Saturday, May 23, 2009

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

A few posts back I mentioned a bike I had gotten for free- a 1973 Schwinn Varsity. Since it has that ugly orange Schwinn paint I've started to call it the Great Pumpkin.



I put some baskets on it last night and rode it to work today for the first time. Here are some pics I took when I stopped on the way home.



There is something crude and primal about this bike. It rubs, it squeeks, it doesn't like to stop. Riding this bike is like holding a tiger by the tail.



It's hard to believe Schwinn sold millions of these functional but clunky bikes. It's even more amazing to think that it still works well after all these years.

Getting these pictures was a chore. I used my new cell phone, but it didn't come with a USB cable to plug it into the computer. Being the McGyver that I am, I looked around and found an old Palm PDA I don't used anymore. It has Bluetooth and it has an SD card slot. So I was able to Bluetooth the pics from my phone to my Palm and save them to the SD card, then plug the SD into my computer. A pain the butt, but at least I can do it without the cable.

6 comments:

Big Oak said...

Schwinn had some funky colors back then. They had a light blue and a yellow they used on some of the bikes. My '73 Collegiate was yellow. I actually like the color of your bike.

mark bodah said...

i'm doing bike tune-up workshops at work for my fellow employees, and one of them had a Varsity of 70's vintage. i can see why there are so many of these still around--absolutely indestructable, simple and functional. not light though!

Screaming Monkey Bike said...

my bike also, like myself, has it's moments...

Dottie said...

Nice bike. Bless old Schwinns - they never die!

popeye cahn said...

As for getting the pics to the computer, can you email them to yourself? Or better get a Bluetooth USB dongle and try BitPim with the phone.

Doohickie said...

ACK! I deleted Tim's comment by mistake. he said:

Wow, nice setup for getting your pics to the computer. Check this out. I like it and it would be a bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833242001

Anyway, guys, part of the thing was I was trying to see if I could get the pics off without spending money on anything else. Your suggestions were good, but neither was free. ;- )