MKS 3000S/3000R Pedal Overhaul

I wrote awhile back about MKS 3000S model pedals as a good option for both English and American 3-speed style bikes. MKS produces the 3000S with both a 9/16 axle (good for English 3-speeds) and a 1/2 inch axle (good for American bikes, like a Schwinn 3-speed). 

 It has been said by a number of people that the MKS pedals are generally well-made, but that from the factory, they tend to be over-tightened and under-greased.So I decided to take a look for myself. I have one set of new MKS 3000S going on my 1949/50 Schwinn Superior and I have another set of 3000S that have one season's worth of ride time on them for my 1960s Schwinn Racer.

The results of opening up the pedals were encouraging: the new pedals had an adequate amount of grease. They didn't have as much as I would have used, and it was not as good a grease as I would use, but I would call it "adequate" and not something where you should feel compelled to open them up brand new. The pedals with one season of ride time on them had a little wear, but nothing unusual. Again, the grease was adequate and the pedals spun freely.

 

 So that brings us to the question of how to overhaul the 3000S or 3000R type pedals. It turns out that it's not all that hard. The pedals have 11 bearings in the inner cup, and 11 bearings in the outer cup. The bearings are of a loose type and not caged. The factory grease is a basic, amber type that is a little sticky and not "slick" the way green Lucas grease would be.

First, remove the two nuts over the outer plate.Then remove the outer place - it will slide off over the pedal block spindles.

Second, unscrew (counter-clockwise) the lock nut. It helps if you set the axle flat in a small vise to do this. 

 Third, remove the lock spacer - it should slide right off. Note the orientation of the spacer: it has an oval-shaped opening so that it does not turn, but rather pulls off.

Fourth, unscrew the the outer cone (counter-clockwise).

Fifth, remove the core assembly from the vise while holding it together. Do not allow the core axle and the "dogbone" shell to separate because the bearings will try to come out everywhere. Instead, remove the whole thing from the vise as a unit, then carefully disassemble over a paper towel or work bench so that the bearings don't get all over the place.

Sixth, clean and check all bearings, cups, and cones.

Seventh, re-grease with a good quality grease. I use Lucas green grease.

Eighth, Now we can reassmble. Place the bearings in the cups at the ends of the dogbone shaped shell. Push the axle core and the dogbone with the bearings together so that the bearings in the inner cup stay put.

Ninth, carefully replace the assembly in the vise, taking especial care not to let the bearings run out of the inner cup.

Tenth, screw down the outer cone so that the bearings are now all held in check. Carefully set the tension of the cone so that the bearings turn freely, but that there is not excessive play (too loose) or binding (too tight).

Eleventh, push on the lock spacer and then tighten down the lock nut. You may have to fiddle with both the lock nut and the cone nut to get the final tension you want.

Twelfth, slide the cage with the rubber blocks onto the pedal core, replace the outer plate, and then screw down the outer nuts on the block spindles. 

More Progress on Schwinn Superior 3 Speed and Talking About Wheels

 Another weekend means more progress on the Schwinn Superior 3 speed. I spent pretty much all of my free time this weekend on the wheelset.

Wheels tend to be among the slowest parts to clean, adjust, and prepare. They're important parts on the bike, and they're also one of the more complicated parts for a bike like this, being composed of many smaller parts that all must balance one to form a good set of working wheels.

This wheelset has a January 1949 Sturmey Archer AW rear hub, Schwinn script hourglass front hub, 36 count of 11 3/8 double butted spokes, long spoke nipples, and Schwinn S6 stainless steel rims. The lacing pattern is 36, cross 4. Spoke tension is relatively low by modern standards. 

Triage: Hubs, Rims, then Spokes

So this brings up the inevitable question of how to address old wheelsets that aren't in the best shape on earth, but still are worth fixing. I'll go through my triage of how to deal with old wheelsets:

• Are you keeping the original hubs? The first thing you need to know is whether the bearings on the hubs are in good shape. Are the cups still good? Usually you can replace bearings and cones, but on certain hubs, cups may be integral to the hub shell. On other hubs you might be able to swap cups. But before going further, ask yourself if the hubs are in a condition that you would keep them and just clean them up.
  

