sknhgy 

I traded for this bike today. It is so ugly I can't help but to like it. I'm going to fix it up then keep it, or ride it, or ???
It's had a brush paint job and I can't find any markings to identify it. The bike has had very little wear. I just hope it is big enough for me to ride.
Can anyone tell me what it is? Thanks in advance.

jur

Generic U-frame folder, were sold under many names.

sknhgy 

I thought I could get it running then keep it in the car trunk.

Any sites, etc. that would have info on this bike?

sknhgy 

Is it worth fixing up, or is it the equivalent of a Walmart bike?

snafu21

It's a vintage low-price 'Shopper' type folder, the original design is from around 1970 or so. Steel frame, cottered cranks. The brush paint job may disguise many woes or it may be the whimsical work of a deranged fanatic. It could be a fun bike to ride, if fixed up.

It has a hint of Raleigh about it, brown grips & fenders, and chromed ? fork crown. Could be anything though. They were churned out by a number of Brit factories in the Seventies, and mostly scorned over here in the UK, and are now found mainly in junkyards. They seem to be fashion icons in the US and Oz though. Yours is a 'ladies' model step-through frame.

If restored, you'll be able to sell it for about half the cost of the restoration.

Pro's: They don't make them like that any more, so you'll have a 'fun' bike. Cons: They don't make 'em like that any more so it will be a faff dealing with the restoration.

The front-wheel mounted bottle dynamo is a death-trap, by the way.

Expect braking to be more or less notional if it has steel rims, and cottered cranks to be a source of constant hair-loss if you want to get the forty-year old cotter pins out. Hint: obtain new ones before you try, and expect the bottom bracket bearings and wheel bearings to be square and rusty. If it has alloy rims it might be post 1980 or so, and a Far East shopper bike.

Most of the fittings look to be old Imperial stuff, bearings for the head race and bottom bracket are easily available, as will be bottom bracket cups and spindles. Wheel restoration tends to involve expense and rusty spokes/corroded nipples. It's often a sweary, irate process.

Worth? An entire body of folks 'do up' the similarly woe-begotten Raleigh Twenty shopper, and love them. You could have discovered either a new life-time hobby or a drain on your Medicare frees.

Fix or fling? We wait with baited breath.

jur

Here's an example of what might be...

sknhgy 

Mine's not pink.
People must give you grief for riding a folder, Mr. Moderator. I hope you can understand those's people's views. You've been less than encouraging.

Purpleorchid

It kind of looks fun as a display piece too. One can take the time and look at all its "character" that it built over the years. From what I can tell in the pics, the bike looks old, not neglected in the nether regions of a musty old garage.

snafu21

You've been less than encouraging"

It's an almost value-less old bicycle, not the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. If you do start ripping into it you'll be inundated with advice. Viz:

Start with bottom bracket disassembly. If the cups are corroded in and you mangle the frame getting them out, you won't have wasted too much time and effort on the rest of it. You'll need those spare cotter pins before you start.

Sixty Fiver

Generic folder that may very well be of Soviet manufacture as many of these came from the near east.... my best guess that it is Czechoslovakian in origin.

jur

Not sure who you might be referring to... can't be me, I'm not a moderator... Any way do you recognize none-too-subtle humour or does it have to hit you in the head?

sknhgy 

Sorry, I thought you were a mod.
Hey, I appreciate humor. I also like to fix things up. This thing can be fixed and someone can use it, or it can go sit in a dump somewhere. I've found that the reason it became inoperable is that the front wheel bearings siezed up. Now, if I can just get a replacement wheel this bike will be rideable and there is still some life left in it. Everything else is OK.
If you see some of the junk that kids ride nowadays you would see the value in this bike. I just came here to try and get some perspective on it.
Thanks. And I did get a chuckle out of the hermaphrodite on the pink bike. I hope it's none of your kin.

anthonygeo

You ever figure it out? Kinda looks like the schwinn hinge folding bike I bought. It's sad no one can offer advice since its "generic".

bhkyte

After reflection and much study, I have come to the conclusion ;
it is a bike........

wahoonc

Generic U-folder, built all over the world. I have two of them that I got sucked in by, mine are a Rixe and an Atala. As pointed out check the bottom bracket first, it if pans out then start on the other stuff. If you are lucky the parts will be standard sizing.

Aaron

az2008

I encourage you to fix it up. Even if it's not the right bike for you, it could be valuable to someone. For example, if you live in a metro area you could put out feelers to your local Goodwill's "job center" (or local food bank) explaining how you have a carry-on bike for bus (light rail) riders which you'd be willing to give (or sell for $20) to the right person (a newly hired person who has transportation challenges, maybe recovering from a career disruption).

You know those people exist. It shouldn't be hard to find them through the right support organizations.

Sammyboy

What would put me off doing it is this: Any bike of that vintage with steel rims is mostly braked by wishful thinking and your trainers, specially in the wet. To get it to stop in any meaningful way, you'd need to rebuild the wheels with alloy rims, certainly fit better brake shoes, and perhaps even dual pivot long reach brakes (shout out to followers of the Cult of Alhonga). I would do that on a Raleigh 20, and have done. I'd do it on a Moulton, or a Royal Enfield Revelation, but I would do it on that, because the resulting bike will still have all the stiffness of a wet noodle. Those things were like riding a drunk snake, and even as a fan of vintage bikes, I'd say most people would be better of with a $100 Wal Mart BSO than one of those. I know that's pretty damning, but really, they weren't very good bikes. Can it be done? Yes, absolutely. Should it be done? Only if you have genuine affection for the bike.

sknhgy 

Ta Da!! Here she be:

I'll call it "The Turd" because one of my students saw me working on it and said, "why are you fixing that, it's a turd".
I scraped off the old paint and gave it a spray-bomb paint job. BB, headset, and rear bearings were cleaned and repacked. The lbs gave me a good deal on a new front wheel and a couple of white side-wall tires that he had hanging in the rafters for years. The front white-wall got scuffed because I took it for a test ride before properly adjusting the front brake. I gave it new front brake pads. I also soaked and re-oiled the chain.
I've got about $55 in it. If nothing else I'm going to save it and ride it when I'm an old, old man. But really, if someone really wants it I'll probably give it away.
One thing I did learn. Metallurgy wasn't as good when this bike was made as it is now. The fasteners on this bike can be very easily stretched and broken. Luckily I learned that on a replaceable bolt and not on something like the tapered pins that hold the cranks to the BB spindle.
It rides OK, for what it is.
I sit here basking in a sense of accomplishment.

social suicide

So, you've got $55 in a $25 bike. I've done much, much worse.

Campy crank, Alienation rims, North Road bars, Maxxis tires, It might get $25 on a good day!
But the chicks really dig it and my teenage children are so proud of me.

bhkyte

Education is wasted on students !!

wahoonc

That is not a metallurgy issue that is a cheap fastener issue, the BSO's of today suffer from the same problem.

BTW looks great...but does it float?

Aaron

maunakea

After studying this thread and the decades of cumulative wrenching embedded in the counsel given to the OP, I think this is the meaning and message: the OP has a very nice shop, loves folders, and wanted a project. The God of Junkyards and Garage Sales answered his Solicitation, and soon, incognizant of other adolescents' sneers, there will be a new initiate into folderdom. One of the OP's students will bond with this Slavic nightmare, and pedal into the sunset.