schWINn or Lose *5/15 ridden

[N8NBOX]

...its all about having fun right? Anyways, I know mine wont be able to compete with all of the old school cool and high dollar/crazy fabricator skills builds...but ill enjoy it. Anyways, im super broke but help manage a non-profit community bike shop so have access to a ton of junk parts (99% Wal-mart BSO's). We have had this frame up at shop ive been meaning to build for almost 3 years now so here it goes. Should be pretty fast since I won't be doing anything fancy.

Your standard Schwinn Diamond frame.




Love the patina!


Some parts I picked up, the fenders don't fit but thats what hammers and grinders are for right ?

[MplsCoaster]

Glad you entered the fun! I'm building one of these (on the side) too

ill enjoy it.

The most important part!
Best of luck

[yoothgeye]

Welcome, have fun building, that's what this is all about anyways.

[dogdart]

If you have fun , then you are a schWINNER

[Gold Street Customs]

I like it !!

[Peatbog]

I think those "standard Schwinn diamond frames" are actually pretty good looking. The radius on the tubes connected to the head tube just make the entire frame look really nice.

[N8NBOX]

Yeah and the fillet brazing always makes it feel better knowing someone actually spent some time working on each one by hand. SO, started taking everything apart and I guess water collected in the top end of the headtube but not the bottom...

The bottom bearings cleaned up pretty nice but the top as you can see were completely obliterated. Also took apart the bottom bracket, pulled all of the balls out, wire brushed and polished them all up. Going to pick up another top bearing race this week and start greasing and putting everything back together when I can find the time.(maymester starts tomorrow so will be doing school 8-12 and work 3-midnight.)

So, one thing im debating on is polishing up all of the chrome parts or leaving them a bit rusty. Thoughts?

[Craiggo]

I only comment on the low budget builds. The expensive ones are soo overrated can't wait to see how it turns out

[imagearchy]

Great name! It's always a good start. I will be watching!

[N8NBOX]

Chainring half done...

Stem before and after...


Seat before and halfway done...

[N8NBOX]

Threw it back together for now with the only pedals I had that fit. Going to start hunting for a set of pedals and debating on recovering the seat white. Had built up an old schwinn mesa runner MTB with these 700c wheels but didn't really like it so going back to 26" on it and going to use these on this build . Had to take a dremel to the dropouts a bit to get the axles to fit but they went on without too much grinding and prying. Next on the list of things to do is figure out how to make those fenders fit.


-Hooked up my trailer and rode it a few miles and its a ton of fun to ride, really like the bars in that position, stretches me out a bit since the frame is so small, and think it gives it a nice agressive look.

[Joker-n-Jack]

I love that I'm not the only UberLowBudget guy here...Makes me feel more comfortable. I can't wait to see how your bike comes out!

[N8NBOX]

Yeah I might end up splurging on a set of pedals but I capped myself at $20 for this build so hopefully I can just dig some out of a pile somewhere for free or super cheap. Started photoshopping things and think I will stick with the black seat, might re-cover it with something fancy and replace the padding though, its all rotted out underneath so not very comfortable at the moment.

[tin machine]

very cool build ,love the schwinn , just noticed this build very cool ,i like it

[N8NBOX]

Thanks I like it as well