BMX Society community forums: sodbuster - Viewing Profile

Cap’n Smash.


This bike has been swimming around in my head since I was 12 years old. 42 years is a long swim. The inspiration for the Cap’n Smash project came from a bike owned by my good friend and OG Sodbuster Larry Fehrnstrom. Larry was more or less one of the lead instigators of our little band. In fact he was the one that dubbed us “Sodbusters”. The great part is Larry still owns the original bike. It was last seen by me near Boise Idaho in 2005. Early on in my journey into BMX collecting I knew one day I would build myself a tricked out replica of Larry’s Schwinn Sting Ray. But it was not my intent to complete the Sodbuster Labs Team racer series of bikes with it. A series of bikes I started when I made a fantasized replica of my own child hood bike, The Sodfather. But all of that is for another thread. Suffice to say I didn’t want it to be the last of the line since it represented the first among the originals. It just turned out that way.


A brief history.
The original bike was given to Larry by his parents on Christmas day 1965. Larry had once shown me a picture of it taken in front of the tree on Christmas morning. It was originally gold and came with the tall wide first generation “ape hanger” handlebars, with a “solo polo” seat,sporting a “blue band” two speed automatic Bendix rear hub as standard. It also came with a Sting Ray slick on the rear and a Schwinn “Westwind” tire on the front. Of course over the years Larry went through things on the bike and modified it. My personal recollection of Larry’s bike started around 1971. By then it was already blue, the banana seat and rear tire were swapped out for a seat from a Schwinn Varsity 10 speed and Schwinn Sting Ray “knobby” tire on the rear. As time passed Larry decided he wanted a few more upgrades for his scoot. The front rim needed re-lacing so Larry had his front rim fixed up with a high flange hub and some heavy duty spokes. He also got a 20 x 1 ¾ Schwinn Tractor Grip tire at this point and got rid of the old Westwind front tire.

Larry also wanted his rear rim done as well but the bike shop refused to do the modification. The reason it was said was mainly due to the location of the spoke holes in relation to the edges of the hub flanges.This feature allegedly would weaken the hub flanges if the spoke holes were enlarged to accommodate larger gauge spokes. Larry took them at their word as they were a Schwinn dealer. So the rear rim just got trued and kept the stock gauge spokes. The only other mod was a set of “dirt bike” grips from the local motorcycle shop.

 ogsod.jpg (108.08K)
Number of downloads: 14
Larry on the right and me in 2005.


Who was Cap’n Smash?
He was a lot of things he was funny and obnoxious as well as a good luck charm and a touchstone for our merry little band through our adolescence into young adulthood. Through the years of BMX to off road back country trips, though to off road racing. From the back 40 to the Mint 400 the Good Cap’n came along for the ride! But in reality he was nothing more than a four inch by two inch water applied sticker. Ok now first picture good old breakfast cereal Cap’n Crunch, but standing with his hands behind his back. Now instead of a navy blue uniform ours is more a powder blue and instead of a friendly smile his grin reveals some missing teeth. That’s when you notice the scar on the cheek the black eye and peg leg. Only then you see it peeking out from behind his back, a chain mace! With the words “Cap’n Smash” across the bottom, I can only describe him thus.

Larry found the good Captain one day at what can only be described as either a printing company’s over stock and rejects store or some kind of decal clearing house. Like for mail order and wholesale and such. I can remember going there once but I don’t remember any signs of printing on the premises. But I do remember the place had almost anything you could imagine in the way of water decals. Larry bought a thin stack of Cap’n Smash decals and used them as his personal mascot and symbol of luck for many years. And sometimes it’s how we would refer to Larry, Our buddy Cap’n Smash.


The Bike.
This bike is 100% pieced together I did not start with a complete bicycle. Many of the parts have been in my stash for years. The rest of the parts I started to gather up about two or three years ago through ebay and swap meets. Every part except for the grips and chain is either genuine Schwinn or Schwinn approved part, or a like component made by a Schwinn approved parts manufacturer.

