When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1977 Schwinn Caliente - hot or not?

-

sssarahhhd

On Training Wheels
I just picked up a 1977 Schwinn Caliente at a thrift store. I probably would have just skipped on it as it needs work and I am a relative newbie, but I just so happen to have decided to venture back into two wheeled life after some time and it happened to be my size. I had a beautiful champagne color 1969 Motobecane about 10 years ago - RIP - and was looking for something similar (European and pretty - what can I say, aesthetics are important to me!) but just happened to run into this thing for $59.

I looked up the serial number and got 1977, Chicago made. From what my newbie eyes can tell it needs basic stuff like new tubes, shifter cables, and there is definitely something up with one of the suicide levers as it keeps sticking and the brake cable seems loose. The original handlebar tape was nasty so I took it off, and obviously that will need replacing as well. I'm realizing that all this work is going to add up, but to how much? More than it's worth?

Wondering if given the work I could flip this thing and for how much? Additionally, if I do keep it that blue color is not very caliente to me so I am inclined to have it repainted which I realize is controversial. Is this bike too cool to paint over? The Schwinn decal on the tube is completely worn off and there are a handful of rust spots, but I realize you really lose the context of the bike when you paint everything. The star decal and stripes between the crank and seat post would be lost if painted, unless there is some magic way to put them back on.

Just trying to figure out what I want to do with this thing, any insights and thoughts are appreciated!

1233653


1233654


1233666


IMG_2096.jpg
 
Head badge stamping would indicate a 1978 model since it was built on the 354th day of 1977. The Caliente was one of the low end models between the Continental and Varsity. Probably not worth much and fixing it up to flip wouldn't be advised. Have you ever rode a FFS bike? The FFS is front freewheel system. Some like it and some don't.
 
Head badge stamping would indicate a 1978 model since it was built on the 354th day of 1977. The Caliente was one of the low end models between the Continental and Varsity. Probably not worth much and fixing it up to flip wouldn't be advised. Have you ever rode a FFS bike? The FFS is front freewheel system. Some like it and some don't.


I don't think I have! Pretty sure my motobecane was not an FFS bike. I'm so out of touch with biking at this point that I probably wouldn't even notice a difference though!
 
I just picked up a 1977 Schwinn Caliente at a thrift store. I probably would have just skipped on it as it needs work and I am a relative newbie, but I just so happen to have decided to venture back into two wheeled life after some time and it happened to be my size. I had a beautiful champagne color 1969 Motobecane about 10 years ago - RIP - and was looking for something similar (European and pretty - what can I say, aesthetics are important to me!) but just happened to run into this thing for $59.

I looked up the serial number and got 1977, Chicago made. From what my newbie eyes can tell it needs basic stuff like new tubes, shifter cables, and there is definitely something up with one of the suicide levers as it keeps sticking and the brake cable seems loose. The original handlebar tape was nasty so I took it off, and obviously that will need replacing as well. I'm realizing that all this work is going to add up, but to how much? More than it's worth?

Wondering if given the work I could flip this thing and for how much? Additionally, if I do keep it that blue color is not very caliente to me so I am inclined to have it repainted which I realize is controversial. Is this bike too cool to paint over? The Schwinn decal on the tube is completely worn off and there are a handful of rust spots, but I realize you really lose the context of the bike when you paint everything. The star decal and stripes between the crank and seat post would be lost if painted, unless there is some magic way to put them back on.

Just trying to figure out what I want to do with this thing, any insights and thoughts are appreciated!

View attachment 1233653

View attachment 1233654

View attachment 1233666

View attachment 1233662

That bike should clean up great, and make a nice rider. Not much value for a flip though, as it is really nothing special, and IMO, has no real collectible value!

It is/was just one of the many different models of 10 speed models Schwinn issued during the 70's bike boom.

1233983
 
The rust you see looks like surface rust. A pad made up of a folded sheet of aluminum foil and some water will get rid of the surface rust. A bike only has original paint once. Get rid of the rust, re-wrap the handle bars, put on a new set of tires, and "ride it like you stole it!"
 
That blue color is pretty! It looks to be a 22 inch frame??
The wheels chrome will clean up perfectly I think. Use something like the inexpensive copper scour pad thingy that you find at any grocery store to clean pots and pans. Put some COMET cleanser in a small plastic bowl or even on a plastic or heavy duty paper plate. Then very slightly, take care to just wet the COMET cleanser so that it is not like a powder but a wet mush that you can coat the SCOUR PAD with.
Don't worry, you won't scratch that tough Chrome, and it will look factory new after about an hour or so of scrubbing.
I'd recommend that you buy a new $1.50 scouring pad for your pots and pans, and use the older or dirty one for your bikes and other dirty garage tasks.

