It was not hard to nail down the vintage of this one. I found that Schwinn only made them for one year as part of a line of four “cross” models. I also have a Crosscut, so I may now find it hard to resist completing the set.

Before:




I got the frame without the fork from my local community bike shop in January. I dug the British Racing Green color and the paint was in pretty good shape. I used liquid model paint to touch up the nicks. I had a Kenesis alloy fork that I painted to match with automotive touch up paint. Although it’s also British Racing Green, it’s more teal than the frame paint. Close enough for rock’n’ roll. To mimic the colorway of the original, I used tan-wall touring tires, a brown seat, and brown bar tape.

After:




Some knucklehead made off with the Schwinn badge (probably to try to sell back to me on eBay) so I made a new one. Take that! (I mean, not literally, not again.)




A lot of the components are from my parts bins, such as the brake calipers, wheels, 8-speed cassette, Sugino triple crank, SunTour bear trap pedals, and the quill adapter. I got the set of matching Exage derailleurs from the community bike shop for $5 each.




I set it up for all-weather riding because I’m planning to ship it to New York to ride in the Five Boro Tour with my son in early May. After shipping myself and the bike cross country, I’m riding, rain or shine.

I’m so far liking the way it rides, although I could probably get a more compliant ride with a steel fork. I may replace it at some point. This might also be a bike to try some alt handlebars on.