The frame is from a 1968 Sting Ray. The front fork is 26”Schwinn forged blade fork that was cut down at the steer tube and re-threaded for the Sting Ray head tube spacing. The rims are standard Schwinn Sting Ray issue. S-2 on the rear and S-7 on the front, both are 28 hole rims. The front hub is a 28 hole ACS high flange unit. It has been laced to the front rim with.105 gauge spokes. The rear hub is a 28 hole Bendix two speed automatic blue band “kick back” unit. This hub was modified to laced up with .120 gauge spokes. The spokes of the wheel set were additionally stiffened with the use of a safety wire wrap at key points. I used a .032” stainless steel safety wire. A six wind wrap was used for the front wheel and a five wind wrap was used for the rear. The rear tire is a Schwinn Sting Ray “knobby” 20 x 2.125. The front tire is a Schwinn Tractor Grip 20 x 1 ¾.

The handlebars are a pair of early Sting Ray “ape hanger”bars mounted to a Schwinn stem. The bars have been modified by having a crossbar wielded in. The headset is Schwinn. The cranks are 6 ½ inch Schwinn “diamond” cranks. Along with a 36 tooth Schwinn “lucky 7” front sprocket and Schwinn bottom bracket set. Mounted to the cranks is a pair of Schwinn approved rubber tread Union pedals.

The seat clamp is stock Schwinn and was the only part left on the frame when I got it. The seat post is from a Schwinn exercise bike. It’s longer than a standard post. It’s made of thicker wall tubing than a standard Schwinn seat post. And it has 12 one inch increments marked off on it for seat adjustment. The seat is a Mesinger unit with the double griffin logos.

 cap4.jpg (601.92K)
Number of downloads: 17
 cap12.jpg (618.85K)
Number of downloads: 15
 cap13.jpg (397.53K)
Number of downloads: 14
 cap7.jpg (688.29K)
Number of downloads: 14
 cap14.jpg (360.98K)
Number of downloads: 15
 cap15.jpg (283.92K)
Number of downloads: 14
 cap8.jpg (870.64K)
Number of downloads: 16
 cap16.jpg (607.71K)
Number of downloads: 19
 cap17.jpg (420.16K)
Number of downloads: 21
 cap11.jpg (634.37K)
Number of downloads: 17



The last Sting Ray.
This was a bike I knew I had to build. And a bike I've wanted to build for many years. This will be my last Sting Ray. I don’t see myself building another for a very long time. Over the years that I've been into building, restoration/preservation and collecting I've noticed stuff about things of a tribute nature. Most tribute bike projects come under two categories. One is a tribute to a favorite rider, usually a famous one. The other is a tribute to a company, usually in the form of a “what if” project.This bike is like all of that, but without the famous part. Also not so much about the brand either. It’s more a tribute to an old friend and good times spent. And a brand of bicycle that could be easily molded into any form you wished.Our very first “what if” bike.


Epilogue.
I have kept in contact with Larry through the years and even managed a visit back in 2005. Over the last three or four years I would call him to catch up with him and I always mention His Sting Ray. I would always remind him that he has a standing offer from me to restore it for him free of charge. I even offered to send him my bike to tool around on and mess with till I got his done. So far he has never taken me up on it. Like I said I call Larry every few months to catch up. I called him a few weeks ago and the line was “no longer in service” on his number. I would call back every few days to see if it was reconnected or not but to no avail. I was starting to worry about my old friend.I called again last week and someone answered only to discover it is this person’s new phone number. Now I’m really starting to worry about my friend. I have sent him emails and so far have gotten no response. Next I will send him a letter through snail mail and I’ll be sure to include a pic of the bike. We shall see.

For those of you that never have seen it or just didn't know about it. here is a few cool items that were a part of this site about eight years ago. I still look back on this fondly and was proud to be involved. I was also very sad to see it come to an end. Enjoy!!

BMXC Feb '05


BMXC Mar '05


BMXC April '05


BMXC May '05

Happy Birthday Perry! Hope your day was a great one!

(I know it's Oct 6 but what the hell!)

The story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed because it’s none of your damn business. Got it?!

Around five years ago (maybe longer.) I received an email from a fellow BMX collector I’ll call Mr. A. He sent me some pictures of an A&A monoshock he had just acquired. We talked back and forth over a few emails on how he should go about restoring the bike. The pictures he sent to me were of a complete original bike but in rough shape, nothing was ever done with the bike as far as I knew. Besides the pics of it I had saved I had pretty much forgotten about the bike. Fast forward a bit of time to about two years ago.

