Vintage Bicycle Repair and Riding: American and English Bicycles
These Schwinn grips cleaned up nicely. I used a combination of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and water, followed by John Deere Ultraguard. I recommend the Ultraguard especially if you like to preserve old rubber parts. I much prefer it over Armorall and similar.
They have that classic 1960's Schwinn look.
Cleaning up the frame for the 1964 Schwinn Traveler project...
The seat tube transfer has aged some, but is still quite nice!
By the 1960s, Schwinn was moving away from traditional, US-made Torrington pedals for many of its bikes, and going with Schwinn Approved pedals from Germany. Among these were the Union waffle block pedals, and the rounded "bow" type pedals.
These pedals came in several varieties, with later bow pedals being unable to be disassembled, and earlier ones like these "large cap" bow pedals being something you can take apart and service.
So that's what I did this afternoon. The large dust cap with the Schwinn logo on it "pops" off. I used a pair of needle nose pliers like a bottle opener, getting the jaws under the ridge in the cap and levering the cap off.
After that, it's a fairly conventional pedal: lock nut, keyed spacer, and cone are removed.
Outer bearings are removed individually with the needle nose pliers. Then the pedal is removed from the vise, and the inner bearings dumped into a little pan.
All bearings and surfaces are degreased and cleaned. The rubbers are also cleaned. The rubbers and frame I kept together and did not need to disassemble the pad/frame assembly.
Then everything is greased with Lucas green lithium grease and re-assembled. The bearings and surfaces look good.
And so the final product is an attractive, functional set of pedals. I don't consider these to be of extraordinarily good quality, but they're like the old waffle block pedals: serviceable and functional.
There is a great deal for which to be thankful this year - family, friends, business, good bike projects. The bike season here is over, but the holiday season is ramping up and it's a nice time of the year.
So without further delay... a deep fried Thanksgiving turkey.
17-pound fresh turkey (don't try frying the frozen ones!)
3 gallons of oil at 350 deg F
62 min cook time
Tastes great!
Happy Thanksgiving
Cold weather has arrived and will be here for a day or two yet. So that means indoor time cleaning and prepping parts for the 1964 Schwinn Traveler project.
The parts on this Traveler are surprisingly nice and original. The red dot Weinmann brake levers polished up very bright, and the the stem and handlebars came out great.
I use a copper bristle brush or bronze wool to remove light surface rust, along with a dose of WD-40 or similar rust remover. I then clean with acetone, and follow-up with polishing using Simichrome polish. I then take another acetone rag and remove the polish residue.
The result is clean and shiny bright parts. Schwinn used quality chrome plating in this period, and the Weinmann alloy parts are in good shape (and lightweight to boot).
I recently purchased a 1964 Schwinn Traveler three-speed from an online auction. This particular bike appears to have gotten very few miles, still having its original tires, handlebar grips, and brake pads. Here is the seller's photo of the bike, before any work has been done:
I was drawn to this project because of its completeness, good originality, and the fact that it is one of the last three speed Schwinns with the "classic" post-war Traveler features: stainless steel shark fin fenders, extra long chrome and paint chainguard, reverse color handgrips, etc. Someone added safety reflectors to the wheels, but this is not a permanent change.
Overall, I am optimistic about this one. The bike is now in pieces in my shop undergoing cleaning and re-building.
One place to check for mileage, neglect, or abuse is the bearing surfaces. This includes the bearing balls, the cones, and the cups in the various high-wear joints. Inspecting this project, the bearing surfaces in this 9/1964 hub are quite smooth still, with relatively low wear. The drive train parts - cog and sprocket also show very limited wear. Bearing balls are all clean, smooth, and shiny. There is a little gunk around the edges, but it will clean up fine.
Another place to look for abuse and neglect is the wheel rim. Abused rims will tend to show dings, distortions, and other structure damage. Neglected rims tend to rust, especially on the inside around where the eyelets. In this case, the rim is very clean. The spokes also retain their grey coating and none appear to be badly bent, rusted, or broken. These are all good signs.
One final word about "out-of-the-box rides". What I mean here is when someone immediately assembles an old bike found in the wild, from the shipping box, and then rides it without additional work. An alternative situation is when someone finds a bike at the thrift shop, yard sale, garage sale, and immediately starts riding it in a significant way (more than just a short test ride).
Do not give in to the temptation to just start riding the bike a lot. If there's old sand or grit, or there is incipient damage, it will get worse if you just start riding the bike without tear-down, cleaning, and re-lubrication. A short test ride is fine, but don't take an "in the wild" bike and just start riding it a lot. If you absolutely must just ride the bike and not work on it, buy from a hobbyist or shop that has gone over the bike already.
I'll close with something more positive. I thought I would focus for a moment on one of the parts about these old Schwinns I really like: the "Schwinn Approved" Weinmann 810 brake calipers. These calipers are generally plentiful, and parts are widely available on the secondary market. They are reasonably light for a 1950s-60s era caliper, and they tend to be pretty reliable. They're not the strongest or lightest calipers, but they are pretty good for the time period in which they were made.
Below is a "before and after" sort of shot. The caliper on the left is from this project, but has not been cleaned, greased, and polished yet. The caliper on the right has been gone over. These calipers function well and also are quite handsome, especially once they are cleaned and polished.
