any 'steel is real' riders?

[w0nderer]

only/topic

[vanamonde]

1. absolutely

Since '74

[Kolesar]

2. Steel Bianchi

Steel Trek mountain bike that I detuned into a 26" touring bike.
I bought my wife an aluminum bike two years ago. It has a carbon fork, so it is not buzzy or painful. It is light and fast.

[w0nderer]

5. a 720 -98 and a 750 -95 (trek)

both into touring (double racks butterfly handles and spd pedals)
(not to mention bearing upgrades all around)
and a flax seed oil inside rust proofing
sorry took me so long to answer


bianchi is a sweet steel ride
their frames ride like cheesecake (sweet n smooth)

[happyslug]

3. I am rebuilding a Schwinn 1972 SPORTS TOURER

It has 27 inch rims, which I have purchased new tire and inner-tubes for. It has the original rims and cranks. I am putting it together and hopefully in the next few weeks have it together to see if I have to replace any of the Components. Right now all of them look good, but I am afraid I will have to replace the wheels (The spokes have rust on them, not a good sign). I will test it on someplace FLAT to see if the brake cables need to be changed (I suspect they do and may do it before I do the actual test but I am hopeful).

The rear gears look solid, but I have been using a Cannondale over the last 20 years and I have had to replace the rear gears every 4-5 years (It helps that I have two IDENTICAL rear wheels, that spread out the wear on the gears).

My biggest problem is changing the wheels. It looks like I will have to go with 700 C Wheels which are 8 mm SHORTER then 27 inch wheels. The brakes (Which still function very well) seems to have the ability to go the 8 mm but that may be solved by going with a 700 with a 35mm tire instead of a 28mm tire (The 27 inch has a 1 1/4 tire, about 31 mm). With increase tire width you have increased TIRE height, thus I may NOT need ALL 8 mm (The increase tire height may push the 700 c Wheels well within the coverage of the brakes).

The wheels I am looking at are Peter While Wheels for he sells the Schmidt SON generator:


http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt.asp

The problem is none of them are cheap, $303 just for the generator.

Shimano XT M760 hubs, Mavic A719 silver rims, 14-16 Wheelsmith spokes, 36 spokes which sells for $404

Thus I am looking at $707 even before I look at the parts I need on the bike to get them to work. I am looking at $1000. Something I can NOT afford at the present time, but I am trying to reduce my expenses so I can. Even at $1000, it is still cheaper then Waterford, but I will see what works on the bike before I do anything major.

http://waterfordbikes.com/w/

[w0nderer]

7. :-))

spreading the wear over cassette/fw does help

in fact i just recommended that to a guy in 'working poor' group

you are sticking with 27 as opposed to converting to 700?

still those bikes are great rides

[happyslug]

9. I wrote that three years ago

I did keep the 27 inch tires. I use 700cc interludes for the 27 inch tire is just a little bit larger then the 700cc. The front gears were usable and the rear gears only needed cleaning. I had to replace the front wheel when I bent it trying to tighten down the spokes. I also had to replace the seat post; the one that came with it was short and I needed some additional height and my local bike shop, in the same family for over 50 years, had one in stock. They also replaced the front wheel and redid the rear gears for me.

On the net I found an extension for the front handlebars thus I moved the handlebar to a higher position. I replace all of the cables with red cables and painted the bike red (it had been a light green but had extension surface rust that I removed and then painted). I also found on the net red clips which I installed.

I installed silver fenders and a new leather seat. Installed red wrappings on the handlebars. I installed a red front bag. The Schwinn is presently it is in storage. Come winter I will install studded tires on my Cannondale mountain bike for use when it snows or ice is a problem.

On days when the roads are clear I will bring out the Schwinn. Riding the Schwinn on clear days is easier then changing the tires on the Cannodale. I notice the increase roll resistance when using the studded tires, but then I also do not lose Traction on the ice when I am using studded tires. Thus till the weather breaks the studded tires stay on the Cannondale and when the roads are clear I ride the Schwinn. When the weather is bad I go with the studded tires. Right now I am riding the Cannodale with 1 1/2 inch wide 26 inch tires. I did not have to change tires till late December last year and I will avoid doing so as long as possible yet his year. When I do the Schwinn will come out for use on nice days.

[w0nderer]

10. sorry a bit behind on my 'mail'

was the leather saddle a brooks?

the stuff you had showed (then) was really cool, feel up to giving some images now


i'm riding 2 treks right now 720 and 750 cromoly 1994 and 1998 both set up for short medium distance touring/commuting


the one cdale i have is a t2k (touring) but way to stiff unless i drop extra 40 pounds in the panniers

did you coat the inside of the steel frame?

[happyslug]

12. The inside of the steel frame were solid,

Remember the Schwinn I am riding I'd a Chrome-moly frame, thus tendency for surface rust only. The saddle is a Brooks B-17 saddle. I have a Brooks saddlebag attached to the seat. It was a 20 year old seat bag that I had to use plastic quick ties to attach to the seat for the old leather straps broke on me. I had purchased a new Brooks bag for the Cannondale so the Schwinn inherited the old bag.

