I have a 80 Schwinn Cruiser Single Speed bike I picked up to restore. The frame and forks are good and will be getting a fresh paint job. The rest of the parts (bearings, bars, cranks, ect) are not in such great shape.
Pricing out all new parts, it creeps up quickly. My alt idea for a grassroots rebuild is to get a walmart or cheapo amazon 26" cruiser (or craiglsist) and swap over the parts. Does anyone know offhand if the bearing cups and wheel hub widths are standard sizes and still the same 40 years later?
If you are buying the same kind of bike, ie single speed cruiser, then I suspect they'll be the same. Standard for geared bikes have changed since the 80s but the cruiser stuff has been pretty well set since the 60s. I dont think I'd buy on line though, just in case they are using some weird non-us standards that arent apparent in the ad. I'd want to throw an eyeball and tape on it before buying just to be sure.
maj75
HalfDork
9/23/19 8:36 a.m.
Doubt it. Schwinn used unique sizes for a lot of their stuff, at least in the 60-70 when I messed with them.
You should be able to find a cruiser with the same size head tube and bottom bracket - Schwinn did like to use proprietary 26" wheel sizes and an oddball seatpost size.
The headset is likely 1" threaded and the bottom bracket will be American with the press in cups. I would think you could get Amazon/eBay cheap headset & bottom bracket and re-use the rest of what you have cheaper than buying a whole department store bike. I'd look up 1" threaded headset and American BB and see what you can find. If your wheels are junk you can use cheapie steel 'standard' 26" wheels in place of the proprietary Schwinn S-6 or S-7. Although by the 80's they may have gotten away from that as well.
The scwhinn wheels are the only big difference. I use alot of Craigslist beach cruisers I buy cheap too steal wheels off of for my vintage stuff. The modern hub quality is a bit of a crapshoot though, I tend too have to tear down and grease the brake shoes on mine every few months.
