# Huffy Techtra (unique find?)



## feint (Sep 21, 2008)

I was surprised the other night when my father filled me in on the story... Some guy left this bike in my Grandmother's back yard in hopes to pick it up later, well a few years have passed in the las vegas heat and the guy has seemingly "fled" to texas. My father went ahead and took the "garbage" out of the yard and brought this back for himself/myself to rebuild for fun.

I wanted to check with you guys if it's even worth the efforts. It seems like it is (from the very general knowledge that I've picked up from this forum), looking at the nice steel frame and shimano skylark components. Seems like a rare gem, but I wanted to check what you guys thought and also see if ya'll had some additional history/info that I couldn't dig up from the "internets."

It's a 19xx Huffy Techtra. Enjoy the pics and let me know what you guys think thus far.


























































































Thanks.


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## filtersweep (Feb 4, 2004)

No offense, but there were not many great "classic" bikes with bolt-on wheels, chicken bars, kickstand, and stem shifters. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with it, but it is not a classic, lightweight steel ride.


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## Peanya (Jun 12, 2008)

Huffy was always a Walmart/Target/ToysRUs bike. As said before, not a classic...


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## CurbDestroyer (Mar 6, 2008)

The thing that sticks out to me is the fact that the brake shoes are as far down as they can be in the caliper, yet they still need to go down some more.










WIth that said though. the "Lawyer Tabs" on the fork may be preventing the front wheel from going all the way up in the dropout.


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## feint (Sep 21, 2008)

Bah, thanks guys on the "cheap-o" info. My dad is still stoked to have something to restore, I guess he'll be taking it off my hands and cruise around a bit more... he needs to get off his ass and stop watching baseball all day. =P

Regarding the brakes. I'll have to take a look at that before he tries to ride the bike, it did seem a bit odd having the brake rubber touching the tire itself!

If this does end up being a rebuild for my pops, I'll make sure this thing will look "fly" even for a huffy.


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

Feint - you did an excellent job of photographing an old department store bike.


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## feint (Sep 21, 2008)

ckilner said:


> Feint - you did an excellent job of photographing an old department store bike.


Is that sarcasm? Because I normally take the additional effort to make most of my photography look decent. Thanks?


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## Dave Hickey (Jan 27, 2002)

I don't think ckilner was being sarcastic...You did an EXCELLENT job...I wish I was as talented.....


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

Nope - no sarcasm. Your pix would have done justice to a great bike - sadly, some people don't know how to use the macro and post lots of blurry shots...or camera phone pix...
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=132959


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

Oh...and you were smart to ask because there are some Huffy's (or bikes with Huffy labels) that are very valuable:
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=136786


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## filtersweep (Feb 4, 2004)

Exactly--- my thoughts were along the lines of wondering what camera and lens you used.



Dave Hickey said:


> I don't think ckilner was being sarcastic...You did an EXCELLENT job...I wish I was as talented.....


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## feint (Sep 21, 2008)

filtersweep said:


> Exactly--- my thoughts were along the lines of wondering what camera and lens you used.


I used my standard 18-75mm f3.5 zoom lens that came w/ my Sony Alpha A100 DSLR. Not a big deal. I'll take some other pics w/ the 50mm Minolta lens that I have... Now that will be a nice photo.  

Thanks btw.


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## feint (Sep 21, 2008)

ckilner said:


> Oh...and you were smart to ask because there are some Huffy's (or bikes with Huffy labels) that are very valuable:
> http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=136786


Wow, now I'm a little upset. hahaha. I'm sure my dad will enjoy this bike. But I'm going to get on the hunt for a more worthy steelie.

Thanks for the extra research.


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## bicyclerepairman (Mar 12, 2003)

Do the front and back rims match? I don't recall seeing Araya rims on Huffy's before.....it looks like that bike has a better grade of stem as well.....


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

feint said:


> Wow, now I'm a little upset. hahaha. I'm sure my dad will enjoy this bike. But I'm going to get on the hunt for a more worthy steelie.
> 
> Thanks for the extra research.


You may want to consider sending the pix to http://oldtenspeedgallery.com/ - they love these bikes...


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## lalahsghost (Aug 27, 2007)

I just tore one of these apart! http://www.flickr.com/photos/lalahsghost/archives/date-posted/2008/09/29/

Are your rear dropouts stamped steel inserted into tubes and clamped?


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## tmotz (May 16, 2002)

*Still fix it up to ride*

I don't care if it's a Huffy ,Sears or the latest Carbon Fiber dream bike , it can be ridden. The purpose it was designed for. The average Joe could travel his world on it.


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

tmotz said:


> I don't care if it's a Huffy ,Sears or the latest Carbon Fiber dream bike , it can be ridden. The purpose it was designed for. The average Joe could travel his world on it.


That's true. My favorite ride these days is a 1977 Raleigh Grand Prix made out of tubing (2030 Hi-Tensile steel) similar to the Huffy... I stripped off the derailleurs and freewheel from the originally-29 lb bike and turned it into a 19.5 lb fixed gear...


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## bicyclerepairman (Mar 12, 2003)

*Similar to the Huffy? What are you huffing?*



ckilner said:


> That's true. My favorite ride these days is a 1977 Raleigh Grand Prix made out of tubing (2030 Hi-Tensile steel) similar to the Huffy... I stripped off the derailleurs and freewheel from the originally-29 lb bike and turned it into a 19.5 lb fixed gear...


The only thing that the Raleigh Grand Prix has in common with this Huffy is that they are both bicycles....the rims on the Huffy (which I don't think are original) are better, and the brake calipers are likely the equal.  The rest of the frame/components? NO COMPARISON!


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## bwana (Feb 4, 2005)

bicyclerepairman said:


> The only thing that the Raleigh Grand Prix has in common with this Huffy is that they are both bicycles....the rims on the Huffy (which I don't think are original) are better, and the brake calipers are likely the equal. The rest of the frame/components? NO COMPARISON!


And the brakes on the Raleigh likely don't rub the tires. What I really don't understand is how the 27" rims can have that problem, I could understand it if someone had switched a 27 out for a 700c, but the pic shows that it is a 27. Maybe the brakes aren't original?


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

Maybe the picture of the 27" wheel is the rear wheel and the front wheel was replaced with a 700c one? It looks like it was bolted down correctly.


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## ckilner (Oct 4, 2004)

bicyclerepairman said:


> The only thing that the Raleigh Grand Prix has in common with this Huffy is that they are both bicycles....the rims on the Huffy (which I don't think are original) are better, and the brake calipers are likely the equal. The rest of the frame/components? NO COMPARISON!


I only said that the *tubing *(Hi-Ten) was similar (assuming the Huffy has gas pipe or hi-tension steel)...but you are correct about many differences...the Raleigh was handmade and brazed with lugs and cable guides, has chromed forks, alloy crankset, (had) Raleigh-branded Suntour VX shifters, and classic center-pull brakes (that probably work about as well as those Polygon sidepulls on the Huffy). The stem/bars/seat/seat post on the Raleigh and Huffy are about the same...very low end, and the Araya alloy rims are better in many respects than the steel rims on the Grand Prix. While the HS and BB might be better on the Raleigh, the 26 TPI threading is a pain in the butt.


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