Classic & Vintage - schwinn varsity..

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lanky
05-03-06, 01:21 AM
how hard would it be to swap out the chainring in the front for a bigger chainring from a) another varsity or b) any other kind of bike? also how difficult would it be to convert this thing to fixed? just wondering, thanks in advance.

caotropheus
05-03-06, 02:06 AM
The Versaty is a very heavy bicycle with a very heavy frame. If you would like to keep the Versaty in your colection as a simbol of the Chicago Schiwnn fall down and a piece of classic machinery of electro-forged frames, that's ok, but I think it would be a waste of money to convert it to single speed.
Greybeard
05-03-06, 08:51 AM
how hard would it be to swap out the chainring in the front for a bigger chainring from a) another varsity or b) any other kind of bike? also how difficult would it be to convert this thing to fixed? just wondering, thanks in advance.

Welcome Lanky! Upgrading a varsity is pretty straight forward. Several of us on this forum have done it. The consensus is that you can get a big improvement by replacing the one piece crank with a more modern 3 piece crank. To do this, you will need an adaptor. You can get one at Harris Cyclery and other places. Harris also has parts for the 1 piece crank if you want to keep it.

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/opc.html

Converting a varsity to a fixed gear/single speed is also straight forward. You can redish the rear wheel you have or buy/build a new one. There are a number of good places out there that we can point you to on redishing the wheel if you want.

I am currently running my varsity as a single speed. Here is a pic.

DynamicD74
05-04-06, 09:36 AM
Great looking Varsity!
Pompiere
05-05-06, 05:19 AM
It is also posible to change out the chainwheels. If you remove the large LEFT HAND thread lock nut from the left side of the crank, the crank can be removed, which you would need to do anyhow to repack the bearings. Once the crank is out, you can remove the RIGHT HAND thread nut that holds the chain wheel to the crank. As far as I know, all one piece cranks are the same dimensions, so you can install your choice of chain wheels. I did this on a three speed Huffy and installed the inner chainwheel from a 10 speed to get a lower gear range.