Hey guys,

I am looking for a designated commuter bike. I love my Trek DS, but I am looking for something that I would leave set-up for commutes. In my craigslist search I happened to come across this Schwinn World 12 Speed bike.

My question to you guys is do you think it is worth it, or is the schwinn going to be just a waist of money. Here is the link

The only thing I notice first off is that the bars need to be re-wrapped.....other than that what do you guys think?

IMHO in it's current state it's junk. The components were cheap when they made that bike and they do not get better with age. It would not stand up to my daily 15 mile RT commute for long in the shape that it's in. (and i can't even look at that seat the way it's positioned)

With that said, It could be a candidate for a single speed conversion. If it were me I'd replace the brakes and levers, remove shifters and cassette and add spacers and a cog, a new seat and bar tape, rebuild the hubs and you could have a pretty solid daily rider there. But then again, you'd have spent a considerable amount of time and money on a frame that is made of gas pipe. Not a great value proposition to me. There are other way better frames out there to do that to.

My feeling is a dedicated commuter has to be built to stand up to long term daily use, and be enjoyable to ride. Im not sure this bike is capable, at least for me it's not.

Yeah....I knew I would have to replace the grip-tape, and I would swap out the saddle. I did not know if this would be a decent beater bike/commuter. My communte to work is literally 3 miles. My trip to the store would be about the same.

if it was local and fit me, I'd offer $50-. For commuting; it needs new dual pivot brakes, fenders, new brake levers and cross levers. The RD might be a Suntour which are as good, tough and reliable as anything every made. I would also build a new set of 622 wheels with Velocity Dyad rims.

I actually owed a Schwinn World Sport about 3 years ago. It really took a beating but I ended up changing the wheels because they were made of steal and swiched to aluminum. I then replaced the cables, rear derailluer even chainrings to lower the gears. In the end, I sold the bike because the gears were not low enough. ;=(

By the way, I still regret that decision.

You'll buy it for $65 and end up eventually putting $150-200 in it to make it right - I think you can do better!

thanks for the replies guys. Got fitted and realized I need 56cm bike. I promise I am not going to do this for every bike that I find or think about....so I will leave it at this

Here is another bike.....same model as the last, but asking for more money.
Schwinn for the Win??

....or.....would it be best to get something like this?? I am looking for a bike that I am not going to worry about getting beat up. I would hate to drop a lot on a bike that is going to be in essence.....a beater bike

.....and I do not have a thing for Scwhinns.....just cheap drop bar bikes that I can find....

For $265, a ready-to-ride road bike? Sounds like a good deal to me.

Both of your links are to the same bike. If it was me, I'd steer clear of the old gaspipe bikes. The safety (turkey) levers, stem shifters, lack of lugs, etc. all point to this being a bike not likely worth the trouble (and overpriced to boot). It may likely have steel rims too which are an absolute no. Like someone else said, it will roll, but be patient and you can do better.

Unless an old bike like that is in exceptionally good shape, that ^^ is exactly what will end up happening. At least it did to me. This is something I would expect to see at a thrift store for half of that price at the most. Not that it's a terrible bike, I love Chicago Schwinn roadies, and I ride an old Panasonic. But, old bikes are like old cars, sadly...most of the time they need more work than is necessary to justify the price. Try and talk the guy down and see how he responds. Or, do like I did with my Panasonic, say screw all you guys, and just pull the trigger and have fun with a sweet project.

Yeah, he'd have a road ready old bike. For $265 (or even $180 for the other one) you could find a really nice 10-15 year old bike. My commuter is a 13 year old Cannondale frame I bought for $25, then took components off a 20 year old hybrid my wife used to ride. With adding fenders, tires, levers, bar, seatpost, brooks seat upgrades I have less than $300 in it. I frequent 2 local shops that sell used bikes and they have really nice stuff in the $150-250 range.

Unless you have a thing for "classic" Schwinns (which is a-ok to me), you can still do better... imho!

Yeah...I don't have a thing for those old schwinns, but it seems like thats all that is on my local craigslist. I thought about building on an old Royce Union frame. Looks like it would cost me about $150 for what I need (brakes, derailleures, grips, levers, chain, saddle) and thats going with the cheap shimano stuff. I am thinking I would rather put that into another bike, or save up fora road bike and transform my DS into my commuter....just prefer drops for riding, but can live with it.

Consider asking about those Craigslist Schwinns in the Classic&Vintage forum as well. They're lugged frames, so while they're not top-of-the-line super-light road bikes, they're not electroforged boat anchors either.

Ok... you are right about this one. A Schwinn World is not as heavy as a Continental, but, for $250, if you looked you could probably pick up a Schwinn Prelude, which is an example of an extremely nice road bike from the late 1980s.

So don't discount old Schwinns, but learn to be a little selective about them.

As an alternative to craig's list - does your town have a bike co-op or shops that sell used? In my area there are several and the co-op is a non-profit that takes used bikes, refurbs and sells them and uses the proceeds to teach kids about bike maintenance. Their stuff is really nice especially for commuter bikes. I've seen these all across the country