rounded up a cruiser wheelset with tires for $10 last weekend, and brought an old friend back from the dead







demolition schwinn!
















































town AND country, baby!










take that, varsi-haters

I like the white sidewalls. The rest of it I don't get, but I'm an old man.

Looks like a great use of otherwise .....well whatever.

Looks cool, have fun!

Sweet! I've always wanted to get a Varsity so I can squeeze some cruiser tires on there.

you're older than you realize if you don't remember FUN

I do, and I will continue to

it's a special kind of slow and heavy, and I think you can appreciate it

Darn - either the rider has freakin stilts for legs, or else likes doing abdominal crunches to reach the handle bars!
Nice wheelset, though - and those "fenderettes" are cute, too

seriously? you see a 26" frame with 8" of seatpost and wonder if the rider has long legs?




seriously?




and they let YOU use a rolling eyes smiley

That looks fun. In the context of a cruiser the Varsity frame and fork aren't all that heavy. From the pic' it doesn't look like the front tire can actually turn in the fork! That's tight. Keep the wheel true.

I also wondered about the fit, and I knew steppinthefunk would like it.
I like it, too, and I'll bet no one else has one.

here's the Varsity I built last year





the 2.125 didn't clear the rear triangle on the 24" frame, but I think it was slightly tweaked already - I ran a 26x1.5 on the rear, 26x2.125 up front - made it feel nimble yet cushy


this latest build feels jeep-like and unstoppable



I built up an old Collegiate much like that green one last fall at Working Bikes in Chicago, except it had a sweet old bullmoose handlebar and a fat springer seat - I called it the Tractor

Ya beat me to it!!

I was totally gonna do a Varsity cruiser with those same Nitto B617 bars.

....good thing I'm going with the VO Left Bank bars instead

I love the shorty fenders

I'm all for converting Varsities and Continentals to SS/FG; they're plentiful enough so drewing them shouldn't offend anyone, and it keeps them on the road instead of in the landfill. The frameset is bombproof and with lighter alloy cranks, wheels, and stem/bars, the bike ends up being fairly light.

Nice job!

it's actually just a set of cruiser bars chopped down at the final bend - I can't spend nitto money for one of these Chicago bombs

right on. I think I might have to explore chopping my own bars...sounds like a good idea.

There's alloy cranksets and rings for Shwinn BB's?

I guess if you convert to BMX cranks maybe - I don't consider it a worthy investment for these cruisers, I'd rather ride 'em than wrench 'em



nice guitars BTW - my guitar player is from Beaumont

That last photo (and the Schwinn) are drop dead gorgeous. Hope you don't mind if I use it as my desktop.

Scott

thank you, I'm honored

Nice bikes JJ.
Didn't you used to hang out
at Harmony Central?

How's The Bricks ATX?
Every time I see a roadstar II
I think of old JJ Pistols

The Bricks have retired, consigned to the odd reunion show when everyone is in the same town. What's your handle at HC?

You remove the Ashtabula 1-piece crank/chainrings/bearings/cups and buy an adapter that lets you use 3-piece alloy cranksets and 68mm bottom brackets with English treading.

Here's a commonly used adapter:

TruVative "American to Euro BB shell adapter"

I'm doing the conversion now on a '73 Schwinn Super Sport, and am installing a Campy Comp Triple 10-speed group on it.

I had the same handle as I use here. It was laid to rest during the
big post count shake-up of 04-05 whenever, now I just "lurk".

I got a couple of schwinns I need to work on. a Suburban and a twin
my wife nicknamed "hot fudge", it's brown

Anyway, good luck with the bikes, they look great, and thanks, you
always kept hcgf fun.

oh man you gotta get hot fudge rollin'!

Looks like a lot of fun, the monster truck of C&V. I think you found the positive slant for the Schwinn blade forks.

I like it! Good job, nice result.