Orphan:

Interesting and amazing things can happen in the bike shop.

Below are a few pictures of the “Orphan.”

This is a Schwinn cruiser.  I’m not sure how old it is.  It goes at least back into the mid 50s.  The current owner brought it to me.  He doesn’t intend to fix it, but he knows that this is a piece of history.  He’d like me to find it a home, and maybe get him some cash for it.  He isn’t expecting much.

This bike could be made into a working bike for a very small investment.  On the other hand, a true restoration, while possible, would be quite expensive.

So the thing is, this bike can go to a good home, one that intends to do something good with it, for $50.00.  Don’t contact me if you just want to trash the thing.  But if you intend to either get it ride-worthy, or do a restoration, and will treat it with respect, please do drop me a note, at The.Road.Dragon@gmail.com

Restoration Discussed:

First off, let me stress a couple things.  Restoring a bicycle absolutely must be a labor of love.  It takes a lot of money, and time to do this right.  There is research and a lot of correspondence.  Finding correct replacements for some of the parts is incredibly time consuming.

Restoring a bike is not a profitable activity.  When it’s done, it’s a thing of beauty, but it isn’t worth anywhere near what must be spent.

There’s more.  Your local bike shop is not going to do a restoration for you.  Or, if they do, it will cost you a ton.  You’ll have to pay for the research time, the disassembly, the shipping of parts (both ways), the cost of the new parts, and the reassembly.  It will take a lot of time.  It can easily cost several thousand dollars to bring one back to full life, and there is no earthly way the bike can be sold for that amount of money.

Okay.  I’ve done my due diligence.  If you want to make this bike live again, as a repaired rider, or as a re-painted and re-shod one, or even as a full project, drop me a line. The cost of admission is $50.00.  I really hope someone takes this one on.