Schwinn continental
 

My friend is in the process of converting his 70's schwinn continental into a single speed CHEAP. I have everything to get the job done except I don't know which cog would screw into the current stock wheels on it. Does anyone know any cheap ones that will work with this bike? Thanks.

Any single freewheel should work. Simply remove the 5-speed freewheel and screw on the SS freewheel. The threading is the same. You may need to move some axle spacers and re-dish the wheel to get a good chainline.

If you're going all caps cheap, you could even leave the multispeed freewheel on there and just pick a cog.

Is there anything potentially dangerous about not re-dishing the wheel? The chainline wouldn't be perfect but this isn't meant to be a perfect project anyway :p

Your chainline will likely be off and very noisy; the chain could come off.

Redishing is highly recommended. Bike shop should be able to do it fairly quickly and cheaply. Or you could read about how to do it yourself online.

+1. There's pretty much no need for the wallet to come out.

Another advantage: you already know that the chain will work on that cog (or won't). Putting a new SS FW on may lead to needing a new chain which may lead to needing a new chainring to get everything to work. And I am guessing new '70s era Continental chainrings might not be on the top shelf at your LBS. New crankset to handle the new chainring? Probably calls for a new BB. Do Continentals have a modern BB threads?

Do your best to find a good gear with a good chainline with the existing setup before you go any further. It could save a lot on money and hassle. I rode my old Peugeot UO-8 for about 3 years on the stock set-up singlespeed, just removing the chainring I did not use. (Before you take the unused chainring off, go to a shop and see if you can get shorter bolts intended for singlespeed set-ups. The exiting bolts may be of the type that will bottom out before you can get a single ring tight. The slop will wreck the chainring spider boltholes. I killed my first attempt. Washers may work for you. I really do not know what Continental cranksets have since I have never owned/worked on them.

Ben

This is a 35 year old bike. Re-dishing may require cutting many or all the spokes and re-lacing. A good shop will pull out a spoke wrench and try turning a few and may well say no once they have tried.

Ben

If you want a singlespeed electroforged schwinn, just stop shifting. You're wasting your time, save your money and find better bones to build off of.