Dan Burkhart 

One of the guys in the male chorus that I sing with,(you know, a bunch of old farts that think we can sing get together and murder some perfectly good Christmas songs) gave me his old Schwinn tandem he bought new 40 years ago when he was in college.
https://i35.tinypic.com/2r2ws5l.jpg
https://i34.tinypic.com/2py6s06.jpg
https://i37.tinypic.com/69ly6s.jpg
It's a 5 speed derailleur gear with a drum brake
https://i35.tinypic.com/33kdpbd.jpg
https://i36.tinypic.com/2n732fs.jpg
The stripped down frame
https://i33.tinypic.com/2vryib4.jpg
The head badge screws came out very easilly.
https://i37.tinypic.com/2cmufk2.jpg
The frame is nice and straight but needs paint.
She'll be getting new rims, Nexus red band hub with roller brake, Nexus front hub with roller brake.
It has the 571 mm (26 x 1 3/4) wheels now, but I'll be putting 559 Sun Rhyno Lites on it. Don't have to worry about brake reach with roller brakes.
I can't wait to go out with my wife and ride it.

TeamTi700

Please keep us updated on your progress. The before pictures will come in handy. We bought a 69 Twinn in July, and a 79 Deluxe Twinn two weeks ago, and were having a blast with them. We hope to spend some time on them with the grandkids yet this year.

https://flickr.com/photos/28639223@N07/2676261650/

https://flickr.com/photos/28639223@N07/2873204373/

https://flickr.com/photos/28639223@N07/2873203845/

EddyR

Wow I like both bikes. I have been looking for one for some time on CL. I bet you need to be careful with that long bike on the back of your van.
Ed

pastorbobnlnh 

I have the Twinn Sport, although I've not really touched it for over a year due to other projects. They are great fun and I was so nicely surprised that when my wife climbed aboard in the stoker postion, we had no trouble riding it ASAP!

rhm

Dan, have you considered a NuVinci hub for your tandem? It'll take the same roller brake, has a slightly wider gear range, and more pleasant shifting. Heavier, though. Still, that would be my first choice were I to upgrade my tandem.

I can't upgrade mine, though. It came with Phil Wood hubs, and anything else would technically be a downgrade.

Dan Burkhart 

Very nice. Thanks for the pictures. I hope I can make mine look as nice.
I hope I won't offend the purists by converting it to a gearhub drivetrain, but I am going to do my best to clean up the cranks, chainrings and pedals to try to preserve much of the original character.
Actually, the chainrings are already cleaned. Just a bit of light surface rust under a thick layer of grunge.
Does anyone know if they were available in any other colour but blue? Not that there is anything wrong with blue, but I would like to know what the options are for staying faithful to the original.
The fenders are another matter. They are straight and undented, but I'm pretty sure the chrome is beyond saving. My options are sand and paint or replace,(Or go without but I don't think so)

Dan Burkhart 

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'll stick with the Nexus thanks. I'ts got lots of range for what we'll be using it for. Nice and light, super reliable,(I know this from lots of first hand experience), and shifts as nice as anything out there, including my Rohloffs.

Dan Burkhart 

The chrome seems to be cleaning up quite nicely. In this shot, the chainrings, headset, fork crown and one of the cranks, which is half done, making for a good before and after shot.

https://i35.tinypic.com/2psg3rm.jpg
This is going to be an easy one.

TeamTi700

"Does anyone know if they were available in any other colour but blue? Not that there is anything wrong with blue, but I would like to know what the options are for staying faithful to the original."

Dan

To find out more infromation about colors, etc., try these two pages to decode your serial number.

https://www.bunchobikes.com/serialnumber4.htm
https://www.bunchobikes.com/serialnumber5.htm

After finding the month and year, try this page. Click on the year that your bike is from. Then go through the pages until you come to the tandems.

https://www.geocities.com/sldatabook/publications.html

To get paint in the color you want, look here.

https://www.hyper-formance.com/paints.htm

If you decide to stick with the "sky blue" there is a cheaper alternative. You can find the details here. Check out the third post.

https://www3.schwinnbike.com/usa/eng/...ad.php?t=64236

Rick

deburn

a 40 y/o tandem! That's sweet.

TeamTi - that looks very clean.

Dan Burkhart 

Hey,thanks for this. It's a big help.

ollo_ollo

My dad had a yellow Schwinn Twin for quite a while. Mrs ollo & I liked to trundle around campgrounds & suburban neighborhoods with it back in the 70's-80's. It was heavy with a capitol H but still fun, basically a tandem version of the Varsity. Don

Dan Burkhart 

The serial number is K494370. According to the serial number data base, it was built on Oct 22, 1964.
I guess it must have languished on the showrom floor for a few years.
I wish I would have thought to hang it on the scale before I stripped it down, but then again, my scale only registers to 60 lbs.
The bare frame weighs in at 15 lbs.

pastorbobnlnh 

Your scale will probably still work. With the steel rims, bars, etc., they weighed about 50 lbs.

pastorbobnlnh 

Oops! Maybe I'm wrong about your scale. Here's the link to the 1980 catalogue and you can see that the Twinn Deluxe weighed 64lbs.

https://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1...0/1980_42.html

TeamTi700

I weighed both of our tandems after replacing tires. The 69 single speed was 60 lbs. The 79 Deluxe was 63 lbs. Quite a difference from our 2000 Santana TeamTi700, which weighs in at 40 lbs.

Dan Burkhart 

Well, I managed to find some time to work on it this week. I got the wheels built and fitted and all the chrome cleaned up.
I can hardly restrain myself from just putting it all together and riding it, but I really want to paint the frame first.
https://i38.tinypic.com/2vlpjso.jpg
The dropouts required only a minor tweak to slide the Nexus right in.
https://i38.tinypic.com/m796cl.jpg
The chrome came up pretty good.
https://i33.tinypic.com/20tqzrp.jpg
https://i36.tinypic.com/nnmzk2.jpg

pastorbobnlnh 

Dan,

Nice work! Schwinn chrome is nearly bullet proof. It takes a lot of rusting before it finally pits and can't be restored. I like the wheels and this is a great plan. Just an idea, but if you can find white fenders, I think it would look great. Keep us posted.

Dan Burkhart 

Thanks Bob. I actually considered sanding down the original fenders and painting them white. I may still do that one day, but for now, I have a new set of chrome fenders for it.

pastorbobnlnh 

Chrome will be just as nice!

USAZorro

Dan,

That looks like a blast. I see you live in the new city. Should be nice terrain for tooling around on the beast.

Dan Burkhart 

Well, our proximity notwithstanding, we are not yet part of the megacity, but yes, we do have some good riding routes. I'm hoping to do the waterfront a few times on it before the snow flies.

Dan Burkhart 

Update.
Still a few finishing touches to do, but here she is.
https://i35.tinypic.com/2pq258m.jpg

pastorbobnlnh 

Sharp! Very sharp! The blue PC is a great version of radiant blue. Do you plan to decal it?

Anxiously awaiting a ride report with the Nexus gears and brakes (that is if you are not snowed out). It should be a big improvement.

labrador

Dan - Wow, very awesome job of the tandem! It really looks good.

My wife and I have 4 Schwinn tandems. Yellow, Blue, Red and one we have to pick up this weekend which is Flamingo. They are neat!