Schwinn 4 Banger

I'll try and sort some pics out for you guys tomorrow, I have a little 15inch 4B too which has been out on long term loan to my friends girlfriend for the last year and will be riding with them tomorrow so i'll snap a couple of pics of that too while I'm at it!

sadly none of mine are HG's, never found any in my size at sensible prices, if I did I'd snap it up ASAP.

My current favoured setup is actually a bit of a funny beast...
it's a S6 front end, so beefier than the 4B (but with one of the rear ends off of a 4B cos I was swapping bearings out on the S6 rear end and never got round to putting it back on). Running with a custom Fox Vanilla shock, dropped to give 120mm travel, and using a travel reduced 130mm fox 36 fork.

It's a total hoolligan in this setup, very low slung, snappy due to reduced travel at the back, and with a very stiff front end, will batter its way down or through anything but without feeling like it's wallowing about too much.

I built it as a bit of an experiment to try and create a kind of heavy duty 4B with a bit more stiffness in the front end as the 4B can get out of its depth if you really push it, and the head angle on the 4B front end is actually slacker by default than the S6 which means you can't drop the BB too low on a 4B using 130mm+ forks without starting to get very floppy steering, but a S6 front end with 130-140mm forks you can get a very low slung, stable but still nippy bike for having a bit of a giggle on

I generally pick that setup over the full 150mm rear, 160mm front one.

I find the coil shock bottoms out far more readily than than the air shock, so I tend not to use it. A heavier spring rate helped, but the air shock seems to cure it for me. It's just a shame that the air shock doesn't share the threaded trunnions of the coil unit. The ability to alter rear ride height and the resultant handling of the bike as a whole is a huge advantage. An extra few mm under the bottom bracket does wonders for the steering.

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Spring rate and the right compression damping setup is absolutely key on the Lawwill rear end, if you get it right you end up with a lovely bottomless feeling but without ever actually bottoming out.

The stock RS shocks they came with have an absolutely terrible and thoroughly inappropriately light compression tune on them and blow through their travel far too readily. The HG version with adjustable compression helps but it's still not right unless you get it re-tuned.

The Fox unit that the S6 came with is better by miles, you can use a nice softish spring rate to keep the suppleness, but they have just enough compression damping right at the end to stop them bottoming and if you're willing to get them re-shimmed you can get even better results.

Ideally I'd love to run a Vanilla RC on one but the piggyback gets in the way of the trunnion :-(

Sadly, I've just found out that spending all of my disposable income on bikes comes back to bite me in the a**e when a big unexpected bill comes through

It looks as if my little 4B may have to find another home unless I can procure some cash from somewhere in the meantime.

Here is my HG 4 Banger with a 2" stroke shock. Problem is there is not much room for adjustment. Wish I could find a Fox trunnion... Someday I might try the stock Sid air shock, have always used a coil.

For me this is frame #3, had a couple regular frames that cracked and ended up buying a spare HG front end in case this one dies.

Barneyballbags":h067y4z6 said:

Sadly, I've just found out that spending all of my disposable income on bikes comes back to bite me in the a**e when a big unexpected bill comes through

It looks as if my little 4B may have to find another home unless I can procure some cash from somewhere in the meantime.

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Well, since originality doesn't seem to be a priority for you, then you could dispose of that un-needed and rather rare 22mm direct mount Hayes rear caliper you have on your bike, and swap it for an otherwise identical but rather more common post mount or IS one that costs less money. Im sure there wil be some retro owners here willing to shell out a few quid for it.

Failing that, I'll sell my one...


Also, I know of a very good home for those forks...

I didn't realise the 22mm caliper was all that rare... I'll have a think about selling it or swapping it for a regular IS mount one. Makes no difference to me, so long as the one I replace it with works properly!

GSB":1rhgw67c said:

Barneyballbags":1rhgw67c said:

Sadly, I've just found out that spending all of my disposable income on bikes comes back to bite me in the a**e when a big unexpected bill comes through

It looks as if my little 4B may have to find another home unless I can procure some cash from somewhere in the meantime.

Click to expand...

Well, since originality doesn't seem to be a priority for you, then you could dispose of that un-needed and rather rare 22mm direct mount Hayes rear caliper you have on your bike, and swap it for an otherwise identical but rather more common post mount or IS one that costs less money. Im sure there wil be some retro owners here willing to shell out a few quid for it.

Failing that, I'll sell my one...

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I used a 22mm to IS adaptor then a front caliper on the rear so I can still run a 160mm rotor. Then used the rear caliper on the front so no adaptor needed for a 180mm rotor.

Baulz":3kx1cr4u said:

I used a 22mm to IS adaptor then a front caliper on the rear so I can still run a 160mm rotor. Then used the rear caliper on the front so no adaptor needed for a 180mm rotor.

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My head hurts trying to figure that out...

Do you have the earlier dropouts with a 22mm frame mount, or the later ones with the IS mounts on them?

GSB":qd4a6eef said:

Baulz":qd4a6eef said:

I used a 22mm to IS adaptor then a front caliper on the rear so I can still run a 160mm rotor. Then used the rear caliper on the front so no adaptor needed for a 180mm rotor.

Click to expand...

My head hurts trying to figure that out...

Do you have the earlier dropouts with a 22mm frame mount, or the later ones with the IS mounts on them?

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Early dropouts with 22mm frame mount. You can just barely see in the pic above the red adaptor that goes from 22mm to IS, but it forces you to use a bigger rotor. To get around that I used a front caliper on the back.

for those that are interested I uploaded some pics of my 4Bs and S6s to flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65814794@N05/sets/72157631302862716/