Hello,
The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has presented
itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and probably new
wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing this unicycle
and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
Thanks,
–
George B. President ISU Unicycling Club
Re: Schwinn Restoration
Hi George. If it has cottered cranks, you might want to resist this temptation.
Cotterless is much, much better.
Regards, John Drummond www.Unicycle.com 1-800-Unicycle
“George B.” <gbarnes82@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:99ipru$74f$1@news.iastate.edu…
> Hello,
>
> The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has presented
> itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and probably new
> wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing
this
> unicycle and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
>
> Thanks,
>
> –
> George B. President ISU Unicycling Club
>
Re: Schwinn Restoration
I agree with John Drummond. If it has cottered cranks and needs a new seat and
probably new wheel/tire/cranks (and you will probably need a longer seat pot as
well) you might end up with the fork plates as the only usable parts.
If it has cottered cranks you might have to replace fewer parts, and the
replacement crank selection will be wider. However, if you will be using it as a
loaner unicycle for your club, don’t forget that changing the seat height is a
bit of a pain on a Schwinn. The forks are held together by a bolt that goes
through the forks and the seat post. The different seat post heights is also
limited by the holes in the seat post and can only be set in fixed 1"
increments. Loaner unicycles wind up having the seat height changed frequently.
A unicycles with quick release seat posts are more convenient.
On the plus side, Schwinns are very solid unicycles that will stand up to waves
of abuse. They can also be rebuilt into Monty conversions. I think it makes
sense for a club to own at least one Monty unicycle so that members will have a
good machine to give trials a try on.
John Hooten
“George B.” wrote:
> Hello,
>
> The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has presented
> itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and probably new
> wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing this
> unicycle and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
>
> Thanks,
>
> –
> George B. President ISU Unicycling Club
Re: Schwinn Restoration
One other negative about old Schwinn’s is that Schwinn used to use a
non-standard rim size that will not fit a normal 20" tire. This rim limits you
to just a few tires and those tires are hard to find now. I don’t know if any of
those tires are indoor safe (you certainly won’t find any white tires in that
size). If the uni has the old rim size avoid it or plan on spending a bundle to
get the wheel rebuilt with a modern 20" rim.
john_childs
>From: “George B.” <gbarnes82@hotmail.com>
>
>Hello,
>
>The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has presented
>itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and probably new
>wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing this unicycle
>and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
>
>Thanks,
>
>–
>George B. President ISU Unicycling Club
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
RE: Schwinn Restoration
George,
> The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has presented
> itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and probably new
> wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing this
> unicycle and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
If it’s really that bad off it’s probably not worth the cost of replacing all
those parts. But if you have several old Schwinns around, it’s a good source of
parts. On eBay you can usually find a wide variety of Schwinns for sale, some in
near-new condition (even if they’re 20 years old). If the one above is really in
need of all those new parts, offer the seller $20 and see what happens.
Otherwise you can start off with brand new Torkers from UnicycleSource.com for
only about $90. The cycles will be new, and the parts are cheaper to replace if
necessary.
What’s ISU?
Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com
“Dad, I’m hypo-icecreamic.” – Woody Hooten, at the end of a long MUni ride
(Woody’s mom is a doctor, and this sounds like something his family developed on
long car rides when the kids were young)
Re: Cottered hub system maintainence [Was Re: Schwinn Restoration]
Excellent instructions, what needs to be added for those in the UK (and possibly
else where). Look out there are metric and imperial sizes of cotter pin, get the
right one!
Roger
The UK's Unicycle Source
<a href="http://www.unicycle.uk.com/">http://www.unicycle.uk.com/</a>
----- Original Message ----- From: “Ken Fuchs” <kfuchs@winternet.com> To:
<unicycling@winternet.com> Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 6:00 PM Subject:
Cottered hub system maintainence [Was Re: Schwinn Restoration]
> >“George B.” <gbarnes82@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:99ipru$74f$1@news.iastate.edu…
>
> >> The opportunity to purchase an old 20" Schwinn for about $40 has
presented
> >> itself. It is not in the greatest shape, needing a new seat and
probably
> >> new wheel/tire/cranks. My questions is whether it is worth purchasing this
> >> unicycle and putting the money in it to make it rideable.
>
> “John Drummond” <unicycle@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> >Hi George. If it has cottered cranks, you might want to resist this
> >temptation. Cotterless is much, much better.
>
> Yes, a cotterless hub system is superior to the older cottered hub system.
>
> However, a cottered hub system can be just as reliable as a cotterless hub
> system. A cottered hub system just requires more maintainence (and/or
> different) skills. A good bike shop should be able to handle either.
>
> Cottered hub system maintainence:
>
> Selection of a set of cotter pins that are thick enough to properly fasten the
> crank to the axle is critical. The cotter pins must be pressed in with a
> special tool or pounded in with a hammer so that they are extremely tight. A
> critical error often made by novices and even some bike shop mechanics is
> trying to tighten the cotter pin by simply tightening the nut. Wrong! This may
> work on a bicycle, but definitely not a unicycle where torque is applied in
> both directions to maintain forward/backward balance! The nut is tightened
> after the cotter pin has been fully pressed or hammered into its final
> position. The nut should be made as tight as possible since it keeps the
> cotter pin in the extremely tight position that keeps the crank firmly
> attached.
>
> If you pound a cotter pin on with a hammer, be sure to support the hub
> directly using a workbench and/or block of wood. This will avoid stressing the
> spokes that will occur in the absence of such support.
>
> To avoid cosmetic damage while hammering a cotter pin, one can go to the
> extremes of using a brass hammer, or a regular hammer and vice-grip holding a
> brass “pounding block” or even a copper penny in a pinch.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com