Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

No because it was an old forged Ashtabula flat blade fork and therefore a critical component for the "Old Schwinn" build. It would be a huge (Nerd) faux pas to run a tubed fork on any of the entry level bikes. Plus the thing already had 50mm of rake. Finding a fork with 60mm or more would be as successful as unicorn hunting. And it would look wonky x 10.

By sheer accident, it all worked out perfectly. After a very short while I decided that the 45mm tires were WAY too heavy and had huge rolling resistance issues. On paper they were awesome, but on my bike they were horrible. I replaced them with 35mm Compass tires. The 10mm reduction was enough to get me over that invisible line and back into "normal" handling. BIG difference. Add to that all the benefits of the Compass EL tire and the bike went from a dreadful slog machine to a pleasure to ride.

Lesson learned to check every modification that affects geometry.