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Black Schwinn Continental

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That's a really nice Continental. It would be great if you could find someone that's looking for a copy of their childhood bike and is willing to fork out some cash for it.
Some years ago I wanted a copy of my childhood bike but couldn't find one so ended up having to rebuild one with all the correct parts. It took some time and lots of cash piecing this together and there is no way the bike is worth what I have in it.

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I had a really minty clean '64 Varsity about 25 years ago, I bought it down in Florida to use while I was there for about 8 months for work.
It was radiant copper in a 23" frame. It was a bit small for me but a taller seat post made it work. I bought it off an old guy who brought it there in the 80's when he retired and moved to Florida. It had a dealer sticker on it from Anchorage, Alaska.
It was 100% original down to the tires when I got it, I ran the original tires for a few months before one finally fell apart. I put a set of new Schwinn branded tires on it I found at a dealer down there, they were the same tread but had the newer logo on the side in white letters.
Mine also had factory chrome fenders on it. I looked but couldn't find a pic of that bike, its been gone now for dozen years or so. ( I traded it for a pair of 24" frame Varsity models, one minty clean, the other was missing a wheel). Those too are gone, but I've got two more 24" models again.
 
That's a really nice Continental. It would be great if you could find someone that's looking for a copy of their childhood bike and is willing to fork out some cash for it.
Some years ago I wanted a copy of my childhood bike but couldn't find one so ended up having to rebuild one with all the correct parts. It took some time and lots of cash piecing this together and there is no way the bike is worth what I have in it.

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By the way, what are those tires on your bike? I haven't seen sawtooth tread on a 27" in years.

If I were to put this back together, what could it be worth all polished up and shiny with all new tires, and cables?

(I've not been able to find many buyers around here for smaller bikes, it seems if the headtube isn't a foot tall, they're not interested).
 
By the way, what are those tires on your bike? I haven't seen sawtooth tread on a 27" in years.

If I were to put this back together, what could it be worth all polished up and shiny with all new tires, and cables?

(I've not been able to find many buyers around here for smaller bikes, it seems if the headtube isn't a foot tall, they're not interested).

The tires are CST HP's that were new 12 years ago.
 
I can't say I've ever seen that version of CST tire, for the last 25 or so years all I've seen is the C638 HP and the C740 Super HP, the C6388 has the same tread as a Kenda K35 (raised center tread).
After some searching through the books I found a Duro HF153 with that tread, which is good because they're about half the price of a Kenda K35.
I sold the two tires that came with this bike on CL today for $50.

I put two new CST 27x1 1/4" skinwall tires that I got from a bike shop last year on one of my Peugeot road bikes. I got them for free from a bike shop I stopped at one day because they were discolored and out of shape from being at the bottom of a pile for years. The guy said he wasn't going to stock 27" tires anymore because they don't sell, my guess is the tires were 20 years old or more. I put the old tires off the Peugeot, a set of older IRC gumwalls on the Schwinn Continental rims. They're older but not cracked. I can't put $50 into a bike that likely won't sell for more than $75 on a good day. The old IRC tires are basically the same as CST Super HP tires today. They look and feel fine.
If I put it back together to sell, with the amount of work I've got in it even so far in cleaning up parts and such I'd have to ask $300 for it and around here, even a high end road bike won't bring that. Sadly its easier to get $200 for a department store bike than $75 for a Schwinn here.
 
I can't say I've ever seen that version of CST tire, for the last 25 or so years all I've seen is the C638 HP and the C740 Super HP, the C6388 has the same tread as a Kenda K35 (raised center tread).
After some searching through the books I found a Duro HF153 with that tread, which is good because they're about half the price of a Kenda K35.
I sold the two tires that came with this bike on CL today for $50.

I put two new CST 27x1 1/4" skinwall tires that I got from a bike shop last year on one of my Peugeot road bikes. I got them for free from a bike shop I stopped at one day because they were discolored and out of shape from being at the bottom of a pile for years. The guy said he wasn't going to stock 27" tires anymore because they don't sell, my guess is the tires were 20 years old or more. I put the old tires off the Peugeot, a set of older IRC gumwalls on the Schwinn Continental rims. They're older but not cracked. I can't put $50 into a bike that likely won't sell for more than $75 on a good day. The old IRC tires are basically the same as CST Super HP tires today. They look and feel fine.
If I put it back together to sell, with the amount of work I've got in it even so far in cleaning up parts and such I'd have to ask $300 for it and around here, even a high end road bike won't bring that. Sadly its easier to get $200 for a department store bike than $75 for a Schwinn here.

