A good friend of mine is a very accomplished back alley treasure scavenger. So, when I told him that I have an interest in vintage bikes, I knew it wouldn't be long before he had something for me. Just got the call. From what I gather, an early 80's Bianchi, with some nice components. Dirty and a tad rusty (it rained recently in AZ), but I think it will clean up well. I even have the correct Rigida wheels!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/IMG_8757.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/IMG_8758.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0/IMG_8759.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I...0/IMG_8760.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...0/IMG_8762.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e...0/IMG_8764.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...0/IMG_8765.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9...0/IMG_8766.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...0/IMG_8767.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E...0/IMG_8769.jpg

now when you get that cleaned up I will take your PUCH home when I visit this fall!

I am insane with jealousy over both the Trek 520 and Bianchi finds. I guess my scoring a Spalding Screaner BMX for 2 dollars, and my shop being given a Original owner Schwinn Corvette from 1953, make up in some small way for the green bile coursing thru me in regards to the previous two bike acquisitions on this thread.

I'll bet she has never heard the word "swooned" either! :roflmao2:

lol Schwinn is "junk"? what planet do you live on? or where you drunk when you said this? ill have you know my brothers varsity is going on 15,000 miles of hard everyday use to and from work. with nothing but regular maintenance bearings repacked and replaced brake cables replaced tires and tubes etc... the frame hasent given out yet and i have a feeling it will last 20,000 miles where as with walmart bikes as im sure we all know last about 2,000 if you're lucky, my 1973 Schwinn continental witch i ride occasionally is at 9,000 and all ive had to do is replace tires and tubes my schwinn continental is by far the best bike i have ever owned.

I wasn't looking for another project, but I found one: a rusty, paint-chipped '72 PX10 with a replacement rear wheel. Mix of nice, though not-all-original, parts, including 1st gen Dura Ace brakes, Crane long-cage RD, Campagnolo pre-CPSC FD, Campagnolo NR seat post, Avocet racing saddle, 3TTT Record stem & bars, Suntour barcons, Stronglight 93 crankset, Stronglight Competition headset, etc. For under $100, how could I pass? :)

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3f11df14.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1d8e3afc.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/a...psea0f191a.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3cdc0e49.jpg

^Nice snag on the PX-10! It looks like the chrome is in trouble. I suppose you could get it re-chromed though, right?

Bravo! Nice score on the PX10

Thanks, anixi & toytech. I definitely suspect the chrome has been compromised; the rust is particularly thick on the fork blades. It'll probably get an oxalic acid bath before I make any decisions what to do with the chrome. Should be a good candidate for the before & after thread!

You can say what you want but I lived in those days riding those bikes as well as a bunch of other people I knew that had them, they never got close to 15,000 miles on those bikes because kids had them, the same is true with Walmart bikes, it would be rare to find a Walmart bike to go 15,000 miles that's not to say they don't if they're taken meticulous care of, like I'm sure a Varsity could if taken care of in the same manner. But typically those Schwinns were not any better than todays Walmart bikes, except the Schwinns were heavier.

Have you weighed a mongoose full suspension in the last ten years? We weighed one at the bike shop once, just for the hell of it. 43.06!! The last I checked big frame Conti's and Varsity's topped out around 39 pounds.,,,,BD

Dang, just noticed the stem on that Bianchi. OMG! What is that, a 160mm?,,,,BD

i dont mean to be a jerk here but just becuase you had a bad experience with a varsity in the past doesn't mean that the bike sucks. truth is many other people who have owned these bikes have seen up to 20k miles here is a man who has put 20k on a varsity and many miles on many other schwinns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAeh1E9tTjA and we all know how kids can be with bikes they are usually lucky to get 1 year out of them regardless of the brand. i myself am 15 and take very good care of bikes keep them in the garage clean them after every ride etc... my brother (19) however knows its very likely his will get stolen as hes had about 18 bikes stolen over the years so he doesn't care to much and leaves it out in the rain rarely ever maintains it and rarely ever buys new parts (because he doesn't have to). and for his bike under those conditions to hit 15k really says something about the quality of Chicago hand made schwinns.

I've seen a couple of Varsities handed down, ridden by two or three generations of kids. Granted, a Varsity is an older kids bike and they probably got taken better care of. But I also can look on Craigslist and see stings, tornados, and other Schwinn BMX from early on, still doing their thing. The cast-iron bottom brackets from Wal-Mart BSOs are just food for the weeds by now. Schwinn did not innovate, they just made a product that served their buying public, day in and day out, over a span of years, not weeks, before breaking. And if they did break, they were repairable.

Finally heard back from Torpado frame guy. Someone is coming to look at it, and they will contact me tomorrow. Highly doubtful that it will not be purchased, for $80. Columbus steel, Campy drops, lime green metallic paint, and chrome lugs. If I have a chance in hell, I guess I will find out tomorrow. If I do get it, you can bet I will be back here with pics tomorrow night:D.,,,,BD

I am officially calling dibs, by posting this link....

http://houston.craigslist.org/bik/4002089732.html

15k or 15 miles it doesn't really matter. Schwinn varsity,continental bikes are heavy, poor shifting & braking made with cheap parts. They are neither classic or vintage so why are they being discussed? Paramounts on the other hand...

Not sure ... But the stem, bars and brake levers are getting donated at the local coop. :)

Good luck!!

Depending on the size/length of the clamp area of that stem, I wonder if it'd be useful for an mtb to drop bar conversion. Already has a stop/pulley for running cantilever brakes, and that upward angle, might make it useful.

