Folding Bikes - Schwinn Qualifier- mini bike

This isn't a folder but since it uses 20" wheels, it fits in spaces that a full size bike can't.

The frame is a late 80's Schwinn Qualifier BMX racer. From what I've gathered, these bikes were used in a short lived road(parking lot) racing series in the late 80's. I liked it because it will take either 451 or 406 size wheels and will accomodate road brake calipers.

I found the frame on eBay. I ground off the unused derailleur cable guides and sprayed the frame black.
I'm running 451 Sun CR18 rims laced to Shimano DX BMX hubs. I had use a longer axle on the rear hub since this bike has 126mm rear spacing.

The brakes, levers, headset and cranks are Dura Ace. 45T front and 13T rear gives me 70 gear inches.

Last Saturday I took it on a 70 mile ride. The bike is stiffer than my Bike Fridays but it is not uncomfortable. The handling is very similar to other 20" bikes.

That's a really cool bike. Nice find.

A definite one-of-a-kind. Awesome find.

There's a guy on FGG who has one of those - he actually offered to sell it me (verr similar to the minibikes Tony Rentschler has been building and not unlike my own designs) but shipping would have been a killer. Really nice to see it. They are very rare and kudos for being brave enough to diss the devout old-skool BMX crowd who would see your conversion as sacrelege. Mongoose Moosegoose's are another oddball bmx that would be ripe for the minibike road treatment but you'd get drawn a quartered for doing it! Did you encounter any interesting problems with the conversion - bottom bracket /headset?
huw :)

Absolutley awesome. Color choice and build up are stellar. I love it. I'm going to start my search for a similar frame. I've got an older GT MTB that uses 24" wheels that I've thought about doing the same thing to.
I have a Dawes forlding bike that uses 451 rims and the SUN rims are my choice also.
You really did GOOD on your bike and build!!!!!!!!
...Bill

Thanks for the kind words. The conversion was pretty straight forward. I had to use a European bottom bracket kit to convert the BMX press fit BB. It works like a charm. The stem was the greatest challenge. I ended up using a 5" Pyramid stem riser. To this I added a 40 degree high rise stem. The wheel base is the same as my Bike Fridays(39"). The top tube is a little shorter but I compensated by using a longer stem.

From the reasearch I've done, I found three mass produced frames in this catagory. The Haro Dart, Hutch HPV and the Schwinn Qualifier. Most were only produced 1 year.

Ah, Sadly I wasn't around during the f-1 era, I was born a few years after however, I am in the process of converting a rather generic 5 speed kids bike (with horizontal top tube, longish seat tube) into something similar for urban assault use. I can imagine with my cut down flats and small wheels + 48 tooth chainring i'll be zipping in and out of traffic quite nicely.

Alex

Mini velos are common in Asia. They are better than folders in that there are no compromises in efficiency because the frame is rigid. They come in road, hybrid and commuter versions.

the F 1 bnikes got " invented" by Shimano as a design contest ... marketing stuff idea kinda thing ..
Shimano gave their top 50 customers a "grouppo" with a nifty spring loaded 2 speed derailleur ... the idea was parking lot racing a la bmx which had a little slowdown and few parts from SHimano ( Tange was big in these days and dia compe and suntour and and ...)
I think HAro won the contest but there were quiate a few other cool ones out there. Mongoose was Mongoose at the time ..lol and they had one ... Schauff made a couple ( German bike manufacturer were I was workin ) Schwinn had one .... they never sold it was one of those flops ... maybe it was just lightyears ahead of its time ..lol

cool little bikes .. too heavy usually but cool

thor

They were built for road racing and never caught on in the States. Which is a shame since its rather a "normal" bike as opposed to the more common BMX design.