Classic & Vintage - Schwinn suburban

Did I score?
Fully loaded bike, ser#DK530313, SCHWINN Chicago on head badge.
Coppertone paint has just a few nicks.
Shimano 5-speed deraiieurs, speedometer with 5400 mi on it and it works.
Lights front and rear. Mirror, ding-a-ling, rear carrier with a collapsable side basket.
Everything looks original.
It's gotta be an older bike as only we old timers had hub polishers on our bikes!
Put air in the tires and rode it. Not agile but a very steady good ride.
Don't know the wheel size, the tire sidewalls are shot and couldn't make out the tire size and
the rims don't say!
Next comes a degrease job, plenty of road grime ala a lot of WD-40!!
Wash and wax and I have my grocery bike.
Comments welcomed!
Oh! $5 at St. Vincents! :D

Get some streamers for the handlebar grips, and you're good to go! :D

Wheels should be the Schwinn S-6, which the rest of the world calls 27" X 1 1/4".

Can you shift without pedaling?? If so you've lucked
onto a Suburban with the shimano front freewheel
system. I have this system on my Schwinn world
tourist ( a 10 speed version of the suburban) and
it makes it great for easy city riding utility bike.
Almost as good as an internal hub without the
weight. :D :D

It's gotta be an older bike as only we old timers had hub polishers on our bikes!


Hub polishers??!! Holy Retro-cool, Batman!

Got the little reflectors on them?

When I got my '70 Raleigh Superbe (from a tightwad Hollander), it had a piece of clothesline rope tied around the rear hub. :D

No reflectors!!
I lied, I thought the derailleur said shimano, so much crude and it was dark. He he!!
Anyone know who made the schwinn GT 100 rear derailleur?
It does have a suntour thumb shifter.
Do I dare use "gunk"? then take it to a car wash and use the hot water spray?

Use 409 and soap & water to clean the bike. Take care not to get to much
409 in the BB or the head set as it will desolve the grease otherwise 409
& old paint brush should do wonders.

Bumping for a quick, weird question:

How much, roughly, does a women's model Suburban weigh? It seems like mine weighs roughly around the same, maybe a bit more than my mountain bike, and my mountain bike (1997 Trek 800 Mountain Track) is quite the little chunk! I don't have a scale, or I'd do like you do when you have to weigh the dog, and I'd weigh myself, pick up the bike, weigh myself + bike, then do the math. :P But since I don't have a scale, I don't know.

I haven't gotten to even ride my Suburban yet--it came to me with all of the cables corroded stiff and two flat and crispy tires. I've taken it all the way apart, cleaned and re-packed the bearings, and now I am waiting to get paid so I can buy cables, cable sheaths, tubes and tires.

But in anticipation of riding it, I've been riding my mountain bike on the streets more to get used to riding a heavy bike again. The Suburban has very different gears, since it is a 5-speed. The cassette seems to be 14-32 and the front sprocket has, if I counted right, 46 teeth. My mountain bike, which I mostly ride using the big gear on the chainring (42 teeth) has an 11-27 cassette. Given my riding habits with the mtb, I have no doubts that I will be able to get everywhere I typically go around town without trouble. I'm hoping, with the taller wheels and skinnier tires, that the going might actually be just a tad easier, even if the bike is heavier. I'll have the mother, father, sister, and brother of all bailout gears with that 32-tooth gear. This is good, because I'm planning to add some racks and baskets to this beast and make it my City Market runner.

http://conventioncostumes.asyoulikeitkc.com/gallery/albums/PersonalPics/suburban.thumb.jpg (http://conventioncostumes.asyoulikeitkc.com/gallery/albums/PersonalPics/suburban.jpg) The bike in question (click for larger view)

I bought an '80's version of the Suburban for a lady friend. It appears to be made by Giant in Taiwan, although it had the traditional Schwinn "Chicago" headbadge. It uses a standard size of 26 inch tires, not the "odd ball" 26 inch tires used by Chicago-made Schwinns from the 1970's. It weighs around 35 pounds, which is not bad for a sturdy "around the neighborhood" bike.

Although my friend has a wide selection of nice bikes in her garage, the Schwinn three-speed has become her favorite for short rides to Krogers and to the gym. It probably gets more miles than all of her "nice" bikes put together.

It has become fashionable to mock many classic bikes for the "sins" of being heavy or putting riders in an upright riding position. But, many of the traditional designs were comfortable to ride, stable, and safe while riding in urban neighborhoods.

The "classic" of that type was the Raleigh three speed bike. I suspect that if someone were to re-issue some nice copies of the Raleigh three speed, but with light weight alloy wheels, and modern light weight 26 inch tires, there would be a huge consumer response. Not every adult wants be a pretend Lance Armstrong while riding to the grocery store.

I'm very excited about this bike, actually. When I was a junior-high kid, I used to ride an old Continental that was WAAAY too big for me, but it was a pretty fun old bike and it took me to a lot of babysitting gigs.

I'm thinking this Suburban is going to be a fun city bike. Firstly, not everyone has one, and with the fenders, chainguard, and funky handlebars, it has a pleasantly old-fashioned aesthetic. Because I have strong legs, I should be able to get around fast enough to not be a total nuisance. Sure, it's not a racing bike, but I know it won't make me late to work, either.

For the moment I have the head and taillight and dynamo off. I need to find either a tailight lens or a whole replacement taillight. The headlight and dynamo still work :) I think it has a kind of classy look to it. The mounting bracket has an aesthetically pleasing curve to it.

Sounds like a really cool find!

I suggest you don't use WD-40 for cleaning anything with a decal as it can ruin the decal instantly.

In fact, you should be careful when cleaning any of the decals - nothing but very mild soapy water.

It doesn't always happen, but when you see the decals crack and shift, you will just cry. It is VERY difficult to get the correct decals these days.

The decals are about half rubbed/worn off already. I wiped the whole bike down with a wet rag and Simple Green, which didn't seem to hurt the decals and did release 20+ years of cobwebs and garage grime.

At one point I'd been thinking of repainting it, but the copper color has grown on me, and the paint is in pretty good shape, considering this bike is +/- 30 years old.