And sorry Chalo, gonna have to dissagree with you a little bit about the Murray. In 1962 the bike was most likely made right here in the good ole U. S. out of good ole U.S. steel. As long as it's not rusted through anywhere then worse case you might need to replace a bearing or two.
What is wrong with that bike can't be fixed or replaced. I say this as a professional bike mechanic who has given his shop a reputation for being willing to service any bike, no matter how old, cheap, or weird.
The steel in a 50 year old Murray is probably good. Weak, but good quality, tough and consistent. But that frame probably weighs at least ten pounds where a modern steel straight-tube frame would weigh five and a modern aluminum frame four. It's made out of small diameter curved tubes, so it doesn't even have a stiffness advantage in return for all that weight. The dropouts are almost certainly so thin as to become bent in ordinary use.
It probably doesn't have any braze-on fittings for attaching fenders, rack, bottles, and other accesories. All the bolt-on stuff was expected to crowd onto the axle where it complicates assembly and where everything gets crushed and smashed under the axle nuts when they are securely tightened.
The joinery in a cheap brand American frame of that age-- and Murray is definitely a cheap brand, like Huffy-- is usually internal fillet. That is to say they dropped a ring of brass in each joint during setup, then cooked the thing until the brass just began to show on the outside. It looks tidy (like there is no weld at all), but all you know about a joint like that is that the filler made it all the way around (probably). The brass can easily be all piled up on one side of the joint, leaving the other side weak and prone to cracking. But to be fair, the steel in those old frames is often so soft that the frame is likely to bend before a joint lets go.
The bottom bracket cups on a bike like that old Murray are likely to have flared out the softer bottom bracket shell, leaving it unable to be properly adjusted or to have a new BB securely installed. The headset is screwed up by design, with a fork crown race that slips over the fork steerer without pressing on. (They did that to save costs.) The result is a headset that you can tighten properly or even grossly overtighten, but which will still knock and shift around like it's loose.
Handlebar stems and seatpost clamps on those old bikes, like on the cheapest kinds of new bikes, were mostly crudely stamped from sheet metal, and they crimped the handlebars or seatposts when securely tightened. Some stems were sandcast steel, and these look cool but are likely to break off down below the headset top nut.
Old Schwinns were very strong and came with durable components, but old Huffys, Murrays, Roadmasters and Hawthornes are not Schwinns. Department store bikes of the 1950s to 1980s were comparable to Soviet bikes in their build quality.
Few bikes are made in the U.S. today and those that are, most "poor folk" can't afford. So, what yer saying is for him to buy a (most likely) chinese made bike (From wall mart?).
No way would I ever recommend that anybody get a department store bike these days. They are even worse now than they were back then!
For this job I recommend a used steel mountain bike from the 1980s, before suspension forks or aluminum frames came into broad use. An '80s MTB will be made of strong steel in medium diameters, with a full complement of braze-on fittings and thick forged dropouts. For a newer model, a bike designed for loaded touring is a better choice, since most touring bikes retained all the most important features of '80s MTBs.
Either one of these things cost the equivalent of over $1000 of today's dollars when it was new, but can now be had in good used condition for a fraction of that.
In "62" the Murry was a good middle of the road bike made of STEEL,
A '60s Murray was made of steel. It was neither middle of the road, nor good. It was a cheap bike with some virtues that were common to American industry, and a lot of drawbacks related to its price point.
The engine thats on it now RUNS. $320. is a O K price. I don't know why anybody would voice in a negitive about this.
Have you ever had a good bike? Like one that cost more than a couple of weeks' wages when it was new? That was set up and serviced by a good bike shop? There is a difference-- which is well worth the extra cost if you ride regularly.
Chalo