• So you know now that you have good enough hubs, and that you're keeping them on the wheels. That is great. Next, how are the rims? Are they badly rusted? Badly dented? You can work dents out of rims using a ball peen hammer and crescent wrench. Or you can work them straight using specially design "rim pliers". To the clever and the willing, almost any repair is possible. But is it worth keeping? That depends on the condition and rarity of the rim. In any event, the second factor to consider is rim condition. 
  

• Last comes the spoke set. Spokes can be replaced individually or entirely, it's up to you. How rusted are the spokes? Are they badly bent? Surface rust isn't a big deal, but the spoke surface should remain smooth and not have craters. Replace any spokes that have deep pitting. With old-style, plated or galvanized spokes, you can use bronze wool, very fine steel wool, or a brass bristle brush for clean up. If the rust is modest, try to preserve as much of the plating or coating as you can. If the surface rust has eaten up the coating, but the underlying steel is still good, you can use the metal bristle brush to go down to steel. Just be sure to check for re-rusting frequently if you have to do that. You can use the butt of the spoke wrench to straighten slight bends or kinks in a spoke. But very bad bends or cuts should lead to replacing the spoke. Don't try to stick with really bad spokes - it's a safety issue.

Below is a photo of my working the spokes with a metal bristle brush. These spokes are structurally sound, but have considerable rust on the surface. The plating/coating is basically gone, but the underlying steel is still good. I could buy spokes and replace these, or I can try to clean them. The part is "only original once", as they say, so I cleaned these and will periodically put a little oil on them and check for re-rusting. It's worth keeping as many circa 1949 parts on the bike as I reasonably can do while still keeping it a safe ride.

 Truing of the wheels, at least as part of the restoration should be done on a truing stand. Don't try to do it on the bike if you can help it, especially when working with old wheels that are new to you. You can true on the bike once they're all good and you need to do an occasional, minor re-true. But for that first tensioning and truing of wheels for your project, use a proper stand. I use a budget model "Wheelmaster" wheel stand. Park makes an even better one. You can even make your own out of an old bicycle fork and some spare parts if you're creative.

Tires and Tubes

My philosophy is that tires and tubes are basically "wear items" and that safety is paramount. If you can source good original tires, great. But don't force yourself to ride damaged tires, or tires/tubes with numerous patches. Buy yourself new tires or at least new-ish tires in good shape. They don't have to be brand new, but they should not be fossilized either. On these wheels, I'll be using new Kenda tires in the 37-597mm size. This is correct for the Schwinn wheels. Older tires tended to be of higher quality than new Chinese production tires, but these aren't bad and the will work for the bike. I wish a US-based company would produce good quality tires for these old 3-speeds again.

Below are the wheels with plenty of greasy thumbprints still on them, but new rim tape, tires, and tubes. They are tensioned and trued. The spokes are a dull, grey color - steel. The surface rust is gone, but then so is the anti-rust coating they would have had when new. I'll have to keep an eye on them to keep rust at bay. But they are much better now.

A note about dry rot: people often say when they see a few cracks in the sidewalls of a tire that it's "dry rot". Technically this is not so. True dry rot is the degradation of the core of the tire over time. This is where the inner core of the tire breaks and delaminates. The external/superficial cracking of a tire is something different - it's the elastomer slowly leaving the rubber and superficial cracks starting. Below is an example of true dry rot - notice the inner core of the tire is broken and totally delaminated in this spot. A tire with this kind of true dry rot can fail spectacularly and lead to serious injury if you're riding (especially if it's the front tire).

Rim Strips

Don't overlook the strips that protect the tubes from the spoke nipples and rim. I like heavy cloth tape, such as is produced in France today. There are a couple of brands, and they all work pretty well. Just make sure you get the correct width for your bike. Rubber rim strips also work, though I prefer the tape. I advise against using masking tape or duct/"duck" tape. They are not nearly as well-suited for this kind of work as the heavy cloth tape or the rubber strips.

 

Current Project: 1949 or 50 Schwinn Superior

 

 

The post-war Schwinn Superior is somewhat of an oddity in that it was the case of a model being re-added to the product line up and stuffed in the middle of Schwinn's offerings for only a couple of years. Prior to WWII, the Superior was the model one step below the Paramount, and it had been a fillet brazed, premium bicycle. So before WWII, the New World was the base model, the Superior was in the middle, and the Paramount was top of the line.

