Alt Bike Culture - Flightliner monster truck

Here is a pic of my 62 JC Higgins Flightliner. It started out pretty stock. I have changed out the bars (actually change them about every week depending on the ride). This week was the sewer ride so I needed to be able to get down real low. I have also added a 4 speed hub and some wide tires. Yes is took some doing to true them up so they would not rub, and yes it weights about 6000 pounds...

Next I plan to get all of the lights working with some LEDs and decrease the crack tooth count for a more relaxed ride.

We ride every Sunday. Leave around 4 PM from Recycled bike shop on 26th and South Street, Lincoln, NE. Last week we rode the sewers, drank some beer, ate some dogs, and had a nice backyard trash can fire.

rod

http://picasaweb.google.com/rodtermaat/Flightliner

Nice looking ride, there. Do you have photos of the sewer ride? I don't know if I could bear to take that nice bike in the sewers.

East Hill

Yes, I will try and get a hold of them later this week. We are going to throw up a blog one of these days, but that takes work. It started out very short, but opened up about a 1/4 mile in. That is about the time the bats started flying. Another mile of so it started to get very wet (nasty mud) and smelled even worse. We finally had to retreat back when the water got too deep to ride thru.

Bats are cool! Anyway, photos would be interesting, when you have a chance.

East Hill

interesting, your Flightliner is eerily similar to my Spaceliner, with the dual narrow top tube that goes around the seat tube (mine is missing the tank), and the rear rack looks exactly the same, except the rear rack on mine is bent and rusty. I wonder if they were by the same designer or something. Either way, I feel emboldened to take mine into some more questionable areas. Not sure if there is a ridable sewer around here.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2250/1975300991_be307a2732.jpg

you should lose the cable lock or you're liable to lose the bike. get a decent U-Lock instead.

I live in Lincoln, Ne... Plus the bikes I have mine parked with are way cooler then my simple steed. I only use the simple lock for short errands where I can see the bike, but agree it is almost next to nothing. I will take some pics on the next ride in 2 weeks. This week - no ride since MDC is gracing the heartland with some classic puck music.

I love that spaceliner, especially the cool chain guard.

I just sort of did some research today, and figured out that the Flightliner was made by Murray in Ohio just like the Spaceliner, and I believe the Flightliner was the pre-curser to the Spaceliner, designed by Viktor Schreckengost (http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/Gallery/vgt_gallery_view/66/110). Neat stuff.

Is the cup there so you can bail water if the waves start coming in over the gunwales?

The cup is for cruising down to the coffee shop.

I just picked up a new bike today. It is a 41 or so skip-tooth Hiawatha heavy weight. It is going to be the bottom of my tallbike. I have a ladies tank bike for the top. I'll snap a few pics later this week. It should prove interesting to have a couple of old tank bikes fused into a tall bike.