Schwinn Varsity Project Completed!
Friday, March 14, 2008 at 8:49AM I spent $103 and turned a donated '73 Schwinn Varsity into a killer commuter bike. I pulled off the drop bars that were quite uncomfortable and replaced them with a flat bar and mtn bike brake levers I had laying around. The next step was dropping it off at my local bike shop for fenders.
I've invested a lot of time building a relationship with my LBS. I often drop buy and don't buy anything, but rather just say "Hi." and chat with the staff. I always send people there and tell them to tell the staff I sent them. The result is Aggieland Cycling treats me really well and takes some ownership in stuff I'm asking them to work on. It has been well worth the effort.
You should have seen the reaction of the two guys who saw the Varsity when I first brought it in. They literally salivated over the near-mint condition of such an old bike. The shop was excited as I'd ever seen them to put their hands on a project bike and given carte blanc to see what they could do.
I told them I wanted fenders and they had discretion over what kind. We also chatted for a while about bar grips and decided using bar tape would be cool. I asked if I could have a bar-mounted bottle cage for sipping coffee while cruising about. I left the Varsity there knowing these guys would do something cool with it.
They had to special order each fender to find ones that would fit. They also custom bent a mounting bracket to attach the rack to the rear brake post instead of to the seat stays, which would have marred the paint. I got some instruction on how to adjust the cones on the bearings in the front wheel to smooth out a roughness issue I noticed. After they finished working on it a few days later, the guys told me it was great to work on such a cool classic ride.
So here it is, with the pimpin'-est chrome fenders on the block. The bars are a little narrow, just like messengers like to ease weaving in and out between cars. The gears still shift great, so I've left them all on for now. Big thanks to Blinky and Aggieland Cycling for helping create an incredibly cool city bike that is both retro and modern at once. You can look at a collection of photos taken during the process here.
They have a Seattle Langster in the shop. I used it as a general target for how I wanted my bike to end up looking. If you're looking for a bitchin' single speed city bike and don't have an old one laying around to convert, I highly recommend the Seattle. The thing is truly gorgeous.
Reader Comments (10)
It looks AMAZING bro!
Hey, I've just started listening to the podcast (listening right now actually) and wanted to check out the website. Great looking commuter conversion! I love the info and humor on the podcast and being from Texas, it's cool to hear you reference places I know well. "My mask now!"
Just noticed you are in the college station area...I have a varsity I would like to get rid of and was wondering if you knew of anyone who might be looking for one. Email me at chizzle at gmail dot com
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