40's style retro bicycle.. all it needs it an engine now!!

Had a couple of days on my hands and needed a project to while away my drinking time, so i went around my local hood, looking for an old chinese bike to tinker with..
saw some cool examples and managed to score one from a recycling guy on the street.. it was his own bike, the basket was full of his crap, he took off his locks and wooden board and straps and handed it over.
It had just the right amount of rust and old paint on the frame so it got stripped over a few beers with mfpthebronze and degreased.
Then i went to the local bike market to buy a more modern bike for parts, i ended up with an ex mcdonalds delivery bike which gave me some alloy wheels, brakes, alloy bars and a seat, a quick clean up and assemble and lets go for a test ride...:lol8:
What do you think?? i think next time i'll use new parts and find a twin beam frame and mount an engine kit in it!! At 200rmb for an engine kit it would be rude not to:thumbsup: and i can ride it in central shenzhen.:riding:
Cheers RichAttachment 2954Attachment 2955Attachment 2956Attachment 2957Attachment 2958

Looks cool Richard :thumbsup:. Can't wait to see the motorized version...maybe some nitrous?

Cheers!
ChinaV

Nice project richard! Clean looking result too. Any chance of getting the brake cable housing to go through the frame? I'd also see if i could find an old leather saddle instead of that plastic one. No need to spend Brookes money on it, there are some old battered ones going around with lots of character!

this was definatly a learning curve, the result is not greater than the sum of parts and i don't think it would handle any more power than my two bandy legs:lol8: it took me longer to clean my flat afterwards than to build it:lol8:
next one will be a twin crossbar new frame and a brand new ladies shopper bike with good brakes, nice shiny alloy parts, anodized alloy wheels and whitewall tyres. A nice leather saddle (point taken felix) and the 30cc engine kit :riding:
cheers rich:thumbsup:

What happened to the hard linkage for the brakes? Does it only have one brake? :confused1:

I had several of these and they were great fun to ride... as long as it was flat. Even more fun when drunk with loose head bearings!

Hello Carl,
talking of riding drunk, I was so drunk the other night that I left it in the elevator haha and someone stole it!! That or the security guards threw it in the trash.. Oh well on to mark two :naughty:
Rich:thumbsup:

Haha, i'm surprised you made it home that night night if you were drunk enough to forget a bike in an elevator!

Looking forward to MkII!

Keep your eyes open for that bike. Some f*ckwit will be riding it through your neighborhood. I once recovered a stolen bike in NYC about six months after the theft. Like yours, it was very unique -- and the "new owners" who bought it from a crackhead didn't bother to strip off the banner "United Press International" sticker running the length of the top tube. The new owners were a Chinese take-out restaurant, and maybe couldn't read English....

Cops and I had a good laugh about that -- especially when the Chinese restaurant folks cursed me in Chinese, and I was able to curse right back!

But the moral of the story is valid: Keep your eyes open; you may find it.

cheers

I've got to admit, that is pretty slick.

Hymm, where do you find these motor kits for 200 kwai? A search on taobao revealed nothing but nitro engines for r/c planes. Could you rig the motor so it could quick release from the bike? (Like taking the battery out of a scooter?)

That's got me thinking about a better way to get to work.

Already covered here >> http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...09-Hybrid-Bike

interesting :)..........