72' Schwinn Continental

Those of you who already know me, know I constantly have my hands in a great many diverse and seemingly pointless and never ending projects. This blog is intended to have a few purposes: To inform my friends and family of what the hell I'm constantly doing, to help myself keep track of what I'm constantly doing, and to encourage myself to finish my many, ongoing projects.

As this is my inaugural post I decided to start with my latest project, a rough condition 72' Schwinn Continental 10spd bike. I picked up this little treasure of American engineering history for $40. As I've already started this project and have not documented it fully to this point I'll start where I am now.

This is the best image I can find of it originally, Craigslist post has been deleted so I have only Google's cache to rely on.

Since I have completely disassembled the bike to determine what components are worth keeping and which are either damaged or just poor quality.

All in all, for $40 I made out well on this. The Continental was Schwinns bottom top-end model in the early seventies. High enough quality to receive some advanced construction such as 15ga high carbon american steel tubing and electro-forged "fillet" welds. It also came with nice, balanced center pull brakes and nice aluminum components. 

The downside of American bikes from this area are their boat anchor of a solid steel one-piece axle which increase the weight of these guys by ~3lbs. The up side is they're damn near as indestructible as you get with a bike, even by modern standards. Awesome for a city commuter, which is what I have planned for this bike.

I really like the color, I may even keep this one (maybe).

After stripping and cleaning it the paint isn't in quite as good of condition as I had hoped. It's chipped and scratched in a lot of places. However, there's almost no rust on the inside or outside, no cracks or bent sections of frame. Given my disdain for painting I'll attempt to color match the paint and touch it up.

It was a real bastard to separate the fork from the headset (part that holds handlebars). All of the joints and seals were backed with dirt and dirty grease (40 years of abuse will do that, you should see Xrays of over the hill humans!). 

A quick solution to seized headsets is to flip the bike, stand on the handle bars, and place a large object (like a 2x4) at the base of the fork and twist. 

All the pieces of the bottom bracket are in great shape after a good cleaning. I soak heavily greased and seized components in kerosene (originally learned from my step dad). Although not great for your skin, organic solvents like this will break up any greasy buildup flawlessly. Chrome is simply a thin layer of Chromium, a relatively soft metal. I generally treat it pretty rough compared to most people. If components are painted or coated with anything but plastic don't do this!

Notice, no plastic. This is solid, american 70's construction.

Unfortunately the bearings in the headset/fork need replaced, they're destroyed. 

Another perk is all the chrome is in excellent shape on all of the pieces. I plan on polishing it and the aluminum to give it a jump in appearance. 

The brake and shift cables are shot. I would have likely replaced them regardless, vintage cables relied on grease to reduce friction. Modern cables have teflon/plastic coated housings which are much smoother and last much longer.

I thought about replacing the solid crank with a lighter European 3-piece, but, I like the idea of the indestructible steel crank.

I'll probably replace the seat and pedals too as they are very dated looking. They'd work but I have bigger plans for this project.

Nearly all road bikes from this era came with 27" steel wheels. They're a bit heavier but they have the benefit of being strong and they withstand more repair. There's a couple missing spokes which is not shocking. After I do some work on the sidewalls to straighten them I'll drop them off at Joe's Bike Shop in Fells for a quick truing (they're awesome). I don't posses the skill and patience for wheel tuning, yet.

It seems also that someone replaced the tires at some point in the 80's or 90's. They're in decent shape and could be ridden on, but, I may opt to swap them as the tan on black look is tacky in my opinion.

More to come!