Originally Posted by Ineedhelp
My ancient Schwinn is still a great bike for training, and it's 30 years old.
The pedals on my new road bike absolutely will not work on it! Neither will most of the other parts! They simply are not compatable--the screws are different sizes! Older 10 speeds also use 17 1/4 wheels, not 700c. Hard to get tires, tubes, and spokes for wheels--not to mention replacement wheels.
The last bike shop that did cable work for me had to go to the hardware store and jury rig various components together.
Huh--that's weird. I had no problem whatsoever in finding tires, tubes, and cables for my 1973 Schwinn Suburban. I got the tires at the bike shop just up the street from where I live, actually. $12 each, no less. The wheels are 27" x 1 1/4" which was standard on road bikes for a lot of years. Bikes like my gas-pipe Schwinn and all those other 1970s bike-boom bikes are going to be with us for a very long time, so I expect tires and tubes for such will be around for a while, too.
I had to scuff a bit of the housing off the shifter cables to get them through the guides on the frame, but it was no big thing. I used a bit of sandpaper to take a little bit of the plastic off the cable housings...not all the way through to the coiled wire part, just enough to slim it down enough to get it weaseled into the guides.