Just added to the stable, not yet finished with the fine tuning / personalisation yet, is a 1974 Schwinn Varsity road bike. Now, yea, that was a very common bike before I was born, I know that. Yes, the new tires cost more than the bike did, and yea, I still have more I will do to it still. Next week it will be getting new cable housing, and the handlebar will get new grips, or tape, or some kind of whatever it was Parkers Bike shop and I agreed on. All in matching green, and of course, but hey... but that's not all, I gotta go cash in my coins at coinstar for an Amazon card, because I will be adding the kind of pedals I prefer, with green toe clips. Authentic and original? No. Matching the poor spirit of the bike that was feeling so much pain sitting on a rack at the bike shop in the next town over, facing a grim fate, that it will soon live out a full life again? I think so. (The bike shop didn't really want to bother with it, being a mass produced Schwinn from before I was born, and not a lot of chance of profit if he did work on it to make it sale ready, but hey...)
I do want to point out that in this town, mountain bikes are king. The gods only know why, but 9 out of 10 road bikes have their drop handlebars upside down, which makes me cringe. finding a decent used road bike is not as easy as it is some places. I have yet to weigh the bike, but it is freaking heavy. It will serve me well for training, and it probably won't coddle me when I hit an uphill climb, but I still like it, for the whole half mile I have put on it. I know it can't tell me the stories of where it's been or what it's done, but it must have a neat history, the one tire that was in better shape had a Schwinn logo, and seemed to have a date stamp of 1983, as well as Schwinn tubes. But it will get some new stories soon.
I won't put up pics until it is closer to being done getting tweaked.
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