Hondo6

Thanks for posting that. Looks to be the SL-AD24 top-tube mounted shifters. Apparently the clamp's band is far rearward enough of the mounting bosses to allow them to sit right next to the headtube.

RB1-luvr

Huffy Olympia TT bike! (this was mine once)

RB1-luvr

I voted for the Santa Fe because I owned one in tenth grade and know for a fact that even AMCO can't make a decent rider out of one. They are beyond crap.

rsbob 

Used to call those knee shifters on my old Schwinns when out of the saddle.

grantelmwood

I would love to nostalgia ride a Huffy Santa Fe! Huffy was king of all bikes in my youth.
The Santa Fe was one of the most popular 10 speed bikes of a generation.
40 years later, it's probably all the bike that 99% of delusional rocket helmet middle aged wanna-be warriors still would ever would need.

RCMoeur 

Sequels:

For every "Godfather II" or "Empire Strikes Back", there are dozens of direct-to-video disasters.

Which will it be, o talented auteur?

AdventureManCO 

Given that my standards for a great movie are Mystery Science Theater 3000, don't hold your breath

AdventureManCO 

In (gasp) 'studying' Huffy frames, there are some interesting takeaways. Most of the 27" wheeled versions are basically the same frame over and over...just with an overexcited marketing dept calling it something different every few years...Santa Fe, Le Grande, Breaking Away, etc. Same basic design elements, same crimped stays at the dropouts, same brazing connections at the seat tube cluster, same frame size, etc.

Things started changing in the 1990s, with less brazing and more welding, at least this is what I see when I look at the 626, Techtra, etc.

The 26" wheeled variations throughout the years are also incredibly similar - especially noting the seat stays being attached at the back of the seat tube, slightly lower than the top tube, and what looks like welding (haven't confirmed) at that junction. Again, I have one of these in the garage, but it has been almost totally ignored given the focus on the Le Grande.

Regarding it being crap - the Le Grande definitely channeled that sentiment in stock trim and with it's alignment issues. How it pulled super hard to the left, as well as wouldn't stop (basically at all) with those cheap brakes on chromed steel rims. Many would have written it off, and in fact many probably did, for 40 years...which is how I ended up with it, in very good condition

When you think about it, its just molecules arranged in a certain way...and we just have to rearrange them differently. Given the proper alignment and parts, it rides great!

I believe any build moving forward is going to be easier, simply for the fact that we now know more of what we are getting into. On the Le Grande, the BB alignment was canted, the fork blades we're canted off to one side (the reason for it pulling left so hard), the rear triangle out of alignment, the dropouts bent down, and misaligned (and in fact they still are), the front brake mounting hole drilled completely off center. I mean, it probably couldn't have gotten any worse. I joked in the thread that with all the alignment problems (on basically everything), my bike was built on a Sunday after the manager called all the workers back for the weekend to catch up on quotas lol, a disgruntled, 'resentment' construction, if you will.

I have to assume that this is all par for the course.

So I completely believe you on the Santa Fe, and I have no reason to believe the Aerowind would be any different.

What makes the Aerowind a little more interesting is the fact that it was different than any other Huffy frame, not only for most noticeably the crunched tubes, but what really stands out to me is the brazing on the rear dropouts. Yes, they are still stamped steel, but they each have 4 braze points, 2 for each stay connection. I actually like it...which how could you not, when comparing to spot welds on every other Huffy frame? This seems to only be found on the 27" wheeled version. Which is why I'd really like to find that version, although the frame probably weighs more. I'd like to strip down the 26" wheeled frame in the garage and see what that bad boy weighs. I know that the Le Grande frame weighs 2877 by itself, so that is our 'frame' (pun intended) of reference.

dedhed

BBC is kinda known for that

Hondo6

Which one - "diggin' the herb" or depending on Barnum being right? Or both?

AdventureManCO 

Here is the one I found near Wash, DC:






Sure looks like an Aerowind, but maybe a later version, in a rare purple. I can't tell if this one has the crimped tubes - it sort of doesn't look like it, but it's got all the A-W hardware. Wish I had a better look at that downtube decal, which looks different than the standard A-W decal.

dedhed

It is Madison, so both

AdventureManCO 

Another near Minneapolis. You can tell this one is a 26"er...

Hondo6

At least some versions of the Aerowind used an Adamas AX crankset. See the photos at the link SoCaled provided above.

Best I can tell, Adamas AX cranksets used a Selectra BB. Per the catalog for Shimano's aero component line (see other pages in the Disraeli site link to same above), the Selectra BB required a standard English-threaded BSC bottom bracket.

