What year is my schwinn? And how much is it worth?

[Jnik]

Trying to find the year and worth of my tandem bicycle is not easy...for me anyway. I wanna restore this bike but wanna know more about it. My dad claims its an antique it looks to be true but I wanna verify the age and worth.

Thank you for your time,

Nik

 

[ZZ3Malibu]

A serial number would be the best way to tell the exact year. But these look close frame style wise from 1955 to 1963 http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1951_1960/1955_24.htmlhttp://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1961_1970/1963dlr_Town_Country.html

 

[Jnik]

Thanks, that helped alot. I have the bike @ my parents house Ill match the serial number but I think your right. How much would be a fair price to buy a bike like mine just how it is not restored?

 

[island schwinn]

there was one in my area(nor cal) that just sold for 300 bucks.it was a little nicer,so it could drop in price.it depends where you are and the demand.

 

[robertc]

Nik,

First of all let me say that is a very cool tandem. I do have a question. When you say "restored" are you referring to striping the frame down and repainting the bike? What I see from the photos is a bike that has great paint in its original condition. You will find here on this site that originally of a bike is preferred over full restoration. As it has been said on here time and time again, it's only original once. Your bike has potential of cleaning up real well with a little bit of elbow grease. WD-40, 0000 steel wool, automotive wax and chrome polish should be your first attempt. If you are not satisfied at that point then a full restoration may be the only thing to make you happy. A full professional restoration with re-chroming, frame bead blasting and painting will set you back more than you will realize. I speak with authority on this issue. I have more money in a 47 Schwinn that I care to talk about. Good luck and congratulation on your bike.
Robert

 

[greenephantom]

What's it worth? The drum hubs front and rear are expensive pieces, and those are going to make up a large part of the value of this bike.

I'm sure this bike deserves and needs a complete mechanical overhaul. Fresh grease in the hubs and bottom brackets and headset, the cranks lined up again, everything adjusted correctly, etc. If you haven't worked on cottered 3 piece cranks before and don't have a cotter pin press tool, take your bike into an old-school bike shop and have them do the work. If you aren't already familiar with how to overhaul hubs on other bikes, then I'd recommend just having a shop do the hubs as well. These early tandems are much more complex mechanically than standard Schwinns of the same era, and if you haven't overhauled bikes from the frame up in the past, then I wouldn't recommend starting on this one.

I wouldn't touch the paint. The original paint can't be duplicated (or even much improved upon) with modern paints. They might have reproduced the decals for this model, but I'm not certain, they might not have. Unless you're a professional painter (or have one in the family who owes you some favors) and are dead set on fresh paint, then just leave the paint as it sits. A repaint always looks like a repaint. Many times a repaint just ends up being an expensive way to lower the value of a bike.

Keep us updated with your progress.

Cheers, Geoff