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1961 Speedster - bringing it back to life

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chaparralian

'Lil Knee Scuffer
After a decade of thinking about it, I've finally decided to bring the 1961 Speedster my parents bought me when I was a kid back to life. I'm midway through the process and wanted to share my experience here. I had no idea how peaceful all of this could be. The other day, three hours went by without notice as I was un-kinking my old, rusty chain - Evaporust bath, pliers, WD-40 bath, pliers, working stubborn links back and forth; it was like the world didn't exist. Here's the full before photo. More to come.


1961 Speedster.jpg
 
Looks like a complete bike other than the missing seat. I imagine that you put the ape hangers on it when you were a kid. They were the craze back then. Your Evaporust will pay for itself in short order. Or a bath in OA might be in order.
 
Rivnut, I was lucky enough to pick up an original seat in pretty good shape. Decals are needed - but the current Schwinn decals for the horizontal post has a slightly different star configuration. Might just let the old ones be. Breaking down the hub and cleaning up the coaster brake was a wonderful experience. Ready to repack it now.

brake b.jpg
 
Welcome! Looks like a fun project.

About the decal mismatch, do you mean the top bar? Here is a picture of my 61, i never noticed anything odd about those stars, but maybe I didn't have anything to compare them to. What is different? Has your fork been replaced? Mine and all others I have seen so far have a simple short dart on the fork. You might try dunking the frame and fenders in oxalic acid. I have not done that to anything as big as a bike frame yet, but I have seen some miracle paint recoveries posted in this forum. It might surprise you what is possible.

@rollfaster here on the CABE also has a 61 speedster, his is in very nice condition. Keep us posted on your progress.

wectmeg-jpg-jpg.jpg
 
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From what I gathered, the only decal on the seat post should be a white Schwinn Quality round decal

Early-Vintage-Schwinn-Stingray-Seat-Tube-White.jpg

But, those are some wild decals on that replacement fork. Schwinn usually just had darts on their forks.

s-l640.jpg

Do you know what that fork was on before it was on your bike?
 
From what I gathered, the only decal on the seat post should be a white Schwinn Quality round decal

View attachment 1398160

But, those are some wild decals on that replacement fork. Schwinn usually just had darts on their forks.

View attachment 1398163

Do you know what that fork was on before it was on your bike?

I was pretty abusive of my bike when I was a kid. Consequently, the front fork got bent and I bought a new one. Same color, but the decal obviously is from a different era. Geoff Greene's book, Schwinn Tech and Spec guide has a photo of the newer decal and indicates it is from the early '80s era. Doubtful I bought that fork in the '80s had long moved away from home and was married by then. It must have been in the late '60s early '70s as I bought my brother's Continental 10 speed in the early 70s and left my old bike behind.

Anyway, I'm removing those and replacing them with the darts. Also have a new quality seal decal to replace the one that has nearly disappeared on the seat tube.

Seat decal b.jpg


The stars I was mentioning are on the horizontal tube on either side of Schwinn...

Star b.jpg


The new Schwinn decals have a kind of generic star that is much less exciting. So I'm going to keep the old decal.

Star new b.jpg
 
That fork has the 1981-82 Cruiser surfboard dart. It also might have a 3/8" axle slot where the standard fork that was on your bike had a slot for the 5/16" axles.
 
@chaparralian try taking a graphite/pencil rub of those stars & measurements where they are; if you intend on OA bathing it or even WD40 & #0000 steel wool will probably remove it. Can be carefully striped back on if you lose it or decide to restore it .... I like the later dart on the fork = a little different & kinda custom lookin' cool touch
 
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