junkman71

building my schwinn varsity as a urban bike.....too many hills where I live to do a single speed.....drop bars were bent, so I put on some riser bars on it... it has been fully rebuilt....ditched stuff that was just extra weight... both pie plates( one was missing already) kickstand and a few small items also cut off some of the seat post( not too much though)..... still a heavy bike, but they are built like a tank

The Golden Boy 

There's usually only one pie plate on the bike- it's a spoke protector, so it's only going to go around the freewheel to keep the derailleur from going into the spokes.

Although Varsities and Continentals are heavy to begin with, a few things you can do to get the weight down is to replace the crankset with a 3 piece - but you need an adapter because the bottom bracket shell is a different size. You could also lose some weight off the wheels- aluminum rims would be a huge plus in any case.

I'm interested what you got the weight down to.

As much as people would judge a kickstand to be dead weight- I think they're useful- and on a Varsity/Continental/Super Sport etc... they're already built on to the frame- the amount of weight you're saving by taking off the leg is limiting where you can easily stand the bike up- and you've still got 3 pounds of kickstand mount brazed/welded onto the frame.

Metacortex

The kickstand on the smaller framed Varsity models (like the 21/22" OP example) weighs 15.6 oz (0.98 lbs) including the cam and pin. I totally agree that the kickstand is way more useful than 1 pound of weight savings.

The weight of the mounting tube is negligible, perhaps only an ounce more than a standard chainstay brace.

PennyTheDog

I've been thinking of doing something similar. What I'd like to do ideally is replace the derailleurs with something current, the bottom bracket and crankset with something modern, the brakes with modern calipers, and the wheels with 700c. Any advice on which of those are possible, and what work arounds I'd need? Like, would a current shimano rear derailleur bolt right in? Is there anything I could do so I could use a sealed bearing square taper bottom bracket? With the wheels, how hard is it to get 700c wheels with a short enough axle? My interest is more nostalgia-based than pure utility, so I'd be willing to spend a little money (within reason!). Thanks in advance for any help!

momo608

I removed the pie plate, chainguard (often mistakenly referred to as a pie plate) and kickstand from my Varsity and I had a hard time going less than 100 miles an hour even when riding the brakes. My plan is to go on a diet before I hit the salt lakes. I hope I don't burn up in the lower atmosphere, wind friction don't you know.

junkman71

update: I stripped it down and painted it... also polished up the chrome and bare finish parts.... pretty much done at this point

The Golden Boy 

So you did decide to single speed it- or is it fixed?

junkman71

single speed

dddd

Looks good, freshly un-cluttered with the singlespeed conversion.

The Varsity is one "road" frame that won't handle poorly from installing a flat or riser handlebar, in fact the design of this frame's geometry was developed with "upright" handlebars in mind.

Stripping off the derailers and shifters definitely shaved significant weight!

Thanks for the follow-up on your project.

junkman71

yes it handles great... I love it, its my fave of my fleet