The Trashman

I am not referring to it's qualities in motion, but the construction of the frame, especially the attachment of the dropouts as well as the main tubes to the seat tube.

rootesgroup

I am another one with all low end bikes. My son has the higher end bikes, very light, one is mostly carbon. He mountain bikes and has done so in Utah, California, New Hampshire and a bunch of other states. I just ride the local [pretty much flat] rail trails. I have the following:

- 1964 Schwinn Fleet Tank Cruiser

- 1964 J. C. Higgins Cruiser

- 1963 Sunbeam English Racer

- 1979 Sunbeam English Racer

I know that the English Racers are not racers but that is what we called them when I was young. My first bike of my own was a Dunelt. My Dad brought it home in pieces... literally a basket case. All the parts were there though and when he assembled it it looked rather nice. I was so proud of it but it was stolen from me and I never had another English built bike until recently. I just completed completely going through the '79 Sunbeam. I don't do restorations but I am okay mechanically. Everything came apart, was cleaned and put back together. I do coat the underside of the mudguards/fenders to protect them. The frame and fenders I coated with a dead flat clear matte spray paint to keep them from rusting. So, it looks pretty good as an unrestored bike but is as protected as I can make it. I also coat the chrome parts (after cleaning) with Quick-Glo, which I saw in a Jay Leno's Garage video.


It's kinda the same for me as stereo equipment. I never really could afford the high end stuff but I did have respectable equipment that sounded good to my ear.

rossiny

waiting on me to clean and refurbish.
trek 950
​​​​​trek 930
Schwinn Paramount pdg40
Schwinn Passage
Bianchi Rekord 748

mitchito

This is my Murray Sebring. road bike, had rusty drop bars so I converted it to BMX bars. Found the seat in a pile of seats.

mitchito

This is a Murray Explorer 5000

. It had rusty steel MTN bike rims with cracked tires so I put a set of old school 26" x 1/38 rims from a Huffy 10 speed that someone had spray painted and was too ugly to not part out. I steel wooled the paint off the rims (yes, really) and put on a set of new tires that I got at a closeout for $15. Kind of has a Hybrid vibe.

AdventureManCO 

Back to the top. This is where my jam is these days.

While the Ted Williams 531 racer and others like it sort of push the bounds on the definition of 'low-end', it was sold by a dept store and should be quite safe, as there is a clear delineation between a bike like that and a vintage uppity 'bike store' bike, like a Raleigh Professional or Motobecane TC.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is so much fun at the low-end of the spectrum, and if you find yourself strangely, and concerningly, attracted to the low-end bikes, it is the best thing in the entire world, because all the bikes you love you can get for free or nearly free, they are in abundance, and there is virtually no competition for acquiring one.