This makes me sad
 

This poor guy:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...273b49e14b.jpg

I think it is a Schwinn World Sport which nobody would confuse it with a high end bike but it looks to be in very well taken care of shape and the asking is $40. What makes me sad is that people go out and spend $300 on a junky big box store, the bike would not see 25 miles of road for it's entire life, and all the plastic and junky components would still fall apart regardless.

So?

Buy it/him/her/them and ride it! Explore the world together! :)

This one has an aluminum crank, too. Earlier ones didn't.

Those Giant made World Sports and World Tourers are good bikes for low end bikes. I had one that I picked up for a flip, rode it around and was impressed at how nice it rode, even with the steel rims. The paint job on these bikes were pretty good too. In your example above, it has a gold head tube, not that painting it gold makes it good, but it is an extra expense on a low end bike. The one that I had was black with gold lug lining. Brazing was excellent. Giant was trying to impress Schwinn.

1020 steel, fully lugged and with good Schwinn designed geometry. Not a bad deal.

When I worked in a Schwinn dealership in the early '80's we sold plenty of them. We would have sold more if I was more on-board. I wasn't (at the time) because I saw them as a lesser Schwinn. I was wrong. This was the very beginning of bikes coming from Taiwan and I was skeptical.

The owner of our bike shop also contracted with a Taiwanese bike maker to make private label bikes. The prices that we were able to sell them for was comparable to Huffy, Murrays and Free Spirits. After an initial correction for Bass Boat Metal Flake the bikes looked good. We sold a bunch of these bikes too including to other dealers on Long Island.

Sugino VP cranks with a 110 bcd on the above bike, I think. And maybe one or two tubes plain-gauge chromoly. Looks like clamp-band shifters, so one could ditch the turkey levers and stem shifters and put a set of old SunTour Power Ratchet dt shifters, a set of fenders and a light and have a great commuter/lockup bike that would run for decades with basic maintenance.

A couple of weeks ago I sold a comparable 1986 Univega Arrowpace that looked much rattier than this one to a gentleman in town. I had serviced all the bearings and trued up the wheels and replaced the tires with good used ones. He was happy to get it - he rode up to meet me at the town square on a big box BSO and rode off doing the ghost-bike thing, clearly appreciating the better quality of the basic Univega over the double-boinger Magna or whatever that vile thing was.

I never thought about attaching a sprinkler system to my handlebars. Hmm...

Sad?

Maybe... But this one is worth a hell of a lot more then 40 USD if parted out...

Nice Bike!

A lot of things about that bike make me sad. The rack, wheel reflectors, stem shifters, kickstand, suicide levers...

not fond of kickstands either, but some do not want to bother locating a place to park.
the rack and reflectors… not all want to have decent lights. I was bummed when my son’s taillight was stolen. So it goes, a reflector might have been good at dusk.

at least toe clips and straps.
the convenience features… when I sold bikes I called them just that. Much less braking power from those extensions.

the sad? The crooked valve stem(s) rear is hiding from sight. Usually go together. Should be corrected.

But they're MTB toeclips. :cry:

Eventually the world sport had a chromolly triangle. Solid touring or commuting platform.

Still has the Grab On handle bar treatment from the dealer too! Not a fan of kickstands either, the one exception being Schwinn’s, which really works well.
Tim

Friend of mine said he was going to buy a Huffy for his 13 year old son. I gifted him my 1987 Diamondback Ascent that I bought years ago for $7.50 at a thrift store. Haven't ridden it for a long time. Kid got a nice bike recently tuned and serviced with new Schwalbe tires and not a BSO.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e2fb5ce9f.jpeg

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. Take whichever bike is the apple of your eye and some people would think it is just the rotary dial version of a phone that nobody on their right mind would bother to use.

I would be more confident tuning and riding this bike on a century ride than a brand new entry level road bike from a big box store. Sadly A: not my size, B: got too many bikes already.

I thought I was on my right mind, but then some overdressed guy showed up.

​​​​​
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5011ebbce2.jpg

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!"

Then buy it and put it in your basement, shed or garage where everyone else stores their old bikes! There are thousands of examples like this, and this may be a great opportunity for an enterprising individual. As the world moves away from oil and, correspondingly, plastic, this collection of old bikes will appreciate and create great wealth for those with insight. Perhaps a group could corner the market on old bikes artificially driving up demand and precipitating a rush on these types of bikes. Time for someone to take the leap and you could be that person..

A: Not my size.
B: That space is already occupied by other bikes that are my size.

My point was not that it must be saved at all costs, my point is that people, today, are dropping $300 on a brand new big box store bike that according to industry surveys they won't ride for more than 25 miles. This $40 bike can run circles around brand new big box store entry level bikes at a fraction of the cost. And probably weights the same.

Unfortunate that people in need of a bike for themselves or kids are probably not sufficiently aware of the difference between a good used middle to upper tier used bike and the big box option. I've been riding for years. All three of my bikes were purchased used and I'm happy with them. But I'm not well enough informed to gauge the value of all the C&V bikes out there online or at college/police auctions. Sad but true.

I do get it... Yep...

But there are allot of things right about it too Goldilocks...

Like the rack, wheel reflectors, stem shifters, kickstand, suicide levers... Ha

That World Sport appears to have, as do a lot of low-ish-end Schwinns of the time, a plate welded between the chain stays to mount the kickstand. It's the one circumstance in which I suspend my general opposition to them.

And yes, my wife bought a 4130 CrMo World Sport, I wanna say '84-'85-ish, at a thrift store price, since they thought it was just another steamroller Schwinn. It's not, in the least.

Nothing wrong w/ a 'lower ender', if you know what I mean:thumb: If that makes you sad, you should see what some of the 531ers sell for around here (think: same price).

Perfectly fine bike- my sister had one- CrMo triangle, Hi-Ten fork and stays, Suntour AR derailleurs, 6 speed, IIRC Sanshin hubs with aluminum Araya rims (heck, I probably still have the wheels in my garage).

People go gaa-gaa for Trek 412s... here you go- same level stuff, except it says "Schwinn" on it.

Fork's bent.

I was trying to figure out the source of the sadness in this thread, and now I know.

I saw a guy riding a bike like that yesterday in '70s-style gym shorts and I was transported back in time for a second. Or else I'm becoming Marcel Proust.