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Sunday, April 29, 2018

1947 Schwinn New World Bottom Bracket Re-Grease

Part of owning old bikes is just doing maintenance. It's nice to clean up an old bike you've found, and return it to the road. But once you've already done this and have been riding the bike awhile, you'll eventually need to clean, re-grease, and do other maintenance.

For example, these Kenda tires are 5-6 years old at this point. They've seen moderate use in generally good riding conditions. These sidewall cracks are normal for tires like this and are not very deep at this point. They are cosmetic, but it's worth looking over your tires once per riding season to see what you have going.


 On to the Bottom Bracket

 I re-built this 1947 Schwinn New World over the course of winter 2012-13. In fact, I talked about cleaning and re-greasing the bottom  bracket on this particular bike in December 2012 (more here).


How often should you re-grease? 

 It depends on what you're re-greasing (bottom brackets see a lot of RPMs); how much you ride the bike; and the sorts of conditions where you're riding. A commuter bike that sees a lot of miles in bad weather may need a complete tear down and re-grease one or even twice per year. A vintage bike that sees only parade use might need it every few years, just to keep the grease fresh.



This particular bike is in between - it's a vintage bike ridden in only decent conditions, though it sees more use than a parade bike does. I rotate this bike alongside other vintage bikes, but it does see a fair bit of mileage for an old bike.


So I took apart the bottom bracket to do a re-grease. The first sign is good - the old grease is still there in quantity and is not dried out or contaminated. This comes from riding the bike in only dry, decent weather. This particular grease is a plain, hardware store brown lithium grease.


 A closer look reveals the bearing tracks have a little wear on them, but nothing much more than when I last re-built the bottom bracket in 2012-13. The wear tracks are shiny but not pitted or very deep. These cups run smoothly and are original to the bike.  Schwinn made these right.



 What Grease Am I Using These Days?

 This time, I'm using a green synthetic grease formulated for high-speed bearings on farm equipment and trucks. If that sounds like overkill - it is. The thing is that I like the viscosity and workability of this grease, particularly through a small nozzle grease gun. I've had a lot of luck getting this grease into small spaces - more than I had with the brown lithium. Either grease is fine for bicycle purposes.
I switched to this green grease a couple of years ago, and really like how it works in bicycle bearings.



Some people like red Phil Wood grease, others use the hardware store lithium grease, and some even use the white lithium grease from a tube. They all work fine for vintage bike purposes where it's just a nice, old bike we're riding for fun. If you're commuting in bad weather on your bike, you may want something like Phil Wood or or this green grease made for bearings working in adverse conditions rather than a lower-cost hardware store grease.

The only grease I do suggest avoiding is the really old-style, sticky brown "axle" grease - the heavy stuff that often came in the big, metal grease guns and was used on cars. I tried using this stuff years ago, and it's not as good an option.

There is no magic to "bike grease" on a bike of this sort - we're not commuting or racing here. The most important thing is not actually the grease itself, but that you bother to do the maintenance.

Anyway, I then cleaned and re-greased with green grease. Again - no undue wear or damage, and the old grease showed nothing wrong. After doing these jobs, I trued the wheels a bit, adjusted the bearings a little, and went for a ride.


The bottom bracket runs as slick as ever with the green grease and adjustment I did. One-piece cranks tend to be a little heavier than three-piece cottered cranks, but they can run smoothly. They're not unduly difficult to re-build either.



Thursday, April 26, 2018

Nice, Spring Evening: 1947 Schwinn New World


We had a truly nice evening here - 75, dry, and sunny. You cannot ask for much more. That gave me a chance to take out this 1947 Schwinn New World.


This bike has wheels from a Schwinn Continental on it - aluminum front hub, double-butted spokes, and Schwinn stainless steel S6 rims. Those lighter wheels make the bike a joy to ride - it's well-balanced and very well-behaved at just about any speed.


This New World has many of the classic "American" touches - art deco winged Schwinn chain guard; Schwinn monogram bolts; razor-back stem; finger groove Schwinn grips; and skip-tooth gearing on a one-piece crank. This is a truly American take on the traditional English 3-speed bike concept.


Here we are in late April and finally, the leaves are really starting to come out. The last month of winter and the first month of spring were generally quite cool, but now things seem to be warming up and really turning over to better weather. I'm glade for that too - I'd certainly ready for peak riding season and lots of sunlight into the evenings.  This Schwinn sure seems ready for it too.


Sunday, April 22, 2018

1941 Schwinn New World - Good Weather


More good weather today - time to keep dusting off and getting bikes going again for the season. I have not ridden this Schwinn New World since the end of last season, so time for a ride. This maroon color has a "very 1940s" look to it.



It's a nice, simple old bike.


Saturday, April 21, 2018

April 21 - Schwinn Continental 3-Speed

Over the past few years, I have inadvertently been keeping ride "logs" of sorts on my hard drive. When I take photos of my rides, I make a folder with the date on which the photos were taken, and add the pictures to that folder.


My folders for day "April 21" show that I was able to ride on April 21, 2016 (1946 Hercules Model C); April 21, 2017 (Raleigh Sprite 5-speed); and now April 21, 2018 (1947 Schwinn Continental). That means, I guess, that our weather has been generally good on April 21 for the past several years.


Given that our weather has been gradually getting warmer, and with the corrosive road salts gone now, I decided to take out one of my rarer, better bikes: the 1947 Schwinn Continental. The condition on this bike is extraordinary and it's a fun rider. I love this color blue and the silver "wing" graphics on the frame. The only thing I wish is that the fenders were also this blue color, with little silver pinstripes. That would be killer, but Schwinn didn't do that on this bike. Anyway, the stainless fenders will do just fine.






Saturday, April 14, 2018

Raleigh Sprite 5-speed on the Road: Warm Weather


85 degrees and sunny here today - this calls for a lively bicycle to really get in some good exercise. The Raleigh Sprite 5-speed offers the excellent handling and proportions of the Raleigh Sports platform, but with an up-rated, 5-speed internal gear hub - the Sturmey Archer S5.


This particular Sprite I have had for a few years now, and it is in excellent shape. I really love the bronze green paint on this bike. It really was a deluxe offering for anyone who liked the Raleigh Sports 3-speed, but wanted a little more performance.




Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Raleigh Export Model - Spring Ride




Even a little warmer today... Out and about on this Raleigh export model roadster. The cherry blossoms are also out.



Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Slowly Getting Going Again

The weather in the later phases of this winter has been rough. Winter started off mild enough - the first few weeks of December were mild, and I was still riding as late as the end of the second week of December.

But shortly after Christmas, the weather turned extremely cold. The Potomac froze over completely, which is a very rare event here in Virginia. The temperature stayed below freezing entirely and there were bursts of snow and ice.

January - March was not much better, though we were lucky enough to have a very warm day (50s-60s) occasionally. We've had a lingering winter here, with temperatures around freezing every morning until the first week of April. This is also unseasonably cold. Temperatures during the day have generally been only around 50, though we've been lucky enough to have a couple of warmer days in April.

But slowly, things are beginning to warm. Today was into the mid-50s, so I got a chance to take my 1974 Raleigh Sports for a ride. All it needed was a little air in the tires, and it ran just as well as it did when I put it away in the fall. These old Raleigh 3-speeds are very reliable and often can run well on just basic maintenance and storage.


The weather is saying temperatures into the 60s and 70s as this week progresses, so I hope to get back out several times for more rides.