It was a quiet November Sunday in my town. I was relaxing at home when the phone rang. It was Mr. A. I had not heard from him in a while. He like many others I've met over the years in this hobby decided for one reason or another to sell off his pride and joys. He had long moved on to his next thing.

It seems Mr. A had forgotten about the A&A as well. This bike was one of the last major finds he made prior to deciding to sell off his bikes and parts. Before that took place he had taken the A&A apart to restore it. Losing interest in it then storing the parts away, losing some parts in the process. He also farmed out restoration of some key parts of the triple clamp fork to another collector I will call Mr. B. Who is also someone that has come and gone in this hobby.

Mr. A had only discovered the forgotten A&A project while cleaning out his garage. His BMX bikes excepting a couple of riders and his parts were all long gone. He didn't want to start building bikes again. He called me the next day and asked if I was interested. Of course I said yes but I asked if we could postpone doing the deal until after the New Year. He agreed. We got back in touch in January2010 and did the deal. It was a deal with some mighty big if’s and possibly a maybe or two. But it was a still a good deal to be sure!

Mr. A’s dilemma. (Or “Sometimes, you don’t know what it is!”)

As the ol' chestnut goes, “hindsight is 20/20”. The A&A was in rough shape, the paint was peeling there was ramped rust all over mostly on the frame and fork. But it had all of its stickers and 95% of its original parts. From what I've been able to find out and understand here is what transpired. Mr. A loved the bike but could not abide by its condition. He was at an impasse, because the original frame stickers were in good shape but the paint was peeling by the handful. He took the bike apart and started cleaning and bagging all the parts. In the emails between Mr. A and myself, one of the main topics was about ways to remove the rust from and restoration of the two triple clamp fork leg uprights. They were chrome but it did not look like standard chrome to Mr. A. My opinion was without actually seeing them in person that they had some form of hard chroming done to them. Like the shafts of a motorcycle hydraulic fork or the shafts of hydraulic cylinders. Yet the A&A fork is only spring loaded.

I didn’t really hear anything more after that time. But obviously I wasn't the only person Mr. A had contacted to see what could be done with the rusty fork parts. Enter Mr. B. From what I've been able to workout Mr. B assured Mr. A he could do something with the rusty parts. So they were handed over to Mr. B for refurbishment. Mr. A then turned his attention to the frame. There were two stickers on the frame originally. The head badge with its vertical “Moto X Cycle” going down its length. It also had “A&A mfg.Redwood City, Calif.” in small letters across the bottom. The other sticker was an A&A company “checkered flag” logo sticker on the seat tube. The paint was peeling and what wasn't bad paint was rusty. I can only speculate that Mr.A attempted to remove the original stickers intact starting with the seat post sticker and failed. What happened next I can’t quite understand but I've never had the chance to talk to Mr. A about it at length. So here it is. The original head badge sticker was masked off and the frame and swing arm were media blasted. According to Mr. A he had this done at a friend’s auto body shop and once it was blasted they did a quickie paint job on it. The reason for this I was told was, “To keep it from rusting all over again.” This was intended to be temporary.

Mr. A lost interest soon after and packed the bike away in his garage. Not long after that he started selling off his BMX stuff. Inadvertently throughout all of it some of the A&A’s parts went missing. I’m sure when Mr. A discovered he still had the bike a few years later, there was an “Aw Shit” moment or two when he realized everything wasn't there.



Sodbusters dilemma. (Or “I love a basket case”.)

Once I had the bike in my possession I took a serious inventory of all the parts. There was only one surprise to add to the list of missing parts. The shock absorber was missing two chromed sheet metal cups that fit either end of the shock absorber spring. Without them the bikes original shock cannot be assembled. Anything else the bike was missing I knew about before I bought the bike. So I was left to try and find a short list of parts,some hard to find others impossible. This is the list.

