Johnny Mullet

So as usual, I was browsing Craigslist and this particular road bike really caught my eye! I see this same guy in Cleveland fixes and sells bikes and he also accepts trades. I called the guy and asked him about the road bike and told him I had a Raleigh M20 mountain bike complete and a Fuji Ace road bike racing frame/fork combo and he said he was interested. I had no need for the Fuji frame and the Raliegh was just an extra mountain bike that I rode only a few times.

I got up early this morning and drove an hour to Cleveland to meet the guy and he had a garage full of older bikes and bike parts. Most of the bikes he was selling were good quality older road bikes like Motobecane, Schwinn, Viscount, and other various bikes. Then he pulled out the bike I was interested in. Here are the specs..........

1988 Huffy Techtra Lite 12 speed Road Bike
One piece (Ashtabula) crankset
Shimano front and rear deraileur
Shimano 7 speed cassette
Shimano stem shifters
Chromoly drop bars
Araya 27" alloy rims
Kenda 27x1 1/4 tires
Aluminum alloy stem

Enough of the chat, here are pics of this sweet Huffy..................















I have always been a fan of the older American made Huffy bicycles and love the Ashtabula one piece crank due to it's simplicity and strength. I grew up with Huffy bicycles (poor kid) and when I recently got back into cycling a year ago, I rode a Huffy. When I seen this bike on the Craigslist ad, I knew I had to have it and made it happen today. I am a commuter (my commuter is also a Huffy) and I am a large man and a power rider, so super light racing road bikes do nothing for me nor make me any faster. I am used to riding heavier bikes and mountain bikes and I also do well in small, local charity or club rides and always able to keep up with or catch up to the racing bike guys. I look forward to using this bike at the next club or charity ride.

I will update this thread later. Enjoy!

Johnny Mullet

Any suggestions for a better, faster 27x1 1/4" tire I could run? I ditched knobbys on my mountain bikes and don't want them on this road bike either.

bikemig 

I love the logo on the bike, "Official Sponsor of the US Cycling Team," and the tubing sticker--"guaranteed built with duralite high strength steel." Plus the bike looks immaculate. Nice find.

wrk101

Endless threads already on 27 inch tires. Think something narrower, lighter and a lot smoother. Panaracer Paselas are a common recommendation.

Giacomo 1 

Wow, looks brand new!

Neat little piece of history. Enjoy her!

Johnny Mullet

The upgrades planned for this bike are new white gel bar tape (this bar tape is cloth), new aero brake levers, and smoother tires preferrably black with a red sidewall. All this will be under $100 from what I found on Amazon. Might even do a 700c wheel conversion.

And I am keeping the kickstand

Johnny Mullet

So I decided to lose the 27" wheels and do a 700c wheel swap on the Huffy. I had no issues with the swap and the rear deraileur adjusted to reach all the gears and the brake calipers had enough room to adjust to the new wheel size. Losing those knobby tires was the best upgrade so far...............





Next upgrades will be better bar tape (instead of cloth) and aero brake levers.

Thumpic

Huffy and lite in the same sentence!!!!!!!!! Gotta be a typo!

It's a sharp looking bike though....I'd a flipped out if that turned up at my 12th birthday!! There is something to be said for a beefier bike too. It's probably as smooth as glass to ride....

kunsunoke 

Does that bike have index shifting?

I second on the Panaracers, BTW. You can buy them in 1" carcass. They're fantastic tires, and would match the appearance of the bike quite well.

Johnny Mullet

I started commuting a little with this bike and took it on a couple day off rides and put a few miles on this bike. I cannot believe how nasty the bar tape is already............

Henry III

Looks like it got a decent forged stem. I kind of dug the gumwall knobbies on it as it's got more relaxed geometry and fit the age of the bike more. What size 700c tires did you put on it? They look pretty chunky but whatever floats your boat.

Johnny Mullet

700c X35 tires. I am still a clyde, so these tires suit my needs better. I put the gumwall knobby's on my commuter.

Thumpic

Gloves? That should wash off. It looks like a pretty good tape job with a good quality tape.

dddd

Those are the sort of "ratcheted" friction shifters that Shimano offered paired with non-series and Light Action derailers on some late-1980's bikes.

The Light Action derailers were index-compatible, but alas indexed shifters were the more upscale option, and I somewhat found myself doubting that this bike's rear SIS derailer is original, though it might be.

Does this frame show welding beads indicating TIG welding? I know that at some point Huffy began using TIG welding instead of tube-to-tube plug-in brazed joinery.

Oh, and how cool that the OP lives and rides near Ashtabula, Ohio, LOL.

