Okay, my first (and probably last, judging by my wife's "Not another project!" attitude) build.
Had some 26" wheels and whitewalls and some nice retro handlebars laying around from another bike project that didn't turn out as well as I would have liked (making a rat rod out of a discarded mountain bike). So when I ran across a Schwinn Speedster frame on Craigslist, the gears started meshing...
The starting point:
First things first. Made sure the frame was decently straight, which consisted of eyeballing it- everything looks decent. The crank and headset both turned a bit stiff, but nothing binding or uneven. The seat post came right out with a bit of twisting and some WD-40, so that's one less potential headache.
Time to get to work.
Pulling the crank revealed a pleasant surprise or two. It was apparent that the crank had never been rebuilt- I recognized the gooey, peanut butter factory grease from my days as a bicycle mechanic back in the 1970s. But the stuff apparenly does its job well- everything inside was in remarkable shape. And despite all of the external rust, the crank innards were perfectly preserved:
So I'm guessing that S*A*3*61 means "Schwinn Approved" with a March, 1961 build date. My fourth birthday was in March of '61. If this bike could talk...
The headset wasn't in quite so good a condition:
Original bearings weren't obvioulsy buggered, but looks like time for a run to the bike shop for a bearing race...
More as time permits.
Had some 26" wheels and whitewalls and some nice retro handlebars laying around from another bike project that didn't turn out as well as I would have liked (making a rat rod out of a discarded mountain bike). So when I ran across a Schwinn Speedster frame on Craigslist, the gears started meshing...
The starting point:
First things first. Made sure the frame was decently straight, which consisted of eyeballing it- everything looks decent. The crank and headset both turned a bit stiff, but nothing binding or uneven. The seat post came right out with a bit of twisting and some WD-40, so that's one less potential headache.
Time to get to work.
Pulling the crank revealed a pleasant surprise or two. It was apparent that the crank had never been rebuilt- I recognized the gooey, peanut butter factory grease from my days as a bicycle mechanic back in the 1970s. But the stuff apparenly does its job well- everything inside was in remarkable shape. And despite all of the external rust, the crank innards were perfectly preserved:
So I'm guessing that S*A*3*61 means "Schwinn Approved" with a March, 1961 build date. My fourth birthday was in March of '61. If this bike could talk...
The headset wasn't in quite so good a condition:
Original bearings weren't obvioulsy buggered, but looks like time for a run to the bike shop for a bearing race...
More as time permits.
