Homage to John Deere

The frame is an early eighties Schwinn ? I picked up for - it previously served as my trusty, rusty, old messenger rig. I wanted to breath new life into it with a fresh paint job and immediately gravitated to the JD colors - since this was my "workhorse" the JD green and yellow seemed totally appropriate.

The Schwinn decal was custom made with a JD yellow+black outline. I decided to build the bike as a "Schwinn-paying-homage-to-John Deere" rather than creating a "Schwinn-posing-as-a-John Deere-bike" (if that makes any sense).

I tried to keep the theme true to how a JD tractor is styled: green body, black cockpit, yellow saddle and markings. Technically, the rims should be yellow - not the tires. I could have gone with Velocity Deep-Vs to complete the look but since the frame will now serve as a commuter/light tourer, I wanted something a little less stiff. I ended up with Open Pros - maybe down the road I'll have them powdercoated JD yellow and pair them with black rubber instead.