Here are some photos of my Junker/Klunker/Crossbike.

Some years ago I went through my old bike parts and sorted through the worst stuff I had and was about to throw them all out when I came across this 24" (seat-tube measurement, center-to-center,) Schwinn frame in a farmer's metal junk pile. It was just the frame, crankset, and bent fork which I discarded. I don't know what model or year it is as the name that is usually on the side of the downtube is devoid of any writing, but, it has the looks of a Continental or Varsity. So, I decided to hold on to my junk and try to use as much as I could and build up a working machine.

The crank is a one piece 190 mm Ashtabula BMX item that gives plenty of torque in the Utah mountains and on hilly Brigham City streets. It's probably the most expensive item on the bike. It hangs comfy rubber petals that I keep in spite of their weight and rust so I can hop-and-go barefoot when I have the whim. I kept the smaller chain-wheel from the Schwinn duel set-up and run a five speed free-wheel on the back just to keep things simple. The shifter is a mongrel between Suntour and Simplex parts that I some how got to work beautifully in spite of it's ugliness. An ancient DNP deraileur moves the chain around and works well even though it's a mass of rust. The wheels are from separate bicycles and are steel rimmed with aluminum hubs running Specialized cyclocross rubber. The spokes are heavy-duty and each wheel is quite weighty, but, they have served me well for ten years with only one broken spoke in all that time. Brakes are center-pulls and stop the bike well enough for what the bike is and does, even on single-track and in wet conditions. Handle bars, stem and brake levers are aluminum and from various other found bikes. I had to buy an aluminum seatpost and mounted a comfortable, though old, seat on it; now, the second since the bike was first built. Everything on the machine, with the exception of the seat post, is second-hand or more, even the handle bar tape is re-used.

It's always one of the ugliest bikes around but it has real character and a personality all its own. I get a lot of comments on it, good and bad, but it keeps on running with minimal maintenance. I figure there's at least seventeen bikes that donated their parts to this machine.

The bike was originally sold by Schortman's Cyclery in Porterville Ca. as per the decal on the seat tube and somehow found its way to Utah farm country. Even though I have newer machines, I still ride this bike a lot because it is unique and--I'm not afraid of it being stolen. It has a history or many of them, as well as my own, behind it.

Thanks for the space and this site.

jtkuester@msn.com