It makes sense to be riding a Schwinn living in Chicago. Summer 2010 my car went kaput and my Uncle had an old Continental (early 70s) in his basement collecting dust.

I immediately regretted waiting so long to ride a bicycle in my fair city. It gets me where I want to go either at the same rate as a car or quicker than public transportation. At least that's usually the case. It's my main mode of transportation. Occasionally I'll take the bus or train, but it's very rare (mostly when I need to be extremely presentable).

I thought I might stop in the winter, but never did. I found it much better to immiedetly ride than to wait for a bus or train. Also, much easier to ride on the street than walk through the commonly unshoveled sidewalks.

The bikes been tuned up, and I've kept the chain oiled and had to replace/patch tubes but haven't done much beyond that.

Not sure if I'll try to get a more modern lightweight bike at some point, put some more work into this one, or something else... but I've been winding up on these forums time and time again on google searches so figured I might as well join!

Thanks for having me

Hi kostal,
Nice to see someone make good use from an old bike.
Keep the wheels turning.

Ahhh you are so lucky to have a nice bike like an original Schwinn. Glad to have you here and I hope you learn a lot from this place. Welcome To Bike Forums.

Thanks guys! I definitely love my bike. I kind of want to replace the wheels, mostly because they have flat spots, so not always the smoothest riding, but it still works pretty good

Nice forum you got here

Oh, and in Chicago it seems pretty common to have a Schwinn. Probably 'cause they used to have a factory here way back when. Regardless great old bike! It might be a little heavy carrying it up the stairs but it still rides pretty great!

You might like this.

https://bikefancy.blogspot.com/search...max-results=43

I have better bikes than my Varsity, but I still ride it frequently. I have it set up as a grocery getter, so I make lots of trips to the store.

I do like this! Yup, that's my city alright.

Nice. I would really like to add a rack to my bike and have a basket. My friend just has a milk crate jerryrigged to his rack and that seams to work out nicely. When I go shopping everything has to fit in my backpack. OR I end up carrying a bag or two, which sometimes doesn't work out so well.

Oh and here's a photo of my bike

Thanks for the pic.

Does anyone know where to look for the serial number on these things? I'd like to figure out the exact year just for the heck of it.

It's on the head tube, below and to the right of the SCHWINN headbadge. It's stamped in. My begins with CJ with C = March and J = 1973. From that you can count up or down to figure out what date yours was made.

It starts BJ, so that's February 1973? Cool, thanks!

Exactly.

I remember those Continentals! When I was a kid back in the day, Captain Kangaroo (remember him?) would always get our eyes swooning. In our neighborhood the "rich" kids got the Varsity. But the Continental were the ones we've always dreamed of but nobody can ever afford. I got a Sears Roebuck bike.


Maybe one day I'll find a nice Continental.

It's a great bike! Plenty of 'em still out there... but maybe that depends on where you are.