Customer walked in with a 1970s Schwinn and asked me to modernize it

This guy rolls in last Tuesday with his dad's old Schwinn Varsity, rusted chain and all. He said "can you make it ride like a new bike but keep the look?" Took me 4 hours to strip it down, repack the hubs, and swap in a modern 3-speed hub. The look on his face when he test rode it around the block was worth all the greasy knuckles. Has anyone else taken on a vintage bike refresh that turned out way harder than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_murphy22d ago

That's cool and all but swapping in a modern hub kinda ruins the whole "original" feel thing. A vintage Schwinn frameset with a modern drivetrain is just a mismatched bike with a shiny middle. Part of the charm of those old bikes is the way they ride and shift, not just the paint job.

julia_jones7222d ago

Is it really that deep though?