After WWII, Schwinn changed things a bit. The New World remained the base level bicycle, and the Paramount remained the top of the line. However, Schwinn added the Continental model (not to be confused with the later 10-speed Continental) as the mid-level model. The Continental was  a fillet brazed, Chromium-Molybdenum steel bicycle. This was the model range, at least as of 1947-48 (1945-46 seems to have been a developmental period where the post-war models were taking shape).

Not long after that, probably in early 1949, Schwinn re-added the Superior model to the line up, but this time they added it in above the New World but below the Continental. The result was a short-lived model that had an electro-forge welded frame of carbon steel, but a brazed and seamless bottom bracket running a three-piece cottered crank set. These models seem to have made use of the seamless bottom brackets used on Schwinn Tandems of that era (at least the few models I have come across had Tandem style serial numbers).

 

A few weeks ago, I came across an incomplete 1949 or 1950 Schwinn Superior for sale. What took me the most was the color - a medium green type of color. It was different from later 1950s Opal Green, and it had some attractive elements. The wheels were missing and the bicycle had been stored out in California for many years. It had some black spray paint on it, probably overspray from a another project in the area where it was stored. 

So I bought the odd project and went to work on it. I've been at it for several weeks now. It is very much similar to a Schwinn New World of that era, but with some embellishments, and with the odd combo of cottered cranks and an electro-forged frame. The unique "Schwinn" and "Superior" frame graphics are in somewhat rough shape. 

Bottom Bracket

So let's venture right into the odd part of this frame - the Tandem-type bottom bracket. The bike has a T-series serial number, "AS" marked bottom bracket cups, and a "Schwinn" script spindle. Each side of the bottom bracket takes 11 1/4 inch bearing balls (22 1/4 inch bearing balls in total). The cups are blued and the lock ring is chrome. I use an adjustable pin spanner and medium-sized C-spanner to work on these. The size of the c-spanned is the 1-1/4 to 3 inch adjustable type. The tools can be gotten for cheap online.

Paint

The paint is a unique green that only appears to have been used briefly by Schwinn. By the 1950s, Schwinn switched to a more "candy" Opal Green color. This color is has some metallic type shine to it, but also has a little bit of pastel green to it as well. It's very hard to describe this color because it is much less translucent than the 1950s Opal Green. Suffice to say, you'll need to do some paint mixing to match it. I don't know of anyone who makes this color read-to-go in the bottle. 

So my paint was this: Testors Flat Beret Green as a base color. Then add Testors Teal metallic and add Testors Aluminum with eye droppers until the paint matches. The fenders are a little more faded than the frame, so I had to mix two separate amounts in a "match as you go" sort of way. 

The white is not truly white, which may be partly due to aging. The paint is Testors Flat White as a base, coupled with Testors Light Ivory as an add-in, again using the eye dropper to gradually mix until you get what you want.

The bike has a neat imitation of the English "white tip" on the rear fender. I am not aware of any US law that required white tips, whereas the British passed a white-tip law for their rear fenders. It is probably a case of Schwinn imitating English style. I really like the white and green combo.

 

I recommend Testors small glass bottle oil enamels because they are relatively easy to mix, clean up with regular paint thinner, and remain workable enough to do what you need to, without drying too slowly or too quickly.

Graphics/Transfers

This bike has some unique "chevron" type transfers, as well as the "Superior" transfer on the frame. They're in kind of rough shape, and from what I have seen of these bikes, it's pretty common that they're beat up. I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean up what is left of these transfers.

"Bring Your Own Wheels / BYOW"

This project came without wheels. Through a helpful seller on the Classic and Antique Bicycle Exchange, I located a set of 1949 stainless Schwinn S6 wheels to use on the bike. A perfect match for this Superior.

 

Saddle

The bike's stock saddle is a horsehair and fabrikoid mattress saddle, with springs like a Brooks B66 or similar would have. It was a solid, basic saddle in its day. A good leather saddle would always be a nice upgrade. 

Final Thoughts for Today

This Schwinn Superior feels to me like a "better New World" bike. It has a few nice upgrades over a basic, black New World (I love my 1947 New World still), but it's by no means upscale with the Continental or Paramount. It's an interesting case of a short-lived, but well-made bicycle sandwiched into the Schwinn line up for just a couple years after WWII. I'm hopeful this one rides as well as any post-war Schwinn "lightweight".