1976 Schwinn Varsity: Restoration Complete

Prior to today, I'd been slowly working at the Schwinn when I wasn't doing school work or wrenching on my other bikes.  My friend who commissioned me to do this doesn't ride in the winter so he said there was no rush at all.

One of my friends who has access to the machine shop helped me grind the old kickstand thing off.  The kickstand was long gone and the sleeve it went into was badly rusted.  These brazed-on Schwinn kickstands were really tough, but I suppose that doesn't make a difference when they're not actually on the bike ...

Repairing Shoes with Rubber from Bikes

I must give credit where it is due and the video below is what inspired me.

Thank you, Tyrone Corbett.

The spare tire in my station wagon doesn't hold air anymore so I tried convincing my mom that we should get a new spare for it and donate the old one to me to repair my shoes.  That plan didn't succeed so I did what logically was the next best thing: I used an old city bike tire to re-sole my beloved Nikes.  

Complete, As Far As I Know: 1979 Raleigh Superbe

The week I got Gilbert running, extensive road testing began.  

First, though, I had to deal with shifting problems.  That cable clamp in the center of the photo is mounted backwards.  If I used it the right way, it couldn't be clamped hard enough to prevent the cable housing from slipping.  When I tightened it down just enough to keep it still, the housing was crushed and I wasn't able to move the cable.  I decided to free the clamp from its clamping duties and use as just a cable stop.  I have learned that no matter how much money is spent, nothing is guaranteed free of my hackery so I might as well stop counting on "plug and play" kits.  Also, the English white tail had to be painted onto the rear fender.  

That feeling when your bike has a Valentine on Valentine's Day and you don't (kidding, that photo was taken earlier).  

Also, yes, it is locked the wrong way but that was corrected after the photo to the right was taken.  

Gilbert Lives!

After a heavy week at school, I was finally able to relax on Friday afternoon.  Except, I didn't actually relax.  My plan was to do as much work as I possibly could on my Raleigh Superbe and my friend's Schwinn while still getting my other homework done.  Having set aside the entire afternoon for play time, I had lunch at noon and got to work.

The new spokes arrived more than a week ago so I got to work lacing the hubs into the wheels and truing them.  I used the bike as the truing stand and made a jig out of a Cap'n Crunch cereal box (it's my favorite cereal so I have a bunch of those lying around).  I used removable strength Loc-tite in hopes of preventing the nipples from rotating in the recessed spoke holes.

Snow Ridin'

Some people may be aware that much of the U.S, notably the eastern half, has just received a little more snow than it was hoping for (this headline though).  After most of the winter went by without snow, here we are in Ann Arbor / Detroit with more or less a foot in most places.  That isn't "too much" by my standards, but it certainly increased the level of both fun and inconvenience at the same time.

Varsity Restoration Continues

It's kind of hard to keep track of how long I've been working on my friend's Schwinn because it's been so on-and-off between school work and the other bikes.  Because of this, I'm going to stop counting it in days. I guess this is the third significant chunk of time, say about three hours, that I've sat down (stood up, rather) to get a visible amount of work done.