Hi Guys,
My name is Steve Errick and I live in the Detroit area. As a long-time enthusiast of BMX, road racers, MTB and - most recently - cruiser bikes, I've discovered your mag and a whole new subculture of bicycle customizing. I have a small shop at my house and also like to restore and customize vintage appliances and I've had a '50 Pontiac Silverstreak hot rod for about 20 years.
Anyhow, inspired by the fantastic 'Thor' and 'Garth' bikes in your gallery, I thought I'd submit my latest bike. It started out as a beat-up green '58 Schwinn Phantom I bought on eBay about four years ago. Since I believe real hot rods have wide-whitewalls, I did a quick resto on it as a mid-century mild-chop cruiser with repop springer and other odds and ends I had laying around. This past winter has been especially crappy in MI, so I decided to get an import 2 stroke kit and motorize it. I re-sold most of the kit as I had my own ideas and saw too many photos on the web of bolt-n-go motorized bike debauchery.
Steve Errick: Mid-Century Cruiser
Hi Guys,
My name is Steve Errick and I live in the Detroit area. As a long-time enthusiast of BMX, road racers, MTB and - most recently - cruiser bikes, I've discovered your mag and a whole new subculture of bicycle customizing. I have a small shop at my house and also like to restore and customize vintage appliances and I've had a '50 Pontiac Silverstreak hot rod for about 20 years.
Anyhow, inspired by the fantastic 'Thor' and 'Garth' bikes in your gallery, I thought I'd submit my latest bike. It started out as a beat-up green '58 Schwinn Phantom I bought on eBay about four years ago. Since I believe real hot rods have wide-whitewalls, I did a quick resto on it as a mid-century mild-chop cruiser with repop springer and other odds and ends I had laying around. This past winter has been especially crappy in MI, so I decided to get an import 2 stroke kit and motorize it. I re-sold most of the kit as I had my own ideas and saw too many photos on the web of bolt-n-go motorized bike debauchery.
I love the original horn tank design on these cantilever frames, so I kept it and found a vintage Lawn Boy canister fuel tank and hand-fabbed the under-seat mount. I also fabbed an aluminum air intake cover, exhaust pipe, MTB chain tensioner, front hydraulic disc brake setup, and drilled rear sprocket. I also had a buddy lathe-turn some electrical conduit which I bent back to make a seat post.

Since the motor cases did not clear the original crank arms (and since I refused to go soft and get a repop wider crank setup), I had to mount it high on the frame and cut the magneto cover. So I've made a few runs around my neighborhood recently and it is a blast to ride. I will cross my fingers on the motor, but when it blows, I am going to put a vintage snowblower 4 stroker in it.
Keep up the great work, and thanks to all of your readers for inspiration on a great hobby!