That is one of the problems with road bikes. The market is flooded with them, but if someone is looking for a specific model and year and you have it, that is the time it will sell for more than 50 bucks. I have more than 50 bucks in that Sprint saddle on my 64. I had to replace the bars, bar tape, wheel sets, seat, all cables, brake pads, tires, reflector and added the rear carrier. The bike came with the original early half 1964 only short metal stem but I traded that for the late 64 alloy stem. I could buy 5 or more later model run of the mill Varsitys for what it cost me to build a correct copy of my childhood Varsity. The tires were purchased about 12 years ago from a local bike shop and they have a red oval with CST HP on the sidewall, no numbers.
 
I think the market is flooded with bikes in general, there's no shortage of run of the mill bikes of any type but those seem to sell. I can sell a dozen modern Walmart type bikes for $100 before I'd get half of that for anything vintage here. Huffy, Murray, Walmart Schwinns, Kent, etc all get near instant replies on CL or FB. The average bike buyer here doesn't remember the classic bikes. The crowd that's buying back their childhood bikes are looking for Huffy and Murray department store bikes.

The difference is that you built your bike to keep and ride, this Continental is just way too small for me and it'll never be part of my riding fleet, nor do I wish to add another derailleur bike. Anything I do to it or spend on it is likely less I'll make on it, if anything at all.
Although I don't generally fix up bikes to sell, I have done a few but lately selling anything locally has been pretty much a waste of time.
I've listed a few bikes, most higher end than this one and they just sit with either no action at all or a ton of low ball offers. If I manage to sell one bike a year that way I'm doing good here. The larger bikes are the easier sell but none sell fast here. In fact, not much sells at all these days on CL or FB, or at the fleamarket for that matter. Its likely why I got the Schwinn so cheap in the first place.
I dragged home a Peugeot Mixte in riding shape yesterday for $5. 10 or 20 years ago that bike wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes there let along all day for $5.

I think one of the problems here is that even back in the day all that sold even in the bike shops was what ever was cheap. High end didn't sell. Back in the day when I worked for one shop here we sold 100 coaster brake Rollfast bikes for every 10 speed and most of those were 26" Columbia models. "High end" back then was anything with aluminum wheels or cloth bar tape.
 
Making it an upright bike will likely open up the number of buyers who can ride that bike, being that small the buyers are limited.
As a rule of thumb for me I don't mess with anything under 23" c-t.
I've never been able to sell smaller size road bikes, 23" to 25" is king and the most sought after it seems. Larger bikes can be hit or miss. I've had more than one buyer show up with their own step ladder to test ride and buy a huge frame road bike. The last one sold to a guy not more than 5ft tall. Even with the seat dropped to the frame he could barely reach the pedals, yet he bought it for my asking price.
I had a 19" Raleigh Rampar a few years ago, pretty much on par with that Continental, I listed it for $25 and got no replies. I even tried to give it away and I got no replies. Under FREE items, I got complaints that the bike was too low end or too small.
I saved the wheels, junked the frame, and sold the small parts on fleabay.
I'd have thought that beggars wouldn't be so picky but I was wrong. They wanted a high end bike for free or they weren't interested.
The bad part was the bike was really clean, with nice tires and good brakes. It really needed nothing.
I gave up on CL and FB, nothing but a waste of time for bikes, 9 out of 10 emails are scammers or data miners, or flat out scammers. Maybe 1 in 500 are real buyers and those rarely have any money.
I had a later model Trek BMX bike that I didn't want, it came with a lot of bikes that I bought cheap at a sale. The Trek was an entry level BMX bike about 4 years old. I listed it for $50, got no replies, I lowered it to $25, and still nothing, 6 months went buy and nothing, I finally put it up for free.
I got a page long letter from some woman who told me she was interested in it but only if I could prove it was 'safe' for her kid. She went on to quote a bunch of legal statutes about liability. I deleted her email, pulled the wheels and cranks and crushed it with the backhoe. I used the wheels to build a yard cart.

That Continental looks pretty clean, I'd take it and hang some fenders on it, and a Suburban saddle and bars and list it for $350 and see what happens. Anyone who really wants it will make an offer if they won't pay $350. All the rest are just tire kickers wasting your time.
 
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