Progress- 1957 Schwinn Traveler Tall Frame

 I've been working gradually on a 1957 Schwinn Traveler tall frame. This one is in pretty good shape, and I really like the color. 

 

The work included 

• general cleaning, 
• straight and polish stainless fenders
  
• clean-up and tighten the fender braces, 
• check all bearings and races, add grease where needed,
  
• verify frame and fork straightness, 
• straighten and re-build brake calipers,
• clean and polish brake levers,
  
• clean and polish all chrome, 
• clean-up and true wheels, 
• new front axle, 
• new tires, 
• cr-mo seat post,
• new SRAM nickel plated chain, 
• remove old electrical tape and tape residue,
• patch-up paint here and there,
  
• and new Brooks leather saddle.

My light set will be a Kiley retro LED front and a Soma torpedo retro LED rear. Brake housing will be grey, similar to the original housings. I'll have all new brake cables. I'll custom fit a fixed-length Sturmey Archer shifter cable in grey housing. Pedals will either be new-old-stock waffle block Unions or new MKS 3000S rubber block pedals. I have a couple sets of original Union bow pedals, but I've always preferred square, beefier rubber blocks over the rounded bows.

This bike came with a 1957 dated Sturmey SW hub. This particule SW actually seems to work with its stock, 18-tooth cog. The issue with the SW is that it stays in gear... until suddenly it does not stay in gear. I've never had much luck with SW hubs staying in gear once the cog is changed up to a 22-tooth. Some of them work OK with the stock cog and in perfect conditions. The minute the floating pawls in the SW want to stick at all, they seem to cam out of gear. It's not a big deal if you're just puttering around the neighborhood, but if you're climbing and putting effort into pedaling, it can mean a trip over the handlebars. We have some pretty challenging hills around here too...

So I decided in the end to replace the SW hub with a 1957 AW alloy hub. It's from the same year, also 36 holes, and a lot more reliable with the 22-tooth rear cog. I also have all the parts I need to keep it tuned-up.

It will make a nice match for the 1959 Traveler tall frame I rebuilt a couple months ago.