First Finished Foster

Well, after a hellish weekend, I bring to you the first Foster bike. Complete. Enjoy, and hopefully t embodies the ideals in which I have been pushing over the past week.

Next Step: Design Documentation

Closer still...

The bike is really starting to come together now. Hopefully my previous posts make a little more sense now and you can visualize the concepts that I have been talking about...

Getting Closer...

Today I finished up the wheel set. The rims were an interesting project. I purchased some used rims from my favorite 20" bike shop, Irv's, along with tubes, rim strips and new whitewall tires. I bought used rims for 2 reasons; first because I wanted black rims and they didn't have any so I'd have to paint them, but more importantly to be consistent in the idea of reuse and the bike being 90% post-consumer. The rims took some work. First I taped off the bearings and then sandblasted both rims. Next I removed the tape and added 4 coats of flat black metal paint. Once they were dry, the strips were put in and the tires went on. They look beautiful! Finally, I touched up the paint on the rest of the bike and went out to purchase handlebars, a seat post, a seat, a headset, and a chain. Tonight I am going to mount the wheels and put together the front assembly. Tomorrow I will change out the crank, install the chain, chaingaurd and front fender and we will have a bike! With exception to some minor accessorizing I might do. I'm thinking about adding a light, spedometer, kickstand and a saddle bag but I'll have to see them on the bike before I can decide. I don't want it to look cheap or cluttered.

The Name Game

After we got the business concept for the custom bike shop down on paper, along with it's core values, it was time to think up a name. The name had to be something that could relate to the 60's, somehow connect to reuse, yet at the same time, sound cool enough to sell. It couldn't be Enviro-Bike, or Bad-Ass Customs. So we made a list of goals for the title.

Goal #1: Title should relate to 60's and/or Schwinn Stingray.

We started by looking up different species of Stingray, thinking we might find something really cool. Most species were related to color or size. Our favorite however was the Common Stingray. Something about Common Bikes sounded marketable. It's also an interesting wordplay because the bike frames are fairly common, yet we are doing something very uncommon with them through customization. This brought us to:

Goal #2: Title should relate to the idea of reuse

In the end, Common Bikes was already taken so we kept thinking. Our next thought was to research synonyms for reuse. Perhaps it would lead to something interesting, if not just give us some ideas. It just so happens that there are 3 pages of synonyms and related words for reuse so it was pretty impossible not to find something useful. The majority however we not very appealing names for a bike company. We didn't want to be too gung-ho with the Reuse idea so we were looking for something subtle. That's when we set:

Goal #3: Must be marketable to the larger community.

After much word searching, we came across foster; as in to foster a child. To bring in and give new life, new meaning. In this sense, it reflects the ideals of the company because our goal is to take in wasted bikes and give them new life by renewing them. At the same time, this isn't exactly what comes to mind when you think of foster, so it's pretty subtle. Also, Foster is a common last name, relating it to many companies of the 50's and 60's era which were simply last names. Schwinn, Herman Miller, Wrigley...Foster. In this sense it fulfills are first goal, to relate to Schwinn and the Stingray.

Foster Bikes.

Finally, it sounds good. It sounds authentic, trustworthy but upon deeper scrutiny, it holds the values of the company, which is what a good company name should do.

Foster Bikes. Hey, is that a Foster?

New Found bike Glory: Part 3

The Solution: The Plan: The beginning of a business.

Based on the principles discussed in the last 2 posts, I have assembled a new business concept. This new company will take used bike frames and parts from junkyards and build new custom 20 inch bikes out of them. Each bike will be a 1 off piece made from 90% post consumer product, so it will be friendly to the environment and attractive to all ages. There will be an option to custom build your own bike by spec'ing different accessories and paint jobs, most likely fulfilled by an intuitive website. In addition, each bike will be made or re-made, here in America and stick to the original intentions Ignaz Schwinn had for the famous Stingray of the 60's. To customize and to ride. The bikes will be built to enjoy both visually and physically; forming a patina with age as opposed to wearing out.

To sum up the companies values:

~Made in America
~90% Post Consumer Product
~Custom and Personal
~True to original intent of the Schwinn Stingray
to customize
to ride

The idea isn't to be a custom bike shop, like OCC, but to be a bike shop that sells really cool custom bikes at a reasonable price that you won't feel guilty riding around; yet at the same time you can have pride in owning and customize it to reflect who you are and what you enjoy.

