Mista Sparkle

So I recently picked up a Schwinn Twinn Deluxe as I though it would be a fun way to haul my kids around the neighborhood. I figured it would take a little work, but perhaps I got a bit carried away. It turns out that the rear axle was busted, and the rear wheels were a bit on the rusty side, so I'm gonna get to learn how to build wheels... A post on that will likely come a bit later.

Anyway, so the frame was in pretty good shape and the paint was OK, but since I was cleaning up the rest of it, I decided I would just strip it and repaint. Since it is being stripped, I then figured, "Hey, I might as well add some braze-ons."

The bike didn't come with any holes for water bottles, and I personally don't mind if it departs from vintage a bit if it makes it more interesting, and I figure I will have a hard time getting my wife on it, without a water bottle. I could get some clip on ones, but 5 pairs of bottle bosses are cheap, and it gives me a reason to play with the torch. Any excuse to play with a torch that isn't plumbing is a good one in my book. While I'm at it I'll be adding some bosses for a rack and using remaining braze-ons where previous hardware was nut and bolt attached, as well as a bracket to attach the reaction arm from the drum brake. The stupid little tab that was on it originally looks cheap, and of poor quality.

Ideally I'd like to get more than 2 bottle on the bike, but I just don't see any practical way to do more than what I have in the image below. Any suggestions here? Any other suggestions on what to do with the other remaining bosses, I was thinking maybe on the front fork to make it more convenient to remove the front wheel for transport?

Once that is taken care of I'm off to painting. Here I plan on Urethane paint, so I guess just a 2K primer, followed by some blue, Either something along the lines of Mach Blue, or maybe Miami blue. I'm not quite set on a color, but hopefully something of reasonable price, I need to wait until Monday to get some quotes on paint costs from the local Sherwin Williams automotive shop. Is that it paint wise?? I have never used a urethane system before, lots of learning on this one.

The Golden Boy 

Looking forward to seeing this!

Weren't these built in "The Cage" in Chicago?

dedhed

A good cage should hold a bottle on the underside of the top tube.

Kat12

That year? I believe so. A friend of mine just bought a Deluxe Twinn from around that era (still looking for the serial number to be able to date it precisely, but based on color and features, some time between '68 and '73, I think I found through Google) and hers was made in Chicago.

dedhed

Look into powdercoating as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sch...-/372635641534

cudak888 

Bring the stoker's bottle down a bit so they can pull it out. Front one looks good. Add a third under the downtube, just so it's there.

If you want to get particularly adventurous, use this as an opportunity to braze in an eccentric BB shell in place of the Ashtabula in front. It'll lock you into using square taper cranks in front, but you'll never have to fight a chain tensioner again. You can always put a square taper BB adapter in the rear shell to match them up.

-Kurt

thumpism 

Can't you just slot the existing front BB shell and then add pinch bolt tabs bridging the slot? Fit the eccentric into that and go.

cudak888 

I haven't done this myself, but what are the chances that a tandem eccentric assembly's OD matches and the Ashtabula BB shell's ID?

-Kurt

thumpism 

As a buddy of mine was wont to say about the probability of an unlikely event (such as an attractive female showing up at his door out of the blue), "50/50, it will or it won't."

cudak888 

I'll put my money on the attractive female showing up at his door before figuring on an eccentric to have the right diameter.

EDIT: Tell your buddy he's about to get lucky. Ashtabula BB I.D.: 51.3 mm. Bushnell eccentric BB: 54mm. On the plus side, this means that the replacement shell will be larger. Should be easier to miter the existing tubes to it.

-Kurt

thumpism 

Hey, that's what 50/50 is all about.

cudak888 

Isn't it great how we've hijacked the OP's original intentions with the Twinn?

"I just wanted some bottle cage mounts, darn it!"

-Kurt

himespau 

Any way a cage would fit on the captains seat tube above the top tube? Or would that interfere with the seatpost too much?

thumpism 

Not at all. Once he mentioned braze-ons he opened the door to just such suggestions and, while the eccentric idea might have been a little, er...eccentric, it was not without a reasonable foundation. However, speaking as someone who has owned, ridden and maintained a Schwinn Deluxe Twinn I do think that the OP has moved beyond the level of putting lipstick on a pig and now firmly into the territory of extensive elective surgery on that same pig.

Mista Sparkle

Great guys!

So I'll probably toss on on the underside of the top tube, The braze-ons came in a pack of 10 so 3 mounts and tidying up some other holes uses 9. I don't think I can reasonably put one on the seat tube in the space that exists.

Though it looks cool, I'm gonna skip the eccentric BB as that cost more than the bike to begin with...

As far as lipstick on a pig, yeah, it is a bit of that, if urethane paint costs too much I'll likely just end up putting some cheaper enamel on it (safety blue?). I'll probably paint our newly acquired trail-a-bike to match for fun. I looked a bit into powder coating and it didn't seem unreasonable, but still probably outside of my budget.

I did see the stickers, I may or may not go that route, we have a vinyl cutter at work I might be able to run some stuff off on. That can be added later.

I have some time to work on this as it is unlikely my wife will be able to join me until we can add our youngest to the trailer. So I'm fine with things that are in-expensive (bosses, paint, lube, general cleanup) even if they are otherwise rather involved. I did shoot myself in the foot on the wheels though.