Originally Posted by alanbikehouston
In the 1965 to 1975 era, there were no "mountain bikes". Guys THOUGHT a Schwinn Varsity was a mountain bike. Rode them on dirt and gravel roads. Down mountain trails. Over curbs. Off of loading docks. The steel cranks, steel rims, and steel handlebars took that sort of abuse year after year. And, many of those bikes are STILL on the road, three decades later.
The life span of a 1970's French or Italian bike, with alloy cranks, alloy rims, and alloy handlebars, subjected to similar levels of abuse could be measured in hours, not years. The 25 pound imported bikes were great bikes for 150 pound riders, riding on smooth pavement. But, for blasting down the side of a mountain on a fire road, no bike was better than a forty pound Varsity.
Yup. Elitists like to dog on the Varsinentals for being "junk quality". The gas-pipe Schwinn road bikes were intended for adolescents. They weren't junk quality, they were tank quality. These were bikes that could not be broken by a teenage boy, and that's really saying something.
My father bought me a Varsity all those years ago, because he knew it would be the last bike he would have to buy before I got my DL -- and he was right. I don't know how many curbs I slammed with that bike, I even rode it down the stairs in front of the school building. I just couldn't break that summbich. How many el-cheapo department store bikes of that era would have lasted even a year under that kind of abuse? The bikes were damn nice looking also. As I recall, you couldn't leave one unattended for more than 5 minutes without having it disappear.
In their day, the Varsinentals were the best value going as concerns bikes intended for the adolescent market.