next block had one in Metallic Poo with the 3-speed thumb shifter and I always loved it.

So 10 years or so ago, when I got back into tinkering with old bikes and saw a brown Apollo frame and fork in the back-room boneyard of the LBS, I had to bring it home. I pieced it together with a variety of junk that I scrounged up and to this day it's a cherished rider.
View attachment 1115506

Then last year I stumbled upon this at the Spring Carlisle Collector Car Flea Market and doubled the number of Apollos in my collection. It cleaned up well enough to be a nice beater/rider. It's only missing the console cover and front fender to be complete (and the tires aren't correct, but I don't play at that level anyway).
View attachment 1115510
I totally agree that they are floppy and noodley compared to any decent cantilever frame, but I love riding them anyway. They get a TON of attention anywhere I ride them.

She’s a real Boss Ross.