May I suggest that you consider a colorful decal set that is eye-popping and fun, (bay 113026131776). I know that this is a reproduction for a 1963 Favorit but the style and colors would really make that blue bike stand out and look nice.
Bicyclebones is among the finest out there when it comes to reproduction decals for the sixties and seventies era Schwinns.
You could for example get the white lettered SUPER SPORT decal and place it on your blue Schwinn (bay 333128675175).
Shawnmathiesen is another that makes a few great bicycle decals. For example, the Murray Meteor fork decal is just one way that you could upgrade and fancy up your bicycle so that it stands out from the crowd. The point is that nobody will be able to determine from where you selected your original factory decals, meaning that nobody will know that you selected the best looking ones from all of the worlds bike manufacturers from the past 90 years. Your blue bicycle will still proudly wear its classic oval white schwinn headbadge. What I am saying is go on and create the SCHWINN "model" that is uniquely yours that for example if you were appointed to the head of visual design and chief of decals and graphics at Schwinn Chicago in 1976 or 1977...................................do it the way you think would make it look great.
Let your imagination be your guide.
There are thousands of quality repro decals for all of the worlds' vintage bicycles that once sold in substantial numbers. Not all the decal sets are equal in quality but they are all decent enough and some are relatively inexpensive and surprisingly good. search bicycle decals on bay and just spend hours and days looking for ideas. There are several U.K. based decal reproduction experts on bay that do make great quality ones and have perhaps the lowest pricing but as you may imagine they concentrate on hundreds of English, and European manufacturers from 1900 to present day.

You can also summon the folks that make the guitar decals to make you a custom decal. You see these folks routinely make painstakingly accurate vintage and current FENDER , GIBSON, MARTIN, NATIONAL and many many others but they do much of it under the radar with respect because FENDER, GIBSON, MARTIN etc are not cool with this practice since folks largely are taking no-name, or home built frankenstein instruments and badging them as f, g, or m largely because there is a stigma for many to appear on stage wielding a Squier or otherwise humble but quality guitar. There is a smaller segment but a much larger problem and that is the folks that painstakingly fake the very valuable vintage models which may be worth $15,000 in the marketplace versus $350 tops in its original off the shelf in 2020 form. Sure, those fakers might pay $400 just for one essential part from a long ago, parted out vintage guitar just to have the legitimate and perfectly accurate original part(s). Its insane and you know the fools buying, bidding up and collecting those vintage instruments cannot play and have no idea what characteristics make up a good guitar. Clapton made Blackie by mixing the parts from a bunch of old used Stratocasters that he bought for a $100 each from a music store in Nashville around 1969 after he gave a couple of them away to friends, Stevie Winwood and George Harrison.
You see that there were differences in neck shape and materials on Strat models from inception in 1954 to at least the mid sixties. So you can say Blackie was a mongrel , as that is how Eric always termed it. Blackie is perhaps the most famous guitar of all time. If you saw EC live between 1974 tour to the end of 1985 tour, you probably saw that old familiar black guitar on several songs. More than a decade ago it was auctioned off for over $900,000 (that is nine hundred thousand dollars). Another guitar called Brownie, a brown strat seen on the LAYLA(1970) album cover fetched something like $800,000 but Brownie was not a mix mash, but as it came originally from the factory.

Besides the folks that make the $10 custom guitar decals or your-own name design decal for the same $10, you have those that make the custom put your name on the frame your triathlon bike which appeals to triathlon participants...................you can find them at bay and from any of the firms doing sailboat lettering, or automobile, boat, airplane lettering, decals and graphics..

The blue paint looks to be in nice condition. Those "modern" graphics that Schwinn chose to use on latter day 1977, 1978, 1979 bicycles traditionally deteriorate and disintegrate for reasons unknown except to say that those decals that were featured on these latter day Schwinns....a few as early as late '75 also have those decals that just did not last before losing parts of letters or deteriorating badly. That is certainly not the case with respect to that of what is now perceived to be the classic Schwinn graphics and script that was seen on almost every Schwinn from the early sixties through late 1976.
You can probably find the repro of these "modern" ones that match your existing ones from Bicyclebones or he can make them perhaps, even in a slightly modified color or style that you might want, as that may be possible if you were to ask him, or whomever you decide to make or source your replacement decal(s).

The paint looks good on that bike. Schwinn was famous for having the best paint quality and the best chrome of any bicycle manufacturer.
Unfortunately, Schwinn product planners chose some really ugly paint colors from about 1974 onward for certain bicycles. Yours is not one of those. That New York Jets Green and pea green and the opaque blue with no depth to the color and several other colors worth forgetting. Schwinn had at least two Green colors in the sixties and early seventies that are among the best colors to ever be seen on a bicycle frame, and then those were dropped from the lineup. It was the seventies and people were smoking some wacky stuff.
The blue on your bike is great and was not one of the ugly mid to late seventies to the Chicago factory shutdown hideous ugly colors that were now among the other good color choices.

Clean it up, at least remove the deteriorated decal, get new cables and new tires and tubes, and new bar tape and a comfortable seat if that one doesn't suit you and you should have a really nice looking bike. Unfortunately there isn't much market resale value for a Schwinn ten speed, but they are excellent bikes and you will enjoy riding it.
That stock
 
Back
Top