I needed bodywork on a ‘50 Chevy pickup in Pasadena in 1990 and my buddy Tim Henkels agreed to do it. I brought it over and found the entire back of his dad’s driveway/ garage was full of these fat tired bicycles - some of them with built in headlights - some of them original paint- ( a B6)-sitting outside- upside down- with rainwater puddles in the fenders- !- I said -“ shouldn’t we upright them to save the fenders? “ and I was told “NO. Do not TOUCH the bikes ! “- “And- when he gets home - DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE BIKES -!”
Later I took some pictures and went home and studied them. He also gave me some unused decals which were scattered about the yard- some said MOTORBIKE and some said ‘Streamlined Aerocycle’. It was explained to me that a Schwinn Motorbike does not have a motor. What?When the dad came home he was grumpy but - when I asked about the bikes he took me into the house to show me the ‘Wizzer’ and a ‘White Phantom’ ( custom resto) -
I became focused on a house painted yellow ‘straight bar’ frame with an Excelsior badge on it- ( couldn’t believe that Schwinn and Excelsior motorcycles could be wedded together on a bike badge!-)-and was told again “not to talk about the bikes”.
One Saturday Tim was off to the store and the dad was there and I told him I was interested in a frame and we started a 3 week long negotiation- the day I closed the deal felt like Christmas .
He then directed me to The Pedal Pusher in OC- and Memory Lane Classics catalog. Then TeamBikes in HB. They routed me to the OC bike swap meet which at the time was on the 405/ Beach Bl off ramp. Next was Doc Gibsons meet, San Dimas, Anaheim Schwinn, and the big Main st lot show in Huntington.