EK
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FIRSTS
Bridgestone Fixie
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This is the first fixie I had ever personally built. It was the one that got me hooked. The frame is an old Bridgestone from the eighties. It had forged drop outs with no derailleuer hangar so it made sense as a fixie. I left the cotter pin cranks, for vintage styling, and flipped some cruiser bars upside down. It rode very nicely, in spite of some beginner mistakes. The cotter pin cranks eventually broke, and I put in a square taper bottom bracket and some nice Shimano 105 cranks. Notice the brake is mounted on the down tube. I did this with a couple of my bikes to make them "legal" A ticket for not having a brake is two hundred bucks. Ouch! Notice also that there are no pedal straps! I took the photo before putting them on. The wheels came from my friend Morgan. Someone had stolen his wheels that week and then sold them to me on Craig's List. So I returned them to Morgan when he showed me the photos to prove it. But I really liked the look of them so I bought them back from Morgan and finished the bike.
First Single Speed
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This is the first Schwinn single speed conversion I did. It was completed under the instruction of my friend Jeffrey, who showed me how to re dish an old steel Schwinn wheel and convert it to a single speed with a straight drive line for the chain. It was a lot of fun. Later I got really into wheel building, and took a lot of those Chrome Schwinn S7 wheels and built them up with brand new hubs for my restoration projects. It's amazing how well the steel wheels ride with a decent hub replacement. It's a real looker with the cut off cruiser bars and vintage side pull Brakes. Notice how much room there is to adjust the brake pad. This bike was perfect for a 700c upgrade later. Call me crazy but I love those old Schwinn's!
First Restoration
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Everything on this bike is original, even the tires! This bike was restored for a good client of mine who brought in his daughter's pink Schwinn Collegiate. He had the frame powder coated on her bike and hired me to assemble it for them. He was so impressed, that he came back and handpicked this bike from a the frame gallery. It was the only old Schwinn that was his wife's size. So I tore it down, polished the paint and chrome, and rebuilt the bottom bracket and headset. It really turned out well. This was my favorite restoration. The bike rode like it was brand new when I had finished with it. You should have seen the look on his wife's face when they came and got it, I was paid double in fulfillment for that one.