1975 Schwinn Continental

1975 Schwinn Continental
This is the bike before most of the restoration work - click to view full-size

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Looking For Wheel Rim Upgrade Options For 1970's-Era Schwinn 10-Speed Bikes...

Dear BT Staff,

I'm looking for an alloy rim that looks as close to chromed-steel as possible and will spoke to my original Schwinn Continental 10-speed front and rear hubs.

I'm going for as close to the original look of these bikes as possible. I have a '72 and a '75 that both use the original Schwinn 27" x 1 & 1/4" chromed-steel rims.

Needless to say, I can't get a reliable bead seal with modern tires, they fit a bit looser than the original Schwinn tires did. With the bead seal issue and the flex of steel rim sidewalls, I can't put over 60 psi or I blow the tubes out between the tire and rim. I've had six flats this Summer. (Two were dry-rotted tire sidewalls and one was a broken spoke)

At 6'6" and 310lbs, I'm facing a lot of drag on crushed-limestone rail-trails and a lot of bottom-outs on rough pavement at 60 psi.

I love these old bikes, and except for the flats, they suit my riding perfectly. How can I do an original-looking resto-mod on my beautiful vintage velos?

Thank you in advance,

Dan Stafford
http://1975continental.blogspot.com

3 comments:

  1. Dan,

    I recommend you join the Schwinnbikeforum. There is a collection of Schwinn knowledge there that could help you out tremendously! Hope to see you there...

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.schwinnbikeforum.com/ - I found it, but I don't know the answers to the registration questions and I don't have time to look them up right now. Maybe later.

    Regards,

    Dan

    ReplyDelete