Brews you can use

I bought a new old bike Monday, a 1974 Schwinn Varsity for $30 from the fine folks at Capital Deals, a surplus/bike shop in southern St. Paul.

The previous owner had done a rather crude single-speed conversion. They removed the derailleurs and one of the chain ring, ran the chain around one of the rear cogs, and flipped and chopped the stock drop bars, but didn’t deburr the chop, much less plug and wrap the handlebars. The rest of the bike isn’t so hot — it would have been marginally rideable with a brake adjustment, but to be safe, it needs:

1. headset replacement (it currently exhibits “indexed steering”)
2. bottom bracket overhaul or replacement (it’s an old-school one piece crank, which means it’s one of the rare repairs which doesn’t require special tools…)
3. new rear brake cable
4. smooth and plug/cork the chopped handlebar ends

I took a stab at the headset replacement tonight, trying to get the fork out so I could get a new headset to match but (argh) found that my big crescent wrench was about 1/2 mm too small for the locknut, so tomorrow, I’ll try to get a bigger crescent wrench, as well as some copper pipe to drive out the cups somewhat nicely.

All of these repairs should make a rideable hacked singlespeed. If I get that far, the next plans are:

1. replace the handlebars — the current ones were chopped too short, and barely have room for my hands. I haven’t decided between simple drop bars, or fancier moustache or better bullhorns.
2. replace the rear cassette with a single freewheel or track cog, or buy a new fixed/free rear wheel
3. Accesorize.
4. ?
5. Profit!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 12:33 am and is filed under Bike.