75 Schwinn Continental: I Broke My Front Deraillure Cable...

...it just snapped the end off at the shifter when I tried shifting above 5th on my last prairie path ride.

I'm looking to replace the handle bar tape and the old gray cables with blue cloth and blue-colored cables from Velo Orange this coming payday. Especially since I've had no luck finding any of the original Schwinn handlebar tape, nor do I know if it would be useable after so many years, even if I could find it. The original tape was really great-looking, but it was really slick if your hands were sweaty. You pretty much needed to ride with those thin brown cloth gloves unless you wanted to have your hands slide off.

I have to face it, I'm going to have to do some "resto-modding" on the Connie, there's not much of a way around it - but I'll be as true to the original as possible.

One of the cool things I learned from Velo Orange is about Simichrome polish. I'm going to have to get some of this stuff and see how it does.

The front steering bearings are also a little loose since the accident last Summer where the front rim got pretzelized. I'm going to have to get those replaced.

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to find someone to duplicate the original decals yet, so I didn't get the bike painted before riding season. I need to work on that over the Summer so that I can get the paint done as soon as the season ends.

Still, even with a little slop in the bearings, the Connie is holding up great and I still love riding - but I won't be getting above 5th gear until I get that cable swapped. That also might be a great time to get the original Schwinn front deraillure I bout last year put on the bike, and store the emergency generic.

Ride on,

Dan