The idea for this build is to make a Stingray The Way Chicago Schwinn Would Of Made Them If They Had The Technology!
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's version of a Stingray with Rat Fink lighting up the tires.
I won't be using original Schwinn Stingrays for these bikes. The cost would be astronomical to use the real Stingrays with almost non existent availability. I'll be using the Firmstrong Urban instead.
Photo of Stock Firmstrong Urban 3 speed.
For this first prototype I'm using a steel frame Urban 3 speed. I'm thinking about swapping out the 26" forks and wheel for a 24" setup from a 7 speed. This would give me factory brakes up front and give the bike more of a drag race look like in the Ed "Big Daddy" Roth art.
In the future, I'll probably only use aluminum 7 speed Urbans and do the 26 to 24" front end swap. The 7 speed bikes can be converted to 3 speed Nexus Internal Geared Hub (IGH) or for people living in hilly areas they can be left as seven speeds. No sand grinding my gears with the IGH setup! The aluminum bikes are 10 lb lighter than the steel version, so that would make up for the added weight of the BBSO2 or BBSHD motors.
Original Schwinn Stingray.
A Schwinn styled springer front end can also be an option with either drum or disk break! Fenders and banana seat will also be options, but the base model will just use the 26" wheel and front end and the factory seat for a super clean minimalist beach cruiser look.
This is how I've been riding the bike with the ape hanger bars. I never got around to ordering the banana seat because I like it just the way it is. I'll order a banana seat this week just to check out how it looks on the bike. It won't be one of the cheap ones from Ebay. I'll get the nice one with real padding under the cover! It needs to look cool and be comfortable!
The Urban ready for ebike conversion.
Below you can see why I need to make my own wire harness for these bikes! The factory harness puts all the plugs in the worst possible place out in front of the bike. Nobody wants to see that shit! It ruins the clean look you expect from a beach cruiser bike. The mandatory break levers add enough clutter to the bars all by themselves without the Factory Frankenstein wire harness.
After brakes throttle and display have been installed with the factory wire harness.
The brakes I've been using are Tectro side pull. They look a little big on the bikes, but they work great. The break setup on the 7 speed bikes look cleaner overall, and that's why I'm thinking about only buying the 7 speed models and converting them to 3 speed Nexus IGH. Besides the breaks, another advantage to converting 7 sp to 3 sp is that they already come with cable stays. If I have to add stays, then I'll need to do some touch up painting to them. I'd rather not have to do that, and I think the extra labor needed would break even with the additional cost of adding the Nexus IGH.
Anyway, that's it for today. I should be able to pickup the BB adapter on Monday, so I should be riding this bike this coming Tuesday weather permitting. We're supposed to get a bunch of rain here in So-Cal Monday and Tuesday. If we do, I'll have those days off from work to pick up parts and finish the bike inside the garage. If the weather man is full of it as usual, I'll ger her done next weekend.
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