1964 Schwinn Traveler Project Continues Toward Christmas

 It's hard to believe that we've already reached Christmas 2021. The year has kind of flown by, and the riding season always seems to end too soon for me. But here we are in December and the wintry mix is coming down...

Meanwhile I am continuing to work on this very nice 1964 Schwinn Traveler three speed bike. This project has been a little bit different from usual for me in that I'm working indoors. The plus is obviously heat, electricity, internet, etc. in the work area. The downside is I'll have to carry the bike outside once the time comes to put it on the road. But so far so good in this improvised indoor shop.

 

The bike is coming together nicely. 

 

 The original Schwinn cable housings are grey, though they were kind of a generic thing that Schwinn used on many different color bikes. I think for this black bike with light colored grips that white housing looks fairly nice. 

 

One issue with the bike is that the original upright Sturmey shifter took a beating. I can fix the dent in the face plate (you can disassemble and fix these old shifters), but the paint is faded pretty badly.

Fortunately, I have a nice "upside down" style painted face shifter from the late 1950s on hand. I'll use this better and somewhat earlier shifter on the bike. I think it goes pretty well with this project.

I originally intended to use the original Union chain, but the old chain seemed to cause trouble with rear wheel spacing in the dropout (front/back spacing, that is). I have put on a new SRAM PC-1 nickel plated chain, which looks nice on the bike and provides very nicely center rear wheel spacing.

So far so good... 

I still need to make a shifter cable. You have two basic choices today - you can use a generic shifter cable with a pinch bolt mount at the back, or you can make a fixed-length cable similar to the original if you have the correct tool (a Bell Systems cable crimper and hobby brass tubing stock). I'll probably go with the fixed length to provide a nice, period correct look. The housing for that will also be white.

 

May Santa bring you a mint, 70 year old bicycle of your choice... 

or at least some new tires... 

and maybe some brake cables.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!