[w0nderer]

15. all my steel are cro-moly as well

i'd still either
framesave
boeing tshield
or
flax seed oil
the inside of the frame, condensation easily builds in bb area and even worse if it's a lugged frame it'll go for the lugs

mine are not lugged

b-17 the saddle that has had religions dedicated to it

[happyslug]

16. Except for the Paramount, Schwinn chrome moly frames were not lugged

Last edited Thu Oct 15, 2015, 11:33 AM - Edit history (1)

From what I have read Schwinn's chrome-moly frames, except for the paramounts, were all brazed not lugged. Prior to 1980 and the introduction of TIG welding, Schwinn was one of the few non lugged chrome-moly frames. I suspect Schwinn had purchased some brazing equipment during WWII to do some of its defence work (Schwinn made shells during WWII). Schwinn used that equipment to make its second tier chrome-moly frames (the top tier was the Parmounts). After WWII Schwinn returned to making bikes but decided to use that brazing equipment to makes its second tier bikes. They had enough equipment to make a limited number of bikes, which Schwinn sold. Schwinn NEVER pushed these bikes, I suspect for the simple reason Schwinn sold all they could make. To make more required buying additional brazing equipment which Schwinn did not want to do(the equipment is much more expensive then normal welding equipment and more expensive then later TIG welding equipment).

Thus Schwinn never pushed these second tier bikes for even without advertising they sold all they made. On the other hand Schwinn management of the 1950s and 1960s wanted max profits not investments in the future, thus no push to increase sales on these second tier bikes (even in the Schwinn catalogs these were NOT pushed as Chrome-moly frames, the bike dealers knew and the bike riders who wanted better bike knew of them, but not your average bike rider). This was one of the biggest mistakes Schwinn management made in that time period.

Schwinn was known as the premier bike name of the period but instead of pushing the overall quality of their bikes management went for max profits during that time period. Thus in the 1970s Schwinn was passed by, first by people opting for imported "English racer" type bikes, then by cheap lugged imports which were not as good as the second tier Schwinn bikes (top tier lugged bikes competed with Schwinn's Paramont), then by mountain bikes (the first mountain bikes used Schwinn frames from its old rural fat tire bikes).

The fall of Schwinn is an example of family owned business that preferred short term profits over long term survival of the business. Thus my 1972 Schwinn is a lugless chrome moly frame with a drain hole in the bottom bracket (Schwinn had top notch engineers design these frames), a brazed on kickstand (which some people disliked) and a brazed on rear fender attachment point, all in the area of the bottom bracket. It is a very good design for the early 1970s. Schwinn's problem was not it's products, it's engineering or its workers, but it's management more worried about profits then product. That is always a death call for a business that makes things.

[w0nderer]

19. when i got into the business (on the US side at least)

Schwinn had already moved to the big box stores

I know the old ones were nice (although considered heavy by euro standards i guess)

anyway, any cro moly (from what both park tool and barnett bicycle institute trainers told us could stand a frame saving)


i'm glad you ride steel

yeah schwinn made a couple of mistakes, one was missing the mtb fad as you mention
another was not keeping quality up as you also mentioned

where i used to work was a former Schwinn dealer, had all the things (wall clock, lit sign) but they gave up in the early 1990'ies

ride on and be safe

[happyslug]

20. Schwinn went bankrupt in 1992, its name was then sold for it had value, the rest of Schwin is gone.

Thus the Schwinn of today has nothing to do with the Schwinn pre 1992. The name was sold off to a Taiwan bicycle company that also owns Huffy. Thus, except for the name, the Schwinn of today has nothing to do with the pre1992 Schwinn. The Taiwan company wanted the name and that is all they bought. The factory Schwinn had set up to make its Paramount bikes was sold to Waterford bikes (and they are forbidden to use the Schwinn or Paramount names for those Names are owned by others).

Waterford is a premium bicycle maker today but makes nothing but custom built bikes.

[w0nderer]

21. the Taiwan company was called pacific bicycles

and also now owns (at least as of early last year) Cannondale although they are running cannondale as a separate brand (not a name buy up)


There was also a factory in Taiwan (at that time Giant manufacturing later Giant bicycles) which schwinn used in the later years

that part i did learn from owner of store i worked in which was a Giant dealer

[happyslug]

17. I prefer the B-135 on my Cannondale.

Those massive Springs do reduce the impact from the potholes I have to ride over (and the patches the city does to them, repaving is a word unknown to local city officials). Thus they are people who REJECT the B-17 for its more massive brother, the B- 135.

[frylock]

4. does 4130 count?

My Redline Monocog Flight 29er is made from butted Sanko steel. I did swap out the rigid for a Fox 32 Float though.

[w0nderer]

6. how did people answering to this thread miss me?

of course it counts

can you stick a magnet to it? then it counts

[frylock]

13. I've added a couple since my previous post..

a 2013 Surly Krampus, which may be my best build yet, and a mostly original 1984 Schwinn High Sierra I found on craigs the other day.

[w0nderer]

14. nice ! :-) once most of us go steel we don't go back n/t

[vanamonde]

8. yep! (n/t)

[w0nderer]

11. hi welcome wanna share ride? share the ride as show the ride

pictures are so cool

[olddots]

18. who doesn't want a Moots ?