Last year I took my 1970's Schwinn Varsity and swapped out the wheelset for alloy rims. I know I had to bend the frame a little bit, and Sheldon Brown's site says that going from 120mm to 126mm in the rear should be okay. However, recently I was thinking that in the front, I also had to jam it in there, and it looks like I took it from 90mm spacing to 100mm spacing. Can the front fork take that? I rode it without issue last year, but this year I need to replace the tires and wanted to make sure I'm not going to have any issues when I put the wheel back in.

On the Varsity I just sold, the front hub was always tough to get into the fork, and it was the original hub and rim. Just a tight fit to begin with. So I guess I'm saying don't worry about it. Worst case scenario: your frame breaks and there are 5000 other Varsitys out there to replace it.

Is the plural Varsities or Varsitys?

I think it's Varsities.

As long as the fork doesn't break while I'm riding it. That could get a bit messy.

You should be fine. That Varsity fork is an overweight piece of junk with a harsh ride, but I have never heard of one failing, which could indeed ruin one's whole day.

It was harsh until I put the alloy wheels on it. Made a huge difference. Not as good as some of my other bikes, but it's a lot more fun to ride now.

Are you saying you're having to spread the fork by hand each time you install the front wheel, or are you saying you've cold set it to 100mm? Either way should be fine (except for the difficulty of spreading the fork by hand 10mm each time you install the front wheel, if that's what you're doing ), but if the dropouts are at 90mm and you're putting a 100mm hub in there, I'd take a piece of all-thread (threaded rod), a couple of nuts and a couple of washers and cold set it closer to 100mm. There's no guarantee one side won't bend more than the other, but there's no guarantee it's perfectly aligned anyway . ........... Varsity frames/forks are somewhat famous for being nearly indestructable-

It doesn't just slide in, I have to use some effort to get it in, and the fork does spread a little bit. I measured and it was going from about 90mm to 100mm when I did that. I really don't want to cold set if I don't have to, I generally only take wheels off of bikes when I have to, for tube/tire changes.

It is a damn heavy bike, seems bomb proof, but then again, you never know...

A Varsity is a tank, I would not worry about a catastrophic failure, but to keep a peice of mind, periodically check the frame and fork for stress cracks. If you dont see anything, then I would not worry about it. I wonder how much that varsity weighs without the steel wheels. My guess is that it feels like it a brand new bike going to the new wheels.

With the steel wheels, it weighed in at 39 lbs. With alloy rims, it's about 35 lbs. It definitely does feel a lot nicer with the alloy. The frame size is about 60cm, I think the biggest one they made that year (1974 I believe).

I have not checked for any stress cracks, I will do that when I change the tires. Thanks!

Didn't the Varsity have a forged fork instead of a tubular one?

I also regretted not buying the Raleigh Record, instead.

I'm not sure. It definitely doesn't feel tubular, it might be solid steel. I'll have to check it later.

Mine was given to me 10 years ago after my dad found it in pristine condition at a garage sale. I know it's heavy and bulky, and I've got far better bikes in my herd, but I still love the damn thing.

Yeah, the Varsities (Varsitys) were made from flat steel, which Schwinn rolled into tubing and "electro-forged" into frames. The article on Sheldon's site is interesting.

I've got some older bikes that have 96mm spacing, and one with 91mm spacing of the front fork. I've dealt with this by removing some washers and/or spacers from between the cone and locknut on the axle (which narrows the spacing between the locknuts). On some forks I still have to spread the fork blades slightly, but it's no problem. And of course, it's still no problem to just use a 100mm-spaced hub on a 91mm-spaced fork, at least when it's indestructable-forged steel like the Varsity. and the great thing about 91mm-spaced forks is that nobody ever made them out of anything but heavy steel! (I'm sure there are a few examples out there, but rare...)