Earlier this month, I was making the rounds. Occasionally I'll cruise a strip on the way home from work where there are some thrift stores and pawn shops. Most of the time the bikes are cheapo mountain bikes from big box stores. I generally don't even look unless a bike has racing bars. Well, I spotted this beauty.
It had that look of the puppy at the pound that says, "Take me home!" It's a 1987 Schwinn Prelude. The Prelude was the "worst of the best" in the Schwinn lineup that year. It shared a lot of features with the more expensive bikes, including Shimano indexed shifting (which was state of the art in 1987), Columbus Tenax tubing and 700C aluminum wheels, weighing in at a trim (by 1987 standards) 24 pounds. This specimen had most of those features preserved, although some modifications had been made.
The most notable was the Shimano indexed downtube shifters had been replaced by some rather sorry-looking stem-mounted friction shifters. Plus there was some rust on the frame. Still, I could see the potential, so home we went. I took care of the rust right away, going from this,
to this:
I also picked up some original Shimano Indexed Shifters at a swap meet and installed them on the downtube.
I did some general cleanup and new cable housings, redid the handlebar tape and adjusted the seat height to my size, and now it looks pretty sweet.
11 comments:
Great looking bike. By the mid-80's Schwinn wasn't The bike to have anymore - Trek was the up and coming race bike to have then. But what I like about the Schwinns were their solid, sturdy frames. It looks to me like you have a keeper there, and I'll back you up if you need help convincing anyone to keep it :)
Cool bike, and forgive me for noticing, but that would make a really nice fixed wheel Trinity Trails cruiser.
He's a good lookin guy!
If you ever get on anything less than 20lbs, you'll be able to fly!
Heh. You make me laugh.
Great work ... it was a nice bike to begin with, but you're really brought it back to life!
Nice find, Doohickie. A beautiful looking bike. Schwinn's are practically unknown here in the UK, but I would be glad to own that one! Definitely a keeper.
I'd be interested to see how you took care of the rust, I have similar spots on my Moto I'd love to be rid of.
I figured out Doohickie's dirty little secret on his new bike by virtue of my own accident yesterday. Take care with the spare tubes, my friend!
Spare tubes? I used no tubes for anything on this bike, Steve (other than inside the tires, of course).
Marrock- to fix the rusty spot, I sanded the rusty areas, then used Permatex Rust Treatment to prime the area, and a Testors paint pen to paint the affected areas. I got the rust treatment at an auto parts store and the paint pen at a craft shop.
Just remember, "Presta is Besta!" Now you got a whole bunch of Schrader stuff and ONE set of Presta rims. Look at the bright side. You now have one set of hook bead rims.
Oh, I follow you now. I already had some Presta tubes hanging around. No big deal. When you collect junk, you always have the right junk around.
;)
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