I picked up a 71 Schwinn Continental from craigslist for free. It was in really rough shape but I was bored and wanted to work on something. I had always rode mountain bikes growing up but now I moved to the city and want to get into road biking. I have very very little money so I thought this was a good start. To simplify everything I'm converting it into a single speed. I picked up the freewheel off of ebay for 10.95 and the only other things I'm planning on buying are a new seat and tyres. Now I'm new to this whole thing so I hope you guys are nice and don't hate on me, but what's a good reasonably priced seat? I plan on just getting the regular road 27 inch Kenda tyres, because I think those are the cheapest tires that wont explode. Below is a picture of the bike, so far I've gotten almost all the rust off of the wheels which were in really rough shape, polished the bars up nice, and am working on sanding the frame down for new paint. (I wanted to keep original but it was in very bad condition) I'm going to cut all the tabs off that held cables and such and sand it down nice and clean. I plan on painting it the original colour or some type of orange/copper colour. So I guess my questions are:

What's a good cheap road saddle, possibly vintage style? (cheap meaning under $50 please)

Is 39/16 an okay ratio to run on flat grounds?

Should I keep the kickstand?

Are standard road Kenda tyres good enough for regular riding?

After redoing everything, what grease should I use to regrease everything?

Don't you feel bad that the little vestibule in the picture is my 'garage?' (dam apartments)








Thanks so much for any input!


-Nic