[CR]Schwinn Sports Tourer Photos

(Example: Racing:Jean Robic)

Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 19:58:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <57B5435289B045E18AAD05EBA3A1CB4C@JonPC>
Subject: [CR]Schwinn Sports Tourer Photos

Here are the photos of the project I've been working on for the last 6 weeks or so, a 1973 Schwinn Sports Tourer:

http://flickr.com/photos/19353998@N06/sets/72157606549481051/

The Sports Tourer was the middle of the Schwinn fillet-brazed CroMo line, below Superior and above Super Sport. This bike is mostly original, with a few exceptions:

The bike came without clips or straps, but a 1972 Super Sport I bought a few weeks later had Schwinn Approved AFA clips. So I used AFA here, although I didn't have Schwinn Approved ones.

The bike came with stem shifters, which I hate, but the catalogs indicate Schwinn Approved Suntour barcons were an option, so I substituted those. The bike also came with brake suicide levers, which I hate even more, so I removed them and added Diacompe brake hoods, which it originally lacked. Removing suicide levers requires replacing the extra long lever pivot bolts with standard length ones, but I still had a couple of pairs I got from list members when I did the same replacement on a World Voyageur a few months ago.

Cables, housings and bar tape have been changed and the Weinmann (rear) pads and Diacompe (front) pads hve been replaced with Malthauser. Schwinn usually matched the bar tape to the frame color, but I prefer a complementary color.

The original TA chainrings were 54-40, with guards on both rings, but 54T makes no sense to me on a touring bike, so I changed the rings to 50-36. Unfortunately the newer rings aren't drilled for the chainguards. Also replaced the wasted TA crank arm stickers. The original FW had been replaced with a narrower range one. I replaced it with a 14-32 (I think) Simplex FW. The new tires are Panaracer Pasela 27 1 1/4.

As seems usually to be the case, the original saddle, probably a Brooks B15, had been replaced with a nasty cheap plastic model (Why do people like these?). I've used a Persons #77 Deluxe, a close clone of a Brooks B17 Champion Special, copper rails, large rivets and all. This is designed and sold by the American saddle company founded in the 19th century, although they are currently manufactured in India. Persons is a prominant classic American saddle marque, so I figured it was appropriate here. The quality is definitely not as good as Brooks, but this was a "second" I got for $30, so for the price it is pretty good.

The rack is a Wald chromed steel model, manufactuered in Kentucky, believe it or not. These were recommended to me by Doug Fattic. The quality is very high, and retail is an amazing $20. I bought several new off the net for I think $13 each. I have no idea how they can make a rack of this quality in the USA for such a low price. At double the price, it would still be a hell of a bargain. I did have to drill an additional pair of holes to get the height just right, but some racks 5 times the price require the same.

The bags in a couple of the photos are the Basil canvas and leather ones from VeloOrange. Very nice and very traditional, with canvas, leather and buckles in place of the high tech stuff. A bit bulky if you are only carrying a light load, but handle larger loads beautifully.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA