thumpism

"He just don't know when to quit."

These words have been uttered more than once through history and are not generally intended to be a compliment.

AdventureManCO 

Had a few close calls as a kid myself. Thank you for sharing your story!

AdventureManCO 

Thank you for your interest in this project and your story. That is a great picture! Much appreciated.

From your experience, it sounds like the only advantage that lighter parts will have is to make it easier to go up hills, which is perfect, since you also mention that hills are the only disadvantage. Well, that and the stiffness, but we'll work around that. I'm delighted to know that your experience is close to a high-end bike, apart from the weight. The weight, we can deal with (to a point)...

I don't think we will be saving much from the bike, as to put back on the original parts would make the bike significantly worse. Even if I was to remove the Campy gear off of it (won't happen), it would be so much easier to just throw a Cyclone II on there or something, rather than the original running gear.

AdventureManCO 

I just now caught this...lol touche my friend!

1000% agree on the saddle. I got a taste of that OG saddle...

Bike weighs 36.4lbs in complete stock form. I took a bit of notice in the frame sizes, not a whole lot, but I'm grateful it was the larger size as well. Even though it probably adds quite a bit more weight, it is real nice being able to kick up that stem to be level with the bars - I'm all over the French fit of this thing.

I really appreciate your experience and recommendations, although we will be going full elite, retro connoisseur build on this one, going as high-end as we possibly can.

I'm not sure if I really stated the goal for this project. Well I guess in a sense, yes it would be great to get it lighter weight and maybe make it a better feeling or riding bicycle. All those goals are secondary. All those little bits and bobs that folks stared at through the glass cabinets of their favorite bike shop, drooling for hours on end after their paper route ended each day when they were kids back in the 70s or 80s? That's what I want on this bike. Just for fun. Just for the reaction. To start conversations. To look and to laugh, to realize much of life is absurd and to take things in stride, with a lighter heart. We need some of that these days. Some may laugh, some may sneer, some may cry, some may remember something nostalgic, some may get triggered or grouchy. I love it, all of it. It's something anyone and everybody can have an opinion about, good or bad. I think that is really the point. So please feel free to support or flame away, although death threats are best left to a PM

AdventureManCO 

Yep, everything is going to need a shim, including one or two things that may need a negative shim...

AdventureManCO 

...at least hoping

AdventureManCO 

100% support this

SkinGriz

I dig it.
Glad to read of the fun you’re having.
Beng1 also.

Love the craftsmanship evident in the dropout brazing.

My wife has an old step through suburban she doesn’t ride. I’m thinking of tacking 7/8 unistrut through the 2 downtubes and headtube, protruding to mount a rack. And crimping rear end and switching forks to go bigger 559 tires.

roadcrankr

I built Huffys in '78 for a big dept store. Every model they sold. Brought in my own wrenches.
The wheels on the rim break (sic) models never seemed true. And, if I didn't adjust the breaks (sic), somebody would surely die on it.
Might go three days between my part-time shifts, come back in and they sold half of the display models!
The store failed to charge a premium for the assembled bike. Evidently, it was their attempt at keeping me away from customers.


During summer school in my teens, I put together a ratty-looking Varsity with a cheap sew-up front wheel.
Probably dropped the weight by three pounds! And enabled me to pop wheelies.
Even with a paper-thin cable lockset, nobody dared steal that sucker. (In all honesty, my brother stole that bike for me.)
No doubt, would-be thieves took one look at the front tubular and thought there's no way they would ever ride sewups.

Wonderful thread. Let us know if you need any components. I could probably part with bottom bracket or headset or bars.

bikingshearer 

Two sentences at the end of the video that never in a miliion years should have been back-to-back: "Huffy: the ultimate riding experience. Available at Toys-R-Us."

oldbobcat

I can tell by looking at the geometry that this bike will have the kind of ride that "just disappears beneath you."

AdventureManCO 

thumpism

It would be an interesting exercise to complete this build and begin another using a high quality frameset built up with low end (steel) components to see if there any validity to the speculation as to what makes the greatest difference ridewise. I'll go out on a limb and guess that your Huffy would do at least as well as the proposed mystery bike, maybe even better (strike me dead for saying that). I have a steel double-plateau crankset to fit a square taper BB that I'd be willing to donate for that project.

