Tandem Cycling - New Twinn Owner

Hey all, I just became the proud owner of a Schwinn Twinn. I haven't seen it yet, but I will be getting it tomorrow. Also, it's in a million pieces. I bought it to...restore isn't exactly what I plan for it. Resto-mod? I got it because I was looking for a bike and this one popped up on CL and I always wanted one. I like to tinker, having completed a resto on a 1970 Honda Z50AK1 just a few months ago and in the middle of a resto-mod of a 1967 Honda CL90. My boss also told me he has a tandem in the back yard I can have for free, he has no idea what it is. I will go get that next week possibly. First I need to straighten the garage out so the better half doesn't get miffed with me.

Anyways, great forum, looking forward to all the help you guys are going to give me!

I'm the proud owner of a 1969 Twinn and a 1979 Deluxe Twinn. You may also enjoy this forum for specific information on Schwinns.

http://www3.schwinnbike.com/usa/eng/forums/

Search "Twinn" or "tandem" and I'll bet you spend days reading and looking at pictures.

Well, picked it up today and I'm stoked. (No pun intended!) All seems to be there except front seat, some replacement, rear seat says Schwinn Sport Deluxe. Need to strip, was green, will probably go and have a friend media blast and then possibly powdercoat. VIN is DGXXXXXX, so I guess it's a April 1971. Well, off to see what I can do with it this weekend, clean and polish what I can, get some tires and tubes ordered, look for a couple seats!

Forgot the pics.

Congrats!:thumb:

Post pics as you go through the restoration.

I have a Sept 1974 Yellow Tandem Twinn Delux.

Good news is they are nearly indestructable. Bad news is they are heavy,ours is 66 lbs with nary a water bottle or accessory installed.

Be sure you pull every bearing in the thing, and clean and lube them. The loose ball bearings weren't that great to start with, and I'm sure you have some rust and pitting somewhere by now.

Also make sure to find some tires that fit the Schwinn rims.

Have fun and keep us posted.

Ramius

My wife gave me (us) a 63 Schwinn Bicycle Built for Two tandem for my Bday in 07. BBF2's were only built in 63 and 64 and differed from the Twinn's as they had a top tube for the captain. It was a rattle can painted rusted mess. I spent the winter restoring it. This picture was taken with the old front wheel on it - as I was still in the process of getting new spokes to lace up the new front wheel and it is also missing the rear reflector on the fender - both items have been completed now. It's powdercoated candy apple blue with all the correct period Schwinn decals. Don't ask how much I spent :-)

http://www.rastta.com/images/schwinn_tandem/95.jpg

Nice looking BB42! I just got mine back from the powdercoater and it came out okay, Not going to use him again though. Anyways, waiting for a couple things and will start putting it back together.

Here it sits today. I put this together as far as I can until I get my front brake fixed (corrosion broke the adjuster in the caliper, waiting for a fix). The pedals I had media blasted, I covered the reflectors with metal tape and had the entire pedal blasted, came out great! Here's a few pics of the almost finished product....

Wow - It looks great! I also just picked up a Schwinn Twinn at a yard sale (March 77 Model). It had 1-3/8th inch tires on it, so I replaced them with the same size. I wanted to go with something wider since I'm a hefty guy, but I didn't know what would work and I was anxious to get riding. What size tires did you put on there? Are those the stock sized rims just with fatter tires? I was also thinking it would be nice to change it to some kind of geared setup versus the single speed, but I'm a bit of a newb. I've really enjoyed perusing these forums so far and have learned a lot.

Welcome to the forum. We have a '69 Twinn (single speed) & a '79 Deluxe Twinn (5-speed). Our '69 has 1-3/4 inch tires on the Schwinn S-7 rims. In 1971 Schwinn switched to the 1-3/8 tires.

If you try to put wider tires on yours, you may find that they won't fit in your fenders. You may be able to find rear wheel with a two-speed "kick back" hub but keep in mind that you need the tandem version. Your single speed frame is different then the frames that came with 5-speed (Deluxe).