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50 Years and Still Riding!

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VictorFrancis

On Training Wheels
Thanks to Try Me Bike Shop in Phoenix for directing me to CABE. It feels like an appropriate site on which to share my 50 year anniversary celebration.
On February 6, 1971, my dad drove me to Elitch Schwinn Cyclery in Denver to purchase a bike. We had already decided to buy a Schwinn Heavy Duty because I was about to start delivering the Rocky Mountain News.
My dad purchased this beautiful bike for $93.64. This amount included thorn-resistant tubes, a paper guard and a cable lock. The agreement was I would pay him 1/2 of the price at the end of my first month of delivering papers and he’d call it even.
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What a deal that turned out to be!!
Fifty years later l’m still riding my old “Tank.”
I used it for 26 months of newspaper delivery.


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Then it was my commuter throughout high school.
By far the best times on this old bike are when I am riding with a child or grand child on an improvised seat on the crossbar in front of me.
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There have been countless hour & miles of enjoyment spent on this old bike. Aside from a few flat tires and a worn out hub, my Tank has been virtually maintenance free.
Friends have asked how long I intend to keep it. I say, “Well, this owner’s manual says the frame is guaranteed for life. I going to see if Schwinn really means it.”
 
Welcome to the Cabe from Gilbert AZ. It's pretty cool you still have your original childhood bike. My folks probably pitched mine or gave it away to someone so I had to build one up, and did so a few years before the 50th Anniversary. These were only $67 + tax in 1964 and it took me a year to save up the money.

1964 Varsity Completed 001.jpg
 
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