Exactly correct. Not all Schwinns were bad, but about half the line was or less depending on the year. Paramounts were superb bikes as was a handful of others just below the Paramount level. Take 1970 for example, the only good bike they had was the Paramount and the Super Sport; in 1985 they expanded that to add about 5 or 6 more that were really good, but by then sales began to slide downward, why? Competition? No, they had already established for themselves a reputation of making poorly made bikes, that is why they're no longer in business today, and they never really did have a great visionary, even the original owner failed to see the bigger picture of making high quality bikes and felt all they needed was the Paramount, but they succeeded only because after WW2 there weren't any really good USA bike manufactures, and they were low cost bikes, and as time went on they failed to innovative and to keep up with rapidly changing technology so was forced to get their stuff from Japan and China and some of those failed, and with WW2 and the hatred of Japan still pretty fresh on the brain a lot of people didn't buy Japanese made products, they went to Schwinn because it was USA made and was disappointed to find out that some of the bikes weren't. The last officers of the company were extremely incompetent bungling morons and then the Schwinn family heirs felt they were entitled to higher positions within the company and never attended college to learn business so they bungled their way through the organization too.

The Varsity, Continental, Suburban and a few others is like the Yugo of the 80's, or Fiats of the 70's, the vast majority of those cars were junk, but on rare occasion you'll run into a former owner who loved theirs. Those Schwinns were also dangerous, which people tend to forget, their chrome steel rims once wet were useless with caliper brakes and had to use your feet to stop the bike! I recall many times and many kids doing just that while riding in the rain or even fog.

I don't consider the Varsity, Continental, Suburban, and a slew of others to be classics either, they are however classic examples of junk. You can troll spray all you want, but unless you lived it during those years you have zero understanding of what Redcaymatt and I are talking about.

Like I said before, I'm not a Schwinn guy, but I did buy an old ugly brown Varsity for $10 at a yard sale several years ago. It was heavy, steel bars, steel one piece crank, kickstand...even the shifters were steel. But the damn thing was built like a tank. It was a low end bike, with cheap steel components. Actually it accomplished what it was designed to do. Here's a quote from Sheldon Brown:

"I think ultimately the Varsity is THE great 1960's American road bike that happened to get produced until the mid-1980s. It's not the first or only classic design that outlived the conditions it was designed for and was produced into obsolescence - the Model T and VW Beetle spring quickly to mind in this catagory. Just like those designs, the Varsity's high build volumes and durable construction mean it is now plentiful and inexpensive. The bikes are still fun to ride, interesting social artifacts and a good way for today's riders to relive "the way it was". My hope is that these bikes will begin to be appreciated for the important role they played in American cycling, and will perhaps be enjoyed once more on the streets and backroads of the country they transformed."

http://http://sheldonbrown.com/varsity-shaddox.html

dude schwinn varsity/continentals aren't even that heavy for a vintage bike (yes they are considered vintage) mine shifts like a dream and the brakes work perfect (all original). but i guess everyone is in titled to they're own opinions and that's you'res mine is that they are a great vintage bike and i love that they have steel parts because im very hard on bikes.

i ended up doing yellow http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=335304 but sadly while the bike was locked up at walmart i went in to do my shopping came back and the entire fork was scratched so now i have to repaint it again.

I am sorry but I wouldn't consider the Schwinns you named as junk, under performing maybe but junk no way. If you compare apples to apples there were a lot more bicycles you could do worst by. The Varsity did what it was supposed to do, which was to get more people into the sport of bicycling & it did so rather well. The issues you bring up about poor shifting and poor braking due to having steel wheels really can't be supported when comparing them to other bicycles in the same price point as the Varsity, Continental & Suburban ( at least in the 60's & early 70's ) which all of them would have steel wheels and poor braking in any conditions also. As far as shifting goes, I think a lot had to do with how it was set up, no they weren't about to win the TDF with the set ups they choose but then any bicycle running low end Huret Allvits & the like weren't either & there isn't a 1/4 of them still being used today more then 40yrs later like the Varsity, Continental & Suburbans are.

Schwinn Varsitys & the like were built like tanks ( & as heavy as one too) & many of them stood up to the test of time being abused and neglected. We still work on a lot of 70's Schwinns running all of their original components needing only tune ups, tires & cables. I won't argue that Schwinn missed the boat, that's another story altogether but I also don't think that the Varsity, Continental & Suburbans were junk, under performers maybe but they did what they were supposed to do and you can't argue that with so many of them still in use today.

Glenn

couldnt have said it better i was surprised to see how much hate schwin varsity's and continentals get when they are really a pretty decent bike

I don't hate any bikes. What I'm saying is they are not classic or vintage. They are old entry level bikes. The reason you guys are finding them in decent shape is because they weren't much fun to ride any distance on so they sat in someones garage or basement when they upgraded to a better bike or when the owner stopped riding.. I get that they were fine at there price point but that hardly qualifies them as a classic bike or a vintage bike. If you like your's thats great, enjoy it. But it is just an old bike, not special on it's own only special to the one who loves it. I have a 47' Schwinn New world. It's a nice old bike Is it a classic? I don't know. Is it vintage, Not really but there are certain stylistic aspects to the bike that transcend it's place in the lineup. The fork for example is really a thing of beauty. Anyway, this is all just my opinion. Enjoy your bikes, but being old doesn't make them any better than when they were new, and they were just OK when they were new.