Bike Shop Day

Sunburned

Saturday I took the family on a Whale Watching Cruise out of Boston. It was fun. I forgot to apply sunscreen and when I got back, my face was, and still is, sunburned. So as a result, I didn't feel very much like going for a ride on Sunday.

Bike Shop: Schwinn

So instead of going for a ride, I decided to tinker with my bikes. I broke out the bike stand in my (shady) driveway and threw on my 1982 Schwinn Varsity. Back in the spring I had thrown on some new tires. I took it out for the test ride and the chain snapped. So on Sunday, I decided to see if I could fix the chain instead of getting a new one. I had a chain tool as part of my Topeak Bike Tool and I figured I should learn how to use it. Better to learn that in my driveway than out on the road.

Cleaning the Chain

Nice and clean.

Almost back on.

I had the chain in a zip lock bag. So, before doing anything, I poured some chain cleaner in it an shook it. The chain got real clean.

Fixing the Chain

Getting the bad link off was real easy with the tool. Reconnecting the chain once on the bike, not so easy. The difficult part was trying to line up the "peg" with where I wanted the peg to go. I was determined to do this with only the tool I has in hand. What I did was use some of the pieces of the links I had taken off to help with lining up the "peg". Once I figured out how to do that, the rest was easy. Now I have a Schwinn that I can pedal but can't stop reliably (the brakes still suck).

Bike Shop: Specialized Seat Position Experimentation

Before

After

On the last Phat Tuesday ride, someone had commented that my seat may be too high as my hips were rocking. Someone at work had also mentioned that my seat was angled too far forward and should either be neutral (parallel to ground) or angled back. so the first thing I did was to level out the seat. Easy enough. Then I measured the height and lowered the seat to minimum recommended height for my inseam (see the frame size calculator in left column). I threw on my bike shoes and took a spin in the neighborhood behind me.

Wow! What a difference! Sitting felt a little awkward at first but it was definitely much more comfortable. I felt like I could pedal with much less effort. I may not need to swap out my 11-23 rear cassette for a 12-25/27 cassette for those tough climbs after all. We'll see on the next ride...

New Tires for the Schwinn

Yesterday, after getting a good ride in, I decided to head to my local bike shop and see if they had any tires that would fit my Schwinn. I know at least one of the tires on the Schwinn is original. It is bald, cracked, and crumbling.

The guys at the shop hooked me up with a set of 27 ¼" Specialized Armadillo All-Condition tires. I made of point of saying "weight is not an issue!".

Mounting Them...

The old tires came off pretty easily. The rim tape, which looked it was plastic, didn't look like it was going to be easy to replace. So I just put the new rim tape on over it. The guy at the bike shop recommended that I do not go over 80 PSI when mounting these tires on the original wheels. He said that the steel rims might not be able to handle the higher pressures. I can tell my wheels are steel because aluminum doesn't rust.

Crappy Brakes

The front brake calipers had oxidized just enough so that they wouldn't pivot. I loosened up the assembly and took a hammer to them to "free them and shake out the corrosion". It worked! Now instead of no front brakes, I have crappy front brakes. These calipers will need to be replaced at some point.

Test Ride

I took the Schwinn out in the neighborhood behind me for a test ride. It is a one mile hilly loop. Man, that bike is heavy. It doesn't help when the bike auto-shifts out of the lowest gear either by itself, or when my knee hits the center pull shifter. The front brakes weren't really working. They would grab, but not release. good for only stopping (barely) but useless for slowing down.

At one point the crank kicked back and now I have a new scar on my calf much like I did when I repeatedly did this when I was 14.

Then, Near the top of the hill the chain snapped. I happened to have a zip lock bag on me and I put the chain inside that. Then I walked up to the top of the hill, and rode the bike down to my home. I have a feeling this will be a long term project bike...

My 1982 Schwinn Varsity

Ever since I had been working in downtown Boston I often thought it would be cool just to have a beater road bike. I figured I could go to NJ and get my old bike and convert it to a single speed or something. Well, the first time I recently lifted the bike I nearly pulled a muscle in my back. It turns out that my "Lightweight" Schwinn Varsity weighs 38 lbs. That's heavier than both my mountain bikes. logic and reasoning told me that if I really wanted a cheap, no frills, single speed, that I could get one real cheap on Craigslist.

Well I no longer work in downtown Boston and I never really would have spent the time, effort, and money to convert my Schwinn. So I moved on...

So much for moving on...

This past weekend I was visiting family at my father's house and I saw my bike hanging in the garage. I took it down and put air in the vintage Panaracer tires and took it out for a spin. The bike was filthy and had seen better days. However it rode solid. I imagine at 38 lbs. that the ride should feel solid.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. I am pretty sure I am not going to do anything major to it. I will definitely have to clean it. From there we'll see. I imagine that maybe this could be my winter bike while the expensive, shiny bike is on the trainer. Then maybe put the Schwinn on the trainer while the expensive, shiny bike is on the road in the warmer weather.

The bike has all original parts.

There isn't a quick release lever to be found! It still even has the bike shop sticker from where it was purchased.

It needs:

• new brakes,
• probably new tires.
• It could stand to have an upgraded seat post and seat.
• The pedals WILL be replaced!
  (I think I still have scar tissue where the original saw toothed pedals often hit me in the shins.)
• New handle bar tape (or no handlebar tape)
• New handlebars?
• and whatever breaks in the course of use...

38 lbs.! Maybe I should mount a tank turret on it ;-)

UPDATE: Project Schwinn

I've dedicated a section in my Amazon aStore to my Schwinn Project. I plan on listing an parts I find and use on my Schwinn there. I would like the tires but they seem to have been discontinued. Right now I just have some single speed conversion kits listed. NOTE: these aren't Schwinn specific.

Visit the Project Schwinn section on my aStore!