I measured my late-70's Huffy frame angles to be just like a Varsity, which is a good thing if the frame is big enough for the rider. Gobs of stability make for a relaxing ride, and even support sporting efforts if the rider has room to stretch forward a bit.

I also have a Vista bike from Japan that seems to combine both Schwinn and Huffy design elements, it's brazed, with Ashtabula-style fork and cranks.

My only Huffy has a way to go, but the eclectic mix of parts are finally at hand, and waiting on deck. I'm sure this would have been called a 24" size, identical to Varsity's sizing/geometry in the later 1970's.

Darth Lefty 

Funny, it's just like a Super Sport, sixteen years later

Johnny Mullet

I suppose it's TIG welded since you really cannot see the weld beads especially around the head tube unlike my other Huffy. I ride all over Ashtabula County and enjoy visiting the many covered bridges in the area and Lake Erie is always nice. I got a little over 130 miles on this bike already and loving it......

dddd

These American frames where you can't see much in the way of a weld are actually hand-brazed, though without lugs and without the familiar fillet that better frames usually show.
My frame's chrome finish makes the thinly puddled brass around the joints very clear to see.
Alas, I also see what appears to be a small gap at the seattube/bb junction.

Roughly Around 1990, actual (robot?) stick welding took the place of the hand brazing, and I noticed that the tubing diameter also grew around this same time.

I think that "fish scale" TIG welding is reserved for welding the better CrMO frame tubing. These carbon or hi-ten steel frames are welded with a different electric stick-welding process that leaves a fatter, more-globby weld bead.

At the end of the day, regardless of the process, these frames are as good as the testing standards and quality control that their maker adhered to, and Huffy made millions of bikes so clearly knew what they were doing!
And for the rider who can achieve a good fit on one of these frames, they should handle and perform much like a good Schwinn EF bike.

plumberroy

You like huffy's you should like this one, 1980 3 speed Although Huffy's say Dayton Oh. They were actually made in Celina Oh. I graduated from there in 79 and if you could prove it would bet money that I knew several people involved in building this bike
Roy

dddd

That one is mint, and a perfect example of the breed. So few of these bikes are found as mint original, usually at least the rear fender has hit something. Did you have to do body work on it?

I have one question; How is the chainguard attached at the front? I was thinking this might help me ID my frame.

plumberroy

It has a bracket screwed to the bottom bracket housing one arm straight up one to the front . I bought it as it sets, only thing not original is the rear cog I changed it from 18 tooth to a 21 tooth. I have the original . The funny thing is that this bike is the same color as my Impala
This one is nice too!! But I am at my self imposed limit for bikes
Vintage Huffy Bay Pointe 3 Speed - NICE!

dddd

Thanks for the info, mine has an odd hole punched or drilled into the downtube about 3/16" diameter.

Too bad no catalogs online from back in the day, I could find out which model my chromed frame belonged to. I'm starting to doubt that mine ever had a front or rear derailer, but I'm going to build it up as a double using spare racing parts, and have some decals made.

I guess you will have to let someone else get lucky with that Craigslist huffy, it's in fantastic shape not as pretty as yours though.

plumberroy

Thanks I like the bike . I paid $60 for mine

Johnny Mullet

So the boss said that he was buying lunch in advance, so I had no need to pack a lunch and instead of taking my Huffy Commuter, I took the Huffy road bike and made the 4.9 mile trip in a record time of 21 minutes! Man,the boss should buy lunch every day!

dddd

That was a good time-trial effort. That's your new time to beat.

Must have been some good food you were looking forward to!

I don't let my American iron slow me down on my uphill dash to the Goodwill store across town, I've done it in the nine-minute range so I know it's possible if the store is right near closing time.
I found and bought a U.S.-made Craftsman 6.5hp mower just after the 8am opening time on Monday, half-price day. Had to come back with the truck, lol, no ghost-riding that thing home!

Johnny Mullet

I got an update on this bike and will take pics as I complete the project. My goal is to get this bike as light as possible by upgrading a few components. I am going to replace the chromed steel drop bars with some old school Sakae aluminum drops and lose those suicide levers to some Diacompe aero levers. I found some lighter aluminum Suntour stem shifters to replace the old heavier ones. I also bought some Specialized cork white bar tape for the bar swap. I also plan on losing the kick stand. Right now this bike weighs 30.6 lbs and these few upgrades will bring the weight down big time. Until I physically lose more body weight, I plan on keeping the Ashtabula crank and later will get the bb adaptor and update the cranks and lose some weight on the bike there. I am too rough on 3 piece cranks since I wasted several on other bikes.