New Found bike Glory: Part 2

Today, the construction continues. Picked up some used rims and some new whitewall tires. Tomorrow I will have to sandblast the rims, prime and paint them flat black. This is going to be one mean bike.
So why is all this on your business blog, you may be asking. Well, lately I've been building somewhat of an empire around the idea of preserving materials and using objects that are no longer seen as valuable or useful to the public eye. It came to my attention while riding the old sears bike that junkyards were filled with these beat-up sting-ray frames because every generation seemed to get there own new bikes. Consequently the stingray frame lost it's appeal and kids grew out of their bikes and to the junkyard went the bikes. So that brings me to:

Point A: Thousands of Sting-ray style bikes are wasting away in junkyards.


Next, I noticed the Stingray made a comeback in the form of the new Schwinn Chopper bikes. It seemed that the idea of a cruising bike was still cool to kids. Though I'm sure the new bikes were riding on the trend of Chopper Bike shows such as OCC (Orange County Choppers.) Schwinn has also restarted the production of the original stingray and krate bikes but for a hefty $350.00. I think that these remakes are appealing more to the older generations who want to relive their childhood by purchasing the bike they once owned. Finally, the beach crusier market has taken off in the US with every bike manufacture from Dyno to Pacific carrying a line of crusiers. The beach cruisers are basically replicas of vintage 26" bikes that have been slightly modified to fit a certain aesthetic.

Point B: Vintage style bikes are making a comeback in the US. and the spirit of the 60's bike is very much alive.


So the math is fairly simple and easy to see. Vintage Bikes are selling, and there are a bunch of vintage frames in the junkyards. So where is the industry missing a link?? They don't make a cruiser for kids anymore, with exception to the chopper but that got old because they weren't customizable therefore everyone had the same bike. Lame. Schwinn made the mistake of only releasing 4-6 models, which were all the same with a different paint scheme. Now that's weak. The original Sting-ray was built around the customizing culture that was flourishing in California during the 60's. The bike was made to customize. In my opinion, Schwinn really missed the boat with the chopper because it didn't stay true to the bikes original intent. Choppers are cool because they are all unique and you can make it your own; not just because they have extra long forks and fat rear tires. Today, the original intent of the stingray can be seen in the lowrider bikes that reign in so many Latin American neighborhoods. So, based on Schwinn's miss and the lowrider industry. it's clear that:

Point C: There is still a large market for customized bicycles.

So we can conclude that there is a market for vintage style bikes as well as customizable stingray style bikes and that thousands of stingray frames waste away in junkyards as we speak.

New Found bike Glory: Part 1

6 Months ago I had 2 bikes. I had my 20" Giant BMX, and a newly purchased (craigslist) 1960's Sears Stingray look alike. I bought the Sears bike because I always had a dream of replicating the bike I learned to ride on at my babysitters when I was a kid. It was a blue 20" Schwinn (it had the classic S on the two tone blue/white seat) tornado, I think. The thing is, I haven't been able to find anything similar to anywhere, except for the tornado, but that was black and yellow; this bike was blue and white. Basically, it was like a cruiser bike but a 20 inch and for kids. The idea was to recreate this with some kick; all black with whitewalls and tailpipes. Something tasteful yet mean looking. Not a lowrider, but badass.


Anyways, the Sears bike got stolen about 3 month later, right after I put new tires on it. So I abandoned my dream of renewing my 1st bike and stuck to my Giant BMX. That is, until it was stolen last weekend. So, bikeless, I went up to the Working Bikes Co-op this weekend, which was a blast as always. I looked at some 24" and some touring bikes, but didn't find anything that really struck me. But on the way out, push back in a corner was a box. Inside this box lay, perhaps the most beautiful sight I have ever seen (exaggeration.) What was in this box, you ask? Well none other than every part I had planned to buy for the Sears bike. Black fenders, black chaingaurd, black Schwinn fork, even chrome tailpipes. It was then that I looked up to see, hanging from the ceiling, a Schwinn stingray frame painted flat black. Beautiful.
Now, had this been 2 weeks ago, I woulda said "Wow that's cool but I don't have the money take on a project like this just for fun" and I woulda past that box of parts up. But with both bikes stolen and my dream bi ke sitting in a box in front of me, this was clearly a sign. Somebody wanted me to build this bike, so that's exactly what I set out to do.