The CV knowledge never fails to impress! Thank you, I love learning about bikes.
Originally Posted by
NormanF
The best thing about Varsinentals is they're not attractive to bike thieves. As the other poster said, the weight is the main problem with them and EF bikes were overbuilt.
They're not as desirable as higher end Chicago Schwinns but they make good basic transportation and are readily inexpensive to acquire.
That makes a lot of sense. This bike's life existed as the beater bike for a few local brothers and was abandoned when they got cars. Know knows what it was doing before that!
Originally Posted by
Uncle Randy
There might be a Schwinn lifetime guarantee decal on the frame. My old Varsity had one and that seemed to be Schwinn's big selling point in the 60's and early 70's.
Yes, it's there and a bit worn. That must be why it's so heavily built!
Originally Posted by
Uncle Randy
If those handlebars are randonneur bars, they might be the most valuable component on the bike... worth $30-50 used on Ebay.
They are Sakae Randonneur (edit:As Metacortex suggests, they are SR), though I think they misspelled randonneur on the bars. I was planning to keep them at the least.
Originally Posted by
NormanF
The bike you're looking at was made in the Chicago factory with electro-forging machinery unique to Schwinn.
Its different from the lightweight Schwinns that came from Japan.
Ah! So this is electroforging. Metacortex's link was very helpful. I knew there was so little chance that such a heavy bike was filet brazed that something had to be up. This must be what they used on my mother's '77 surburban too. I like the look of it, anyway.
Originally Posted by
Metacortex
With a Dec. 1980 frame build, the bike itself is most likely an '81 model built in early '81. To verify this you can check the 4-digit date code on the headbadge, which will indicate the ordinal day and year (dddY) the bike was built. In this case it doesn't matter much as I don't think there were any changes between the '80 and '81 model years.
Thank you Metacortex. It was 2451 so I think you're right it's a '81. Is the 5 the month? May 24, 81?
Thank you! This was very enlightening. Schwinn invested much more into being a massive company than I thought.
The pedals are not original, but most everything else seems to be. The Schwinn Approved components are generally desirable only to others restoring a similar bike, however other parts like the SR (Sakae Ringyo) alloy stem and handlebars may be worth a bit more.
I thought perhaps Schwinn collectors might want them, but if these lower end Schwinns are so ubiquitous it's probably not worth setting them aside if I don't use them. The handlebars were the reason I grabbed it before it went in the scrap. I could see the Randonneur curves!
That bike would have originally come with a Schwinn Approved GT-510 rear derailleur and a GT-290 front derailleur, both made by Huret for Schwinn.
Thank you!
That is a Chicago made bike. Schwinn made the Continental in Chicago through mid-'83, upon which time the Chicago plant was closed.
That's even more interesting then an Asian Schwinn. I thought that Schwinn outsourced earlier than that so thank you for setting me straight.
That is a 26" frame (measured center to top) and weighs between 36 and 37lbs.
Seems about right. Definitely a tank.
I almost didn't bother asking about it, but now I'm glad that I did. I might take a set of 27 alloy wheels that are already on another bike and just give this one a ride for the heck of it.