Originally Posted by Greybeard
As pictured my Varsity weighs 29 pounds. When it was given to me in it's stock configuration it weighed 43 pounds. It's no lightweight but it is fun to ride. I was stopped the other day by a guy who wanted to know where he could get one.
Did you tell him he needed a time machine?
I guessed correctly, by carefully selecting components -- depending on frame size -- you could get a Varsinental down to 26-27 pounds.
Had Schwinn management been paying attention, they could have greatly improved the Vasinental, instead of building the same bike for 30 years. The new High-Strength Low-Weight steels that were coming out of the auto companies in the 1970's could have been used in the electro-forging process. How does an EF Continental, with modern alloy components, weighing 21 pounds and selling for <$400 sound to you? Made in the USA no less.
Ain't gonna happen now. Like I said, the last couple of generations of Schwinn management were bone-heads.