Here's a picture of my vintage Schwinn Varsity. I found this bike at the dump in Montana a few years ago and had to make a dumpster dive to get it. It's an early Varsity as it has the drop tube shifters, and had a 1963 if I remember Bozeman bike license on it, which was actually like a small metal license plate. I've modified it so I could ride it but I did keep all of the original parts.
Like any bike, wheels and tires make all of the difference. These wheels which were off of a newer Schwinn Continental and are like new, and the tires are new 27 inch Continentals. That makes this old dumpster find ride like new. It's going to be a great town bike, and the cockpit is now comfortable enough for me to go on distance rides with. Other changes I made were; saddle, bars stem and brake levers and pads, pedals, clips, chain and cables. Lastly I found some NOS Varsity fenders on Craigslist. It sounds like a lot but I had most of the parts I needed on hand. Oh,. and I put some white Benotto cello tape on the bars. It's hard to find cello tape nowdays. Never thought I'd see that day...
Varsities aren't that bad. They got a bad reputation when lighter more high tech bikes came to the states in the bicycle boom of the 70s but I think they make great casual retro rides. I've always wanted one and after I get the rack on it, I'll be riding this bike to and from work the rest of this year. It really has a nice feel, and was far too nice to just throw away. It just needed some attention..
And now I have two red bikes. My Gitane Tour de France is below.
And now I have two red bikes. My Gitane Tour de France is below.
4 comments:
I think it's amazing what you do with bikes. You should operate your own bike shop someday. This bike looks wonderful and is probably quite happy to be all fixed up and ride-able again! Awesome! I like it's color too!
It looks better in the picture than it does IRL. The paint is pretty faded but I'm not going to paint it. I like it this way.
Nice job! You do good work! Totally worth the dive. I inherited an English Raleigh from a friend who passed away from cancer and our youngest fixed it up. It was from the 70's. It even says: Made in England on it.
Thanks, I got it at Elmo. I don't understand why people throw some things away like that. At least give it to good will or something. It seems like such a waste. Now this bike will have many more years as a useful vehicle instead of taking up space in a landfill.
Raleigh's are nice old bikes too, (nicer actually) and pretty easy to work on. You should get a lot of good out of it, and everyone should have a bike.
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