By the way, O.M.A.S is boxed up and addressed. Now I'm just delaying a trip to the post office in order to drive you nucking futs.

AdventureManCO 

This one gets it

I'd be willing to take up that challenge - if anyone would like to send me their De Rosa Pro, Colnago Super, Cinelli SC, Raleigh Professional or Bianchi X4/Specialissima, I'd be happy to move the parts from this bike over to the new frame. I guess I would even take a Herse or Singer, maybe I might accept a Masi or Confente. As long as they're okay with me cutting off the BB and tacking on an American-sized BB shell.

dddd

With the OP's bike having a leftward pull to the steering, the fix will be to move the front tire contact patch toward the left.

Start by examining the centering of the tire under the fork crown.

If the tire is toward the left side between the fork legs, the fix is as simple as filing the left dropout slot deeper by small increments until the tire is nearly centered.
This will tilt the wheel such that the tire contact patch moves toward the left, correcting the steering issue.

If the tire appears to be nearer to the right fork leg, then a different fix is indicated, simply bending the left fork leg toward the left by perhaps several millimeters.
This will not only move the hub and tire contact patch to the left (thus having a corrective effect on the steering), it will also solve your hub spacing problem at the dropouts.

Be careful about over-correcting the depth of the axle slot. Be doubly careful not to buckle the fork leg if/when bending it toward the left side.
You can lay the bike on it's side with the left handlebar drop on solid ground, then use your foot to push the left fork dropout and leg down away from the right leg.
I recommend using a stack of boards under the left dropout to limit how far that the left fork leg can yield downward, the better to prevent possibly buckling it!!!
Keep a measuring device at hand while adjusting dropout spacing to keep track of your progress. Just a few millimeters of change can often be enough to effect steering corrections, and that is likely about how much you'll need to open the forks out to 100mm of any current/traditional racing wheelset.
The trick is to arrive at a tire centered under the crown AND neutral steering at the same time.
The fork leg on this bike is fortunately made of relatively ductile steel, just don't let it yield to poorly-controlled leg force.

That Huffy Aerowind was offered with different wheel sizes corresponding to frame size. I would love to find such a 24" frame (made for 27" wheels).
Here's my Chromed 24" Huffy frame that I am now considering mounting a pair of dumpster-sourced(!) Record-11 levers onto:

RB1-luvr

I converted this Huffy to a single speed years ago and sold it eventually. It would have been a good candidate for upgrades perhaps.


kinda cool that it had the Olympic pursuit bike looking frame, wheel disc and 26-24 inch wheel combo.

dddd

Cool and a half!!!

Digging that alloy chainring spider and that reversed saddle clamp.

Wondering what the collector appeal of a bike like this might "peak" at (???).

Drillium Dude

With a wheelbase like that (helped immensely by that outrageous fork rake), I'd bet most anyone could easily affect a full clothing change - while on the move

DD

52telecaster

I actually worked for Y.L.C.E. we were sent to stores to build and got paid on a per bike basis. Trueing huffy wheels was a trip. The best model did have aluminum rims and was actually much easier. We built the whole line of any store we went in. Great thing about the job was a lot of park tools.

Drillium Dude

One wouldn't even have to go as far as doing an entire component-swap - just swap out the heavy wheelset with a light one; reducing rotational weight will result in the most obvious difference in ride and/or feel.

Of course, given the subject thread, where's the fun in that? Swap away - and report back with your findings

DD

Andy_K 

I put some 700c wheels in the frame last night to see how it would work. I'm not sure where I got the idea that this would have had 26x1-3/8" wheels, but I surely must have been wrong because now I'm wondering if I have a brake with long enough reach for the front. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't. Anyway, yeah, definitely not going to have a tire clearance problem.

Hondo6

Rohloff, maybe?

P!N20

Serotta? I thought it was built by John Slawta of Land Shark?

Hondo6

AKA "Huffy toss".

https://coachlevi.com/mountain-bikin...in-huffy-toss/

Hondo6

You are correct. According to this Cycling News article, Hampsten switched to a custom frame by Slawta after his team issued frame had broken earlier that season. The team issued Huffy-branded frames were apparently made by Serotta.

Also according to the same article, the reason for the failures (Hampsten wasn't the only one to experience frame trouble as I recall) with the team issued frames was ultimately traced to "an errant shipment by the builder's tubing supplier".