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The "Shoulda Been" Schwinn Lightweight Project Shakedown Ride

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Gorgeous bike! I rode on the exact same bike as your first pic there for years as a teen. Miss that bike. I believe my dad gave $.50 for it... Always loved the Racer, till I didn’t and sold mine. The older I get, the more I appreciate something that isn’t a Stingray or a Balloon tire. Good looking build!
 
It’s been a while this superior tourist 1387197

is still not quite done collecting dust for 6 years needs a few finishing touches hopefully this spring/summer
 
Finished with this bike. Its as far as it will go.
From here it will go to the back of the line to do a standard maintenance and cleaning project at some time in the future. I guess this can be considered its final mock-up. Whats left to do will be that some time in the future the frame will be re-painted and all that entails. I used a different type of primer on this one and the blue is crazing, chips pop off easily also. Just not satisfactory. When I do that I will polish the wheels and replace the front "approved hub from the 70's with a 63' Sprint and the rear TCWIII with a S3C. I'm also considering a rack.
The Miller lights have been removed from their dynamo chains. The front has a battery pack inside and an on/off switch. I'm mulling around drilling a small hole in bottom side of the top tube at either end and running a power wire to the rear inside the top tube. I dont like all the wire clutter so much.
Other than that, I will be tweeking-in the seat and handlebar height here and there but I'm calling it done.
I've got no more parts to hang on it.... maybe a rack.....
The final changes were getting a bobbed rear fender to fit and look right and to get the handlebars up higher. The answer being to go to a 22mm fork head i.d. I bought it with the front end crunched and replaced it all with that of a 71' Collegiate. That gave my 64' frame a 21mm head i.d. Not an infinite amount of choices for 21mm stems. It gave way to a fantastic Chro-Mo Tange fork and then I thought I was going to replace the Tange (21mm also) fork with an original Schwinn locking fork. I got everything together to do that but found this particularly resplendent fork at the Salvage and it got the nod instead. It is a Reynolds 531 fork with Japanese tips and a chrome head. No other markings so I dont know what it came off but it is a 22mm i.d. fork and the ride is sublime. No jarring thumping down the street (Here in Tucson the streets are terrible). I pick the light weight and compliance of this fork over the coolness of a locking fork I wont use for anything but looks.
The fork allowed me to use the long stem Double-adjustable that's been waiting in the wings and now the bike rides super smooth and comfortable at 31lbs.

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They show up on Ebay occasionally. You have to be sure you get the right diameter because the Schwinn size is rare in layback mainly because it is a small diameter and if you lay it back they bend easy. They do have them with the brace welded to both sides of the bend. Those don't look so good to me.
This one is very thick and heavy. I couldn't bend it at 180lbs.
I think the spring seat helps a bit also.
This bike sold last year at the Tucson Bike Swap.
 
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