The Black Swan is what I'm calling my rebuilt World Sport. Backstory is that I was at the flea market with my buddy Steve last Fall and happened on a World Sport missing the saddle and seat post in the backfield. It was a 21" model, I can ride those and the price was right at $45. The top tube decals were rubbed off where the previous owner had clamped a U-lock bracket, Character. After doing some investigation, I determined that it was an '86 model. Not high end but not a gas-pipe Schwinn either, made by Giant in Taiwan with double-butted cro-mo main tubes and 1020 stays. I looked at the online Schwinn catalog for that year and was surprised to see that the World Sport had the same geometry as the Voyager. So I decided to build it as a commuter, grocery getter, town bike.

For the drivetrain, I found a good deal on a fairly mint black triple Mirage crankset on Ebay and a black Alivio MTB derailleur on sale for a good price. I found a $19 NOS 28.6 Suntour XCE bottom-pull MTB front derailleur on Ebay. I wanted a smaller front chainring than the 30t on the Mirage and stumbled on a $6 26t alloy ring at a very small bike shop in the flea market. Not black, but it was a deal. I decided to source a 700c wheelset from the LBS and got a set with Shimano 2200 hubs and Mavic CXP-22 rims. The cassette is an 8-speed SRAM 11-28. Tires are 28mm Pasela Tourguard, Kevlar bead, found in a January sale locally.

The handlebars are VO Left Bank with Shimano 8-speed bar-end shifters and $4 foam grips from the little flea market LBS That Time Forgot. The stem is a black threadless on a VO threadless to quill adapter. Brake levers are VO City levers and the calipers are vintage Shimano Dura-Ace centerpulls. I paid $5 for a like-new black alloy seatpost at a local bike swap and $2 for a Suntour quick release seatpost clamp at the flea market.


P4210486 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr


P4210492 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr


Shimano Dura-Ace centerpulls with Jagwire cantilever pads. I ground the posts down on the pads so that they would tighten up sufficiently. Awesome stopping power, I can lock up either wheel.


P4210488 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr


P4210490 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr


P4210489 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr


P4210491 by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr

And, yep, I need to turn the front wheel around so the tread marks are going in the right direction. The Black Swan needs a rear rack and fenders. My buddy and I are going to VO's garage sale in Annapolis tomorrow...

I like it!

I love eclectic buget builds! And yours looks great. Looking forward to seeing pics with fenders and racks.

Cheers,
Chris

Cool well purposed ride. I hate to nitpick though. Why not use the original cable stop on the downtube instead of the Huret clamp on mount with the STI adapters. I realize you probably use them since they adjust but you could also use inline adjuster and run cleaner looking downtube.

Cool build! I never thought I'd see Dura Ace, Campy, and Alivio on the same bike. I kinda like it.

Nicely done! I built a later World Sport for my wife and outfitted it similarly, but we eventually replaced it with a black Prelude. The centerpull brakes that you added are a huge improvement over the horrible stock brakes.

After building my Paramount, I realized that I like having inline adjustment on the derailleurs. The barends came with Shimano adjusters, which I like, very easy to use, and it was actually a little cheaper to just get the clamp. Plus the clamp was chrome. I like chrome.

As inline line adjusters I meant like these which just run inline on a section of your cable housing.

or these

Beautiful!!

Nice job! Definitely worth your effort. Hopefully you've been able to get out and ride on it.

Great build I really like that you went with nicer center pull brakes and bar ends it tells that you built this bike to ride just not look at.