Originally Posted by pastorbobnlnh
We're all over the place! Between here and SF, we can answer all your questions.
And I have a couple of ?? for you.
Do you plan to ride your classic Schwinn bike? If so (and most of us do ride ours), get one you can really ride. So if you live in a flat area, a single speed balloon tire bike is OK. But, if you live in a hilly place, that 50 lbs of Schwinn indestructability is an ascent challenge. Downhill, on the other hand, can be a blast!
If you plan to ask the question; "Should I repaint?" Be prepared for an equal number of responses on both sides of the argument. There's no consensus on this hot topic.
Good questions.
1. I live in Central Indiana (virtually no hills) and will probably only ride this bike around town for very short rides. It'd be solely a show-off bike!
2. Painting: Don't know yet, but I think that the answer must eventually be 'yes', since I tend to dive into projects in a pretty major way. I'm one of those folks who love to learn new things--often painfully
, but always learning something new, nonetheless.
I actually have a two-tiered plan here. I'm going to buy a singles-speed balloon tire bike of some sort and "practice" on restoring it. My long term plan is to restore a Schwinn that was my father's when he was a boy. I'd like to get some experience and make most of my mistakes on the "practice bike" that doesn't mean so much to me as my dad's bike does.
In the mean time, I'm enjoying my reproduction cruiser and I think that having dad's vintage Schwinn, restored, would be pretty darned cool. (Thread about my retro cruiser:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...iry+queen+bike)
Thanks!