1. A&A handlebars. Original size and shape if possible.

2. Front chain sprocket. 40t three arrows.

3. Rear tire20x2.125 Goodyear Eagle.

4. Shock spring cups.

 A&A-cups.JPG (76.58K)
Number of downloads: 34

Add to this the missing fork parts still supposedly in the possession of Mr. B. Plus the unseen issues that crop up with any project of this nature. Such as the original grips being unusable and the “original” seats mounting points having the “original”mount bolts snapped off in them. You can see I was up against it with this project. I thought about it allot and decided to fix only what needed to be and could be fixed. To try and find replacements for what is missing and unusable in order to get it back together as properly as possible. Mr. A had already provided buckets of elbow grease by spotlessly cleaning and bagging almost every piece of the bike I got from him except for the wheel set and the pedals.

 intro-aa.jpg (151.34K)
Number of downloads: 40

There was a new product blurb in the 9/74 issue of Bicycle Motocross News about the A&A complete bikes being introduced. That little story spec’d them out with 20x2.125 Goodyear Eagle MX tires. When Mr. A sent me the first pics of this bike around the time he got it the A&A still had a Goodyear MX on the front and a Ching Shin on the back. When the A&A came into my possession it still had the Goodyear MX on the front and no rear tire.I knew I had to track down another Goodyear Eagle MX but somehow I wasn't worried about finding one and I wasn't sure why. I put some feelers out into the community on some of the parts I was missing. I resigned myself to the fact this thing could take a long time.

I knew use of the original shock was not an option due to the missing spring cups. I knew it would be easier to find another shock absorber then to find proper replacements for the missing spring cups. So I did a little snooping around online and found a brand new spring action shock. An almost direct replacement to the original one, but unlike the original one it has adjustable spring tension. I can’t remember exactly where I found it but it was a supply house for mini bike go cart and mini buggy parts.

Our little online community is one of the finest I've ever had the pleasure to be associated with. And I could not have completed this project without it. Because after a year of sitting in the back burner things with the A&A started to move in regard to the needed missing parts for the project. A three arrows sprocket came by way of Mr. Michael “Monster Robot”Sneed. Then one day I was scrolling through the RRC section and Big papa Larock throws up a “look what I bagged” thread and there are the exact style A&A bars I was looking for with some sweet period correct no name grips to boot. So a deal for the bars was struck. One more thing crossed off the list. The original grips that were on the bike were orange O.G.K. waffle grips. Until I find another set if those I will use the grips that came with the bars.

One day I was in the Lab moving stuff around and generally going through my parts stash when I got down to my used tires I realized I already had a Goodyear Eagle 20 x 2.125 in my stash. I had completely lost track and forgot about it. No wonder I wasn't worried about it, because subconsciously somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I already had it. Other than the chance of finding the missing parts for the shock the list was complete. The only thing left was to retrieve the “sent out” fork parts from Mr. B. This was proving to be easier said than done.

Admittedly I didn't actively start to try and track down Mr.B for almost a full year after I had gotten this bike. Once I did start looking for him it did not take long to get some contact info. But it took me a bit of time to get in touch. When I finally got Mr. B on the phone he confirmed that he still had the fork parts in his possession. All that was left to do was arrange a place and time to get together and get the fork parts back. As it turned out we just could not get it together to make the swap. The chance came at the BMX Society show this last June in Whittier. I was able to get back the fork parts and get started on putting the bike back together.

Once the missing fork parts were in my hand I did a mock up assembly of the fork just to make sure all the parts were actually there.Everything was accounted for. Next I turned to address the rust that caused all the fuss with Mr. A causing them to wind up in the hands of Mr. B in the first place. After I removed the surface rust with a wire wheel, which was 99%of it. I chucked up the shafts in a lathe and polished them out with some strips of varying grits of fine emery cloth and then some scotch-brite pads. The whole process took me less than 30 minutes. And yes these parts were hard chromed just like I thought they were. Alas I have to keep an eye on them and oil the uprights every once in a while. Otherwise they will start to rust up again, and quick! At last I now had what I needed to assemble this A&A monoshock.

