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.