View attachment 332585
Mine looked much like this. Needless to say, I was an outsider. This bike was also faster than the 20 inch wheel banana seat bikes. It didn’t help me socially.
I had one very similar, black, twist grip 3 speed rear hub, UNTIL, recently related this to my elderly aunt.
Was probably 12-13 yr old, arranged to go down to the local lake and fish with a buddy, went home to get my gear, at the time lived in 3 story Garden Apartment complex with buildings arranged at opposing angles. Left the building front door holding rod across the bars and tackle box gripped in left hand with bar end.
SIdewalk made 90° turn to the left to go in front of the adjacent building view of which was obscured so I cut across the grass. I was having difficultly getting the handling of everything just right and was in process of adjusting my grip as I rejoined the sidewalk around the blind corner. and just as I was about to have it under control BANG!!!!!
Stopped dead, fell over, looked around with that WTF look and saw where a maintenance man was doing a refrigerator change out in one of the units and left one sitting in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the next building.
Bent the fork back to where the tire would contact the frame down tube. Ugh!
Ended up putting a 24" front wheel on and over time the bike got modded in other ways. Rear hub gave up so swapped it with the two speed rear hub from a 26" Schwinn Typhoon which gave me a coaster rear brake, put some medium high rise bars on it. It was unique to say the least and though not quick was pretty fast once I got it cranked up.
However, it had a headlight and dynamo fitted so when riding down hill I could lean forward and flick the dynamo on and say to myself, "I've got dynamic braking just like a diesel electric engine". Now that was cool...