 B&A1.jpg (374.64K)
Number of downloads: 55

One of the first things I was able to fix early on was the bikes original seat. Even though the frame has a piece of tubing in the traditional seat tube location it is only there to brace the frame and is not utilized to mount a seat. Two pieces of flat stock steel are welded between the double top tube that goes to the back of the frame and forms the rear fender loop. The bottom of the seat is a piece of ¼ inch plywood cut to shape. Two holes are drilled to line up with the mounting points on the frame.Then two ¼-20 thread self-anchoring “tee nuts” are inserted from the blind side of the wood before the upholstery is installed covering the wood base. It was these tee bolt inserts that rusted to the seat mounting screws. These rusty bolts snapped off when the seat was removed by Mr. A.

I was able to remove just enough staples from the bottom of the seat to get between the wood base and the foam pad to replace the old self-anchoring tee nut inserts with new ones. I was also able to make a torn area of the seat cover look a little less tattered when I stapled t he seat cover back down. Repairing the original seat was huge for me when it came to moving forward with this bike. There were a lot of key things that needed to happen just to get the bike back together. And fixing the seat early on was one of those key things that proved to me that perhaps I didn't bite off more than I could chew with this bike. It seems simple fix in hindsight but it went along way to keep me moving forward with this bike project.

As I had mentioned earlier Mr. A had cleaned up most of the parts except for the wheels and the pedals. I took the hubs apart went through all the internals, cleaned and repacked everything with grease. The rims and spokes got cleaned up with a 50/50 mix of simple green and water, some #0000 steel wool and a small detail brush. The same method was used on the pedals as well.When I removed the Goodyear Eagle from the front rim I noticed it had a puncture resistant inner tube with it. I checked it to see if it held air and it was fine. I decided since the Goodyear Eagle I had in my parts stash had a little more sidewall cracking to use the thicker inner tube from the front withmy tire on the rear. I mounted the tires with new rim bands and a new innertube in the front tire.

The A&A also had fenders on it as well. The rear fender was the only one that was useable. All that remained of the front fender was a small square of plastic so I didn't remount it. But I did put the mounting bolt back in place on the fork.

There you have it one A&A Monoshock. Of the 2000complete bikes put together by A&A racing its yet unknown how many of them were monoshock models as opposed to the more conventional models with two shocks. So she’s a bit of a rare bird this A&A no matter what she’s been through in the hands of others I took it upon myself to restore her to as much of her former glory as I could without altering what was left of her originality. So tell me. How’d I do?

 A1.JPG (347.43K)
Number of downloads: 62

Frame. A&A monoshock.

Fork. A&A spring action w/ “horseshoe” brace.

Head set. Wald

Bars. A&A.

Grips. Triumph/ BSA style, unknown brand.

Shock. Spring action, adjustable.

Cranks. One piece Wald.

Bottom bracket set. Wald.

Pedals. Vista, rat traps.

Seat. A&A. (loaf type.)

Fender. A&A.

Rims. Steel 36 spoke dimpled. Unknown brand.

Spokes. Standard steel .120 gauge.

Front hub. Non-stamped ASC 36 spoke.

Rear hub. Bendix 70 coaster brake, 36 spoke.

Tires. Goodyear Eagle knobby, 20x2.125.

 A2.JPG (287.92K)
Number of downloads: 55

 A3.JPG (365.32K)
Number of downloads: 47

 A5.JPG (372.5K)
Number of downloads: 42

 A4.JPG (263.29K)
Number of downloads: 51

 A8.JPG (316.86K)
Number of downloads: 48

 A7.JPG (347.44K)
Number of downloads: 43

 A9.JPG (329.76K)
Number of downloads: 44

 A10.JPG (344.93K)
Number of downloads: 45

[attachment=127361:A11.JPG]

 A12.JPG (342.88K)
Number of downloads: 54

 A13.JPG (311.83K)
Number of downloads: 47

 A19.JPG (371.2K)
Number of downloads: 43


 A16.JPG (228.92K)
Number of downloads: 50


 A15.JPG (261.58K)
Number of downloads: 43


 A17.JPG (300.67K)
Number of downloads: 43


 A18.JPG (305.29K)
Number of downloads: 43


 A20.JPG (395.91K)
Number of downloads: 48

"I don't know where you've been lad. But I see you won first prize!"
Happy Birthday Dennis. Wishing you a totally awesome day.