Classic & Vintage - Two old Schwinns but I can have only one. Which one?

I have access to an old Schwinn Woodlands 10-speed mountain bike. I pumped up the tires and rode it around the neighborhood. It was way more comfortable than my current ride (a diamondback sorrento) and I was thinking that at the price (freeish) I could put on some skiny tires and a couple of baskets and have a nice run-around bike for in-town. The frame seems to be small diameter for a MTB and the shifters are like old-school down tube type ones that just happen to be mounted on the handle bars. Odd.

BUT

I see on my local CL there is a nice Schwinn 12-speed Free Spirit road bike for VERY short money. I'm not looking to go long distances or any thing, just a couple miles to the store and back. I want to keep the MTB as just that because trail riding is fun and I want to keep doing some street miles to get fitter. If this were YOUR project wold you:


Just rack-up the Sorrento and be done with it since it's s ****e MTB any way.
Try to make the Woodlands a better road bike. (would I have to change the size the rear sprockets to get a more road-friendly gear ratio?)
Buy the Road bike. It's plenty tough enough to handle grocery getting and already has the right gears and rubber.

Free Spirit is not a Schwinn. I believe it was a Sears brand. And not a great one.

Schwinn Free Spirit? Sounds more like a Sears Free Spirit. I have seen other C/L conveniently mix up brands to mask the "true" identity.

I have a Woodlands myself, picked up at a garage sale for $5. Not sure what I am going to do with it. Its a decent basic MTB. I think it has a cromoly main frame. It would make a good grocery getter IMHO. Put some 1.5 inch wide city tires on it, and you would be ready to go.

I would be very suspicious on that Schwinn Free Spirit. The Sears bike was a real POS.

Check the Free Spirit for a 531 sticker. They only made about four of them, so it probably isn't one. If it doesn't have that, go for the real Schwinn.

Free Spirit is most definitely a Sears brand, not a Schwinn.

OK, I'll stick with the one that I have: the Woodlands. Now, I was at a bike shop today and I was talking to the owner about the bike and setting it up for around-town and fitness duty and he started talking about it being a 21 speed or wome such thing and I was like, "no, it's a 10 speed" and he was like "I doubt it. They all had three front sprockets" and I'm all like "nope. Ten speeds. Two in front, five in back." So, houw old IS this bike that it's a TEN speed?

Look closely at the headbadge for four small, lightly stamped digits. This number represents the assembly date of the bike. The first three digits are the day of the year (001 - 366), and the fourth digit is the last digit of the year (for example, a "9" could be 1979 or 1989; the decade is determined by the decals and components).