1973 Schwinn Speedster

I also picked up this bike today. It was advertised as an "early 60's Schwinn, completely original, everything works".

It's not an early Schwinn, but looks like a later Stingray reproduction. It has no badges or decals, a matte red repaint, and a mix of old and new parts. It rides fairly well, though, and it shifts nicely.

I've figured out the brake thing. Haven't fixed it yet, but I will soon.

Pretty sweet. I liked my old banana seat bike, even though it was a Montgomery Wards. But when everything switched to BMX you couldn't give those away.

Regardless of that, I always wanted a Schwinn.

Iverson for sale on ebay Not trying to threadjack, but anybody remember Iverson bicycles, i had one of these when I was a kid Same color and all, except for the tires haven't seen another one since I found this on the interwebz..

SO whens it getting an LSX?

I actually have a vintage Tanaka two stroke bike engine in my barn...

Before my Schwinn I had a Murray F1 Eliminator. Purple, single speed, coaster brakes. Talk about a heavy bicycle......

I hope you people are happy...

The rear brakes are now back behind the bracket. In order to make this happen, I had to flip the caliper, swap the front pads to the rear, true the wheel, slide the rear wheel as far forward as possible in the rear dropout, shorten the chain, adjust both the front and rear brakes and re-adjust the shift linkage.

I had a sunset orange stingray. Loved that bike. I think it was given away as I got older.

I had hoped to swap the fat whitewalls and fenders from the red bike onto the old Schwinn, but it was pretty easy to see that it wasn't going to work. Schwinn manufactured their own wheels and, in a shrewd marketing move, only their tires will fit their rims. Both bikes have 20 inch wheels, but you can see a pretty dramatic difference in the diameter of the rims (ignore the tires). The old Schwinn brakes won't even come close to the braking surface of the newer rim.

So both bikes were returned back to their original configurations.

It's starting to get a little crowded down in the bike shop so I need to make a little room before I get too deep into the restoration of the Raleigh for my daughter.

The blue Schwinn and the Red Rat Rod are headed for Craigslist.

My parents couldn't afford the Stingray, I got a Huffy Bluebeard instead. Cool old bikes, much better than the junk they have today. Glad to see someone is saving the classics, nice job!

Okay, forget the Craigslist thing. The Schwinn is a keeper and I think I've identified the rat rod bike as a 1966 Murray Wildcat Deluxe. I may get rid of the high bar and keep that one as well.