Kansas City or Bust...

Well, the grass is always greener, except in August, thought I would take a cross country trip to the mid west looking for more bikes, I originally planned to hit Chicago or Wisconsin but just could not fit in the trip. So I just did the next best thing and headed for Kansas City, MO.
Just took the Yukon and wanted to see what I could find, I had already picked up a Schwinn Spitfire from a CL ad so I only need a few more bikes to make the trip worthwhile. Passed a lot of small towns on the way and not much panned out, thought I would hit the local thrift store and clean up but it just doesn't work that way in the real life.

So scanning CL, my cellphone and trying to drive I finally picked up a few more bikes and talked to a lot of nice people, just talk to people, they will most always be happy to help, or at least point you in the WRONG direction. And sometimes that is the right direction, cruising a little town I called a guy about a nice little Schwinn Hollywood for a good price, he had to go to the doctor so didn't have much more time to wait and gave me general directions, unbelievably I was only blocks away after circling the town for 1/2 hour. I could no longer get him on the cell since the service was blacked out but I had an idea about where it was, as I turned down an alley to try calling him again, an old man in a car was backing out of his driveway, as we caught eyes we both realized this must be the the guy (maybe the bikes on my bike rack had something to do with it).
Checked out the bike and pay him cash to close the deal.

He took off for the doctor appointment and I asked if I could re-load in his driveway to silence some rattles and fit in one more bike.

I was cruising to pick up the bike I had bought on CL, after taking over an hour and a half to find this farm in the middle of nowhere, I thought I would cruise the neighborhood.
I found a guy in front of a farm on crutches with a couple other guys that were using a torch to cut up some scrap. I asked if they had any old bikes or parts they would like to sell, he said he had a couple, I walked through a field of stickers, really sucked, I just threw the socks away.
The bikes were trash, only late 80s bikes and I said I was looking for "older" bikes, "do you know anyone else that might have some?" I asked, well he said his granny had some, I said where does she live and he said right down the road. He loaded into his car with his wife and we drove down the road to her barn, we looked in the window of the barn and there were over 30 gumball machines and a car under a cover, he didn't have the key but went into the house to find it.
Once we got it I looked under the cover and there was a mint 70s corvette, really cool, he said his dad had next dibs on it so I said his dad should get some life insurance to protect him from the family. He took me to the back and there was a very dusty and dirty bike, I imagined it would be a ladies bike since it was his grannies but it was a pre-war skip tooth Montgomery Wards, Hawthorne in red, well it was kind of reddish brown now. Made him an offer, he said don't tell anyone and pocketed the cash and I was on my way.

It's the first bike in this line up, I felt like it was a good trip, I needed the brake and 5 bikes were ok for such a short 3 day trip.
I was glad to be home and not be sleeping in a Walmart parking lot.
Saw some great country, and it was wild flower season, I am getting the itch again but will have to wait for spring!

Barns-o-bikes

I found another CL list in October, I usually ignore garage sales as the bikes are usually swept up really fast by the hard core garagati, and I don't know how I found this one, must be fate as this seems to be happening more often. The ad said their father had been collecting junk for years, bikes, Volkswagens and tools so I jumped in my VW Eos and checked it out, took the wrong vehicle for this.

These images are from later, there were more, I grabbed everything that said Schwinn on it, I was the only person looking for bikes so I hoarded a pile in an open spot in the field, it had been a little farm and had several small barns and a garage, stuffed with mostly bikes and tools.
I grabbed a cool Schwinn Tandem and about 7 other Schwinn bikes, then I turned to parts, I grabbed every rear Sturmey Archer wheel, about 10 and any rims saying Schwinn, got some great old script rims.
There were milk cartons that had the sides cut off for storing parts, I grabbed the intereting ones with NOS cables, shifters etc. Found a really nice Campagnolo shifter set, 4 pairs of NOS shark fin chrome fenders, about 20+ NOS tires of various sizes and lots of clamps, seat tubes etc.
Well I was really dirty by now and decided to call it quits, I talked to the son of the original owner, his father had passed and he grew up at the house, we chatted for a long time and I told him to let me know if there is any more Schwinn stuff. He said there was more in the little barn in the back and a couple sheds, he said his father had bought a bunch of previously stolen bikes from the police in the 1970s so there were a bunch hanging from the rafters and he would be cleaning them out in a couple weeks. So I paid my $75 for all the stuff I got (I fixed up the tandem and sold it for $350) waited to hear back.
I ended up getting a call in 3 weeks and returned to the site, after seeing there were over 50 bikes left, I went through to find a way to whittle down what I would take, I ended up with all the adult bikes I could load in my GMC Yukon and small trailer after 3 trips, over 40 wheels, bunches of NOS tires, and 20+ frames, a lot of them were kids bikes, small 20 inch so the only one I took was a Schwinn Stingray in blue.