If you can manage to remove that BB without destroying the frame or BB shell threads in the process - and if the threads aren't rusted to the point of being unusable - that means with an Aerowind frame you might not need a BB adapter.

EVs for Shimano Adamas cranks and BBs can be found here:

https://si.shimano.com/en/manual/sea...C-AX21,BB-SL31

My understanding is that the Selectra BB cups can be removed with the older Shimano splined freewheel remover, TL-FW20 (photo at this link: https://bikerecyclery.com/nib-nos-sh...ool-container/). But those appear to be quite hard to find, and I also understand the newer version won't do it.

Some version/adaptation of Sheldon Brown's bottom bracket cup removal tool might also work.

Best of luck if you choose to go this route.

Hondo6

AdventureManCO 

Right, I forgot about the bottom bracket! I suppose they could have gotten away with some version of a larger-than-standard BB on a cotterless 3-piece crank, but based on your research that seems unlikely. Although, if Huffy used some sort of adapter to fit those Adamas cranks, there is no doubt that is is a gigantic piece of lead with the specific gravity of plutonium right before nuclear fission. The good news is that I still have that O.M.A.S. bottom bracket adapter. The main issue I had with it was that it spaced out the bottom bracket from 68mm to 72.5mm. If the shell of the Aerowind is a similar width to that of the Le Grande, then this time around I'd just narrow down the shell until I could get to around 68mm with the combined thickness of the BB adapter flanges. It would have the benefit of shaving just a little bit more off the frame, an also making use of a lightened part that I already have. The main issue would be truing up the BB faces, which requires a specific and expensive tool. However, if it is anything like the headtube, using an angle grinder and then manually truing it up with hand tools actually improved it over it's stock form.

Good research!

RCMoeur 

"Adventure-Manos - Huffys of Fate"

zookster 

Well looky what I found in my local FB Marketplace. lol

AdventureManCO

Huffy Santa Fe

AdventureManCO 

LOVE THIS!! Haha...my wife got a big kick out of it as well!

AdventureManCO 

Wow, looks like it's got that 'Rode for 5 min, then put away for 40 years' to it...wonder why??!

It's waiting for you!!

AdventureManCO 

So, in my never-ending Huffy research, and to waste even more time, I decided to take that 26" wheeled Huffy out in the garage and strip all the parts off and just weigh the frame, to see if there might possibly be an advantage that the slightly smaller 26" wheeled frames have over the full-size, 27" wheeled frames. The thought behind it is that the 26"er is smaller, and since Huffy probably didn't care enough about anything to have different tube thicknesses and whatnot, we would be looking at a weight reduction through simply less material.

The results were surprising...





The results are in: the smaller frame was actually more heavy than my Le Grande frame was, which is simply amazing. From the build thread, the Le Grande frame, completely stripped, weighed in at 2877g,so this one is about 70g more. Surprising. I took the kickstand out, but as you can see from the picture, the stand's insertion tube remains, and that is dead weight. Taking that off might yield another 20-30g reduction. Also, I was curious about the joints, so I tested them. The seat tube cluster, including the seat stays at the back of the tube - brazed! The seat tube to BB shell junction, however, was welded, with that nice chunky bead weld you see on old lawnmowers and such. On the Le Grande, this is brazed as well.

With this information in hand, I think I will be solidly keeping an eye out for a full-sized bike in the future and not experimenting further with the smaller-sized frames. Time will tell to see if the Santa Fe's or the Aerowind's frame, in a full 27" wheel size, can compete with the bare-frame weight of the Le Grande.

grantelmwood

Are you suggesting these were factory defects or the result of 40 years of use ?

Gresp15C

I've been through their used bike showroom a few times, and once bought a bike there -- it was brand new but previous year model of a basic bike. The times I've been in there, they've seemed to have a gigantic inventory, including things like multiple identical classic Raleigh 3-speeds in superb condition. Floor space packed, ceiling packed with bikes, walls packed with bikes hung up. In a big space.

To my eyes, it seemed like more inventory than they were likely to move quickly through normal used bike sales, and I couldn't guess what business model was inspiring them to have so many, but they may very well have had access to them for practically nothing, so their investment might have been minimal. Pricing high and then waiting for a sale might have been part of that model. Selling good used bikes for cheap would have cut into their new bike sales

AdventureManCO 

100% factory. The bike was not well used at all when I picked it up.

stoneageyosh

As with many things, “defects” can be a relative term. In the case of the Huffente it appeared to be interpretations of their “Quality Control” range of tolerances for each stage of fabrication. It was obvious that their QC would have been unable to shoot and hit the side of a barn when locked inside.