Schwinn Sports Tourer Restoration / ..

 
  After years of neglect, I decided to clean up my 24 in. <a href=http://waterfordbikes.com/SchwinnCat/flschwinn_1971_1980/1971_09.html>1973 vintage Schwinn Sports Tourer bicycle</a>, purchased from Chucks Hardware in Pullman, WA for $202.00 in the fall of 1973, as those were the only 2 years that the orange colors were available. Frame was stripped and sanded and given a fresh coat of orange paint, close to it's original color. Interestingly, the frame has no serial number stamped on the head tube as it is supposed to. Likely this was due to it being replaced under Schwinn's lifetime warrantee a few years after I bought it, when one of the bottom bracket bearing cups just popped out of the frame, stripping off the internal threads. Schwinn shipped out a new frame to the hardware store and they reassembled the bike at no cost as I recall. So my guess is that Scwhinn had spare frames for this, but since they did not make it into finished bikes, they did not get stamped. After many coats of color and a couple clear coats, it was finally time to put it back together. I had replaced much of the orignal components back in the mid-80's including a triple chain ring (24-34-48) Sekai crankset replacing the original 40-54 double ring crank. I run the the original 5 sprocket cluster (14-17-22-28-34) for the hills (gives 19 This time, I added some clipless pedals and a new Serfas Dorado saddle and Kalloy Uno seat post (26.8mm) to replace the old Brooks leather saddle and steel seat post that had seen better days. A Shimano RD-M700 Deore XT rear derailleur handles the shifting in back, it'll shift up onto the big 34T sprocket and actually will actually handle 41 teeth of gear change. Here is a closeup of the <a href=http://www.sheldonbrown.com/schwinn-braze.html>hand-made fillet brazed head tube on the frame</a>. It is made of straight gauge 4130 cromoly steel tubing. Bike weight came in around 31 lbs. with the pump and 2 water bottle holders, probably 30 lbs. stripped. In stock form I think it ran 33 lbs. according to the catalog scans, but I recall it ran a few lbs. more than that. Here us a closeup of the seat tube again with the hand brazed joints, plus the unique bullet end seat stays. I added a quick release seat post clamp to fit the 29.8mm OD seat tube.  
 

 
  This is the triple ring crank set and the Shimano M324 combo platform/clip-less pedals are attached to a new sealed bottom bracket (Shimano UN54 68x122mm), later replaced that with a Phil Wood offset 116mm BB for a narrower Q factor. Also added a wire-less Garmin crank/speed sensor to feed data to a bike computer on the handlebars. And a set of original size 27x1-1/4 Here is a shot after finishing 5 miles of fire road and single track trails in the local Montebello Open Space Preserve on 1/1/2012. Ironic that this is the exact area where Here is the clearancing I had to do to fit a 14-34 6-sp. freewheel on the Schwinn, had to grind the inside of the seat stay and add a spacer to the axle. Not too bad for an original 120mm frame and rear hub! Similar shot of what I had to do to fit a 13-28 7-sp. freewheel on my Raleigh Competition frame, similar grinding and spacer. Not too bad for an original 120mm frame and rear hub! 40th birthday present, slapped on a set of 700c wheels and 35mm Continental Cyclocross Speed tires. Had to tweak the brakes a bit for the smaller rim and adjust the RD for the 10sp cluster. And in case you are wondering, the crank is from the 5sp days as are the shifters. The 10sp chain and cassette work just fine with the 5sp crank, shifters and 5sp/triple FD and 9sp RD.  
 

 
  Tires are filled with some latex tubes and the 11-36 1-sp cluster and 10sp KMC chain makes the wheels turn. Really impressed with the feel of the bike now, it is really fast and nimble with these tires compared to the heavy touring tires and 27  
 

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