Upon pressure washing my latest cache at home, I noticed one front wheel looked strange, it had Schwinn written on it and a drum brake, after cleaning it up and posting a CL about selling parts (don't need them all) I sold that wheel for $100 and the Stingray frame for $40, pretty good since I bought all the stuff for $50.

Another ladies bike looked pretty old, it was rattle canned black, it had a head badge that said "Henderson, Arnold Schwinn and Co" it was a skip tooth so I knew it was prewar but wondered about what it was. I spend a couple hours with lacquer thinner carefully removing the black paint, I have about 1/4 removed but I know it's going to take hours to finish, maybe just repaint it.

Found out Henderson was a motorcycle company that Schwinn bought out so that he could brand bicycles with the famous Henderson Motorcycle companies name.
Also got lots of stuff like a rack of ape hangers.

Still acid dipping the stuff and polishing up the chrome, great find, I am going to be building bikes all winter.
There is still an old 1951 step side GMC truck there, that would make a really great bike hauler, well when the snow melts I am going back!

The Schwinn Vault

I started searching craigslist for bikes in July and came across an ad about a bonanza of Schwinn bicycles and that it would be open tomorrow afternoon. I am lucky to work out of my house and most of my clients are out of state so it's easy to jump on a bargain in the afternoon while others are occupying their cubes.

I arrived a little late but I was the second person into the storage unit, inside were Schwinn bikes sorted by color in 2 levels, it looked like mostly road bikes & townies so I thought I would grab a few to flip to help fund the habit.

The bicycles were packed in very tight, pedals removed and man it was hot! The second story was accessed by a ladder and was kneeling room only in 80 degree heat. After helping the first person get his 3 bikes out by sliding bikes over 1 by one, then passing the bikes to others below for purchase it was my turn. as I crawled around with a flashlight, I found a dusty Schwinn Hollywood with beautiful white walls and the tires still had the hairs on them. I quickly pulled it and passed it down, then shuffled for the next find, it was a Schwinn Catalina, didn't really know what it was but it was a cruiser and looked like a female Schwinn Corvette and looked new except for the dust. Grabbed a couple townies and crawled down to buy my cache.
After getting to see them in the sun, I noticed the Catalina had an unusual shifter on the handlebars, it was a Bendix 2 speed shifter, later at home I found out it was pretty rare and only made one year, 1958. Great deal for a hundred bucks, my youngest daughter took the Schwinn Hollywood, and I gave the Catalina to my wife as I had converted a Purple Schwinn Hollywood for her to a Sturmey Archer 3 speed but the gearing wasn't right, I think the tires being a little smaller than the townies changed the gear ratio, will have to play with that.

Describe Addicted?

Ok, I am officially addicted to bikes, it was Schwinns just a few months ago, but now I can't see a bike built before the 80's and not want to collect them all (like Pokemon).

This blog will be about my trials and tribs in the bike collecting and flipping world, at first I thought I would just collect a couple bikes with my daughter and DUMP the old junky mountain bikes as we don't need 18 gears for the street but that is not what this has turned into. I will also help those getting started in the hobby with some tips learned and earned to get your ride ready to roll.

I started collecting sometime in July, here is the first purchase my 12 yr old daughter and I made, a Firestone cruiser, we kept the bike till I found the holy grail of Schwinn Bike tombs and bought her a like new Schwinn Hollywood and she said this one could go, we pocketed the extra cash and went looking for more. Here is a shot of Paige on the bike, notice the smile!