[Garbage picked] K-Mart “All Pro” w/ Shimano 3 Speed – I love the colors. Any opinions on next steps? Possible candidate for a hybrid convert?
by 3rdand20
[Garbage picked] K-Mart “All Pro” w/ Shimano 3 Speed – I love the colors. Any opinions on next steps? Possible candidate for a hybrid convert?
by 3rdand20
13 Comments
Not sure where to start on this one. I have wanted to find a vintage bike to restore/upgrade to utilize for MTB conditioning around town. I see people taking 90’s MTBs and making them into hybrid rigs, but I’m unsure if that’s a viable option for this bike. At the very least I’d like to see this bike back in operating condition. Does anyone have options on how I can/should proceed?
I dig the color as well. If it still shifts and wheels are rideable, I’d put new rubber on and do a clean and polish and go from there. Looks complete nice find!
Don’t knock a three speed until you’ve tried it. They go on forever with just a few drops of oil every now and then to keep them lubed.
Swap the rear sprocket out for a larger one for a more useable range of gears if there’s likely to be a few hills on your route.
Clean it up, replace anything rubber that’s perished and just ride it. It’s already got ‘that look’ people are trying to get, so not much to do really except ride it.
From personal experience: Just don’t with this bike and bikes like this. These are cheap heavy low-quality steel frames made only for casual riding.
If you’re gonna do short coffee runs fine, but anything serious and this bike’s gonna flex all over the place and sap any energy you put into it. And to get a standard crank you’ll need an adapter because there’an ‘American/Ashtabula’ one-piece crank on there. Also the stem is 21.1mm dept store size, and the seatpost is 25.4.
Save the 3-speed hub though, that’s a Shimano, and rebuild it onto a nice alloy rim.
Granted its a cool-looking bike and very tempting, but just warning you. Find a Cromoly frame if you’re gonna be serious.
This is super cool and probably fairly rare at this point. Not valuable, but rare nonetheless. I’m also a huge 3-speed fan, and you’ll love it. This bike probably needs a full reassembly from the frame-up. In my experience, department-store bikes aren’t bad for casual riding, but their assembly was horrendous and nothing was lubed or adjusted properly. The 3-speed hub would be good to disassemble (carefully), clean, reassemble, and re-lube. They are a lot more pleasant with a larger cog. Most old 3-speeds were over-geared and instead of Low/Cruise/Downhill, they really should be geared Super-Low/Low/Cruise, and you can coast down steep hills. Good luck!
Very cool, it’s got that “I don’t wanna get near that thing, I will pay you to haul it off” look.
Never have to lock it. Perfect Amsterdam style for any city.
I did an All Pro last year. Total junk, as this one is, but fun to play on. However, mine was a singlespeed coaster on the rightly beloved Bendix 76 platform. This Shimano 333(?) hub is probably not worth the effort. Read Sheldon on the 333. Keep your eyes out for something singlespeed which you can gear down or something 3 speed with Sturmey Archer hub.
I have one of these! Larger gear swap in the rear like someone else said, and a wald front basket for sure. I use this as my beer runner / grocery getter that won’t leave me absolutely devastated if it gets stolen.
It’s junk. Throw it in the trash.
I had one of those briefly! Sadly didn’t really fit me so I passed it on. The frame is really heavy and the gearing isn’t great IIRC but with a rear rack and front basket you could have a capable grocery getter if you don’t need to climb much!
This is a great don’t worry about theft neighborhood bike. Don’t throw money at it. Tires, fresh cables and brake shoes, and a general lube and clean.
The Shimano 333 is a great design and maligned. The issue is the poor metallurgy in the pawls. If you’re not too heavy and keep it lubricated and adjusted it’ll likely survive fine. Motor oil works well in these but I do like Three in One electrical motor oil better as it’s a bit cleaner and non detergent. Doesn’t matter much though, just feed it oil.
If you can find grey Koolstop continental pads, they’re optimized for steel rims. There’s other brands as well. I think the Dia-compe grey matter is also a steel rim pad. With new cables and fresh pads even those janky brakes can stop well.
It’ll be a nice lesson in crude bike mechanics. I happen to adore Ashtabula bottom brackets as they’re so wonderfully crude and easy to service. Pack those bearings, the headset, and the front hub with waterproof grease and never touch them again.
Yes it was a cheapo bike back in the day but not wholly garbage. Fixing these to run reasonably well can be a satisfying evening meditation. Just don’t throw money at it.
If you run across a slightly nicer English/Japanese/German three speed at some point you can harvest the $75 worth of tires and bits and toss the carcass having enjoyed a little living history of what it was like to bike on a budget in 1975.
I have this exact same bike! I paid a friend to restore it a bit and I absolutely love it.
A front hub electric conversion (e.g., SwytchBike) wouldn’t hurt it any.