Originally Posted by dobber

The Schwinn Varsity:

My dad had a late 60's Varsity that he passed onto me when he upgraded to the Raleigh Competition. I was in my early teens, too young to drive, too old to want Mom schlepping me about. It was my life. I had my first "date" with that bike, used it to ride to my first girlfriends house.

Deep blue with a Brooks saddle. Down tube shifters, center pull brakes (may have been upgrades). Had the little black saddle bag and the rat trap rear rack. No dork disk or chainring guard.

I remember tearing it down almost weekly, lovingly cleaning the bits and pieces, putting it all back together. Bars would get retaped almost as often as I changed socks. My friend and I would spend countless hours at the Schwinn dealer, hanging out in the air conditioned comfort, checking out all the bikes. I so wanted to be a mechanic.

It was stolen off the front porch one afternoon. I was absolutely devastated, I cried for days. We replaced it with a Sprint but it just wasn't the same. The next year I started driving and the bike was consigned to the garage.