Polishing a turd - my 20$ 12 speed schwinn traveler



huhenio

huhenio

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Jul 19, 2005
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So I got a 20$ schwinn traveler. The bike needs tender love and care but it is rideable! I took it for a short spin and It climbs ok for me.

All gears work fine, and the ratios are not bad at all.
The smallest cog is 12 and the biggest in the high 20's
Rings are 52 and 40.

I am off to the bike shop to get a wire harness for this bike so I can slap the computer on it.

Cannot wait for saturday!!:D

... Pics coming soon
 
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huhenio said:
So I got a 20$ schwinn traveler. The bike needs tender love and care but it is rideable! I took it for a short spin and It climbs ok for me.

All gears work fine, and the ratios are not bad at all.
The smallest cog is 12 and the biggest in the high 20's
Rings are 52 and 40.

I am off to the bike shop to get a wire harness for this bike so I can slap the computer on it.

Cannot wait for saturday!!:D

... Pics coming soon
Click to expand...
Now that's bike love!:) Back in 1972, when I was 15, my mom bought me a ten-speed road bike with drop-bars and 27-inch wheels. The bike was called the Huffy Grand Tour. I remember that it had dual friction mode shifters on the downtube, and I was happy with it as I rode this bike everywhere until I left high school! Now I ride a Cycle Genius STX CLWB recumbent, and I'm happy with it and ride this bike everywhere!;) And now my News of the North: I have come to believe, with much trepidation, you understand, that Richard C. Hoagland's "Monuments on Mars," are evidence of a long-dead very ancient high-tech human civilization that flourished here on earth, the moon, and, of course, Mars! This evidence shows two things to me: That human history is far more expansive than most scientists will credit, and that this ancient technical culture had ended suddenly in some massive catastrophe that affected much of our solar system. In reviewing the photographic evidence from "Mars Global Surveyor," "Oddessy," and other American, European Space Agency, and Soviet space probes, I have no clue if these very ancient technically sophisticated humans had bicycles; surely, they were us and we are them: they rode!!!:D (The period of this ancient high tech culture seems to have flourished and then died out at the end of the Sangamon/Eemian Interglacial around 74,500 years B.C.E. Is there something to be said for Dr. Tom Van Flandern's EPH model, or Hoagland's, et al., Mars Tidal Theory? Interesting that none other than Sir Arthur C. Clarke thinks he sees something akin to 'banyon trees" living in the southern hemisphere of Mars! A living forest on the red planet today?! Against the backdrop of widely scattered and tantillizing ruins! Stay tuned!)
 
huhenio said:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/huhenio/DSCN0521.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/huhenio/DSCN0522.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/huhenio/DSCN0523.jpg

10 speed ... not 12 .... I cannot count:mad:
Click to expand...
Very toight :p
Very similar to how my current 'project' looked when starting except i had heaps of rust and oxidisation to contend with. E-bay is your friend and dont rule out international e-bay purchases for favourable exchange rates. I stripped my frame ($20 from the pawn shop) and repainted it then started building the bike with Campag bits sourced from round the globe. So far its got xenon ergo levers and deraileur's and record cranks and mavic rims. If i knew anything about computers id post up some pics. Theres life in the old girl yet.
cheers
Mick
 
I am decided .... it is going to be a fixed gear.:D

After a few test runs I discovered that the gearing is far from ideal for the kind of terrain I ride on. Yes it is as fast (on the top end) as my hybrid but It lacks of those , oh so lovely, intermediate gears for those mile long climbs.

Methinks that is a job for my LBS job ... or at least buy the stuff there since I have no desire of using EBAY. Next spring I will dismantle, strip the paint off, give it a good 2 coats of Osha Orange paint, new wheels, chopped handlebars, and use it for those rides with wifey where speed is not an issue:D

My hybrid will be the commuter and the fixie will become my toy - strenght training machine!!
 
That's a mighty fine turd you have there huhenio. It must have hurt pushing that past your cheeks!:D Only two coats of paint? You're lucky. We need around 15 coats in the UK due to our forever changing weather. Never understood the fixed gear thing though....
 
huhenio said:
Have you ever tried?

You will not get it till you try ...
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good plan and definately good idea to support your LBS if youve got one. I was going to ask if it had horizontal dropouts :D
Have much fun:p
 
They are semi horizontal ... not quite horizontal but not all that vertical. I know it might prove tricky to provide the right tension but my local LBS mechanic and owner is pretty crafty.

I have seen conversions from identical frames in fixedgeargallery and they show little to no modification to the dropouts.
 
Yeah. Had a go on one years ago at the Manchester Velodrome on a team training night. Didn't quite take to them. Especially when I tried to freewheel and the kickback threw me off at 20mph!!!
 
When I learned I first rode it like a normal bicycle with platforms. The learning curve was not very steep, and pedal efficiency came naturally. Since my riding was on stop and go traffic, I learned pretty quick to override the need to place my feet to the ground. Shortly after that I got some used clips and learned to spin like a maniac. I got stronger than strong because most of the time I was off the saddle - I was in my early 20's - and It made me an oddball among my peers since cars where becoming the "thing" to have. Since I had a pretty physical job as an electrician in the movie industry my coworkers gave me a lot of kudos for going to work at 4 am, load the truck with heay light rigs, unload it on location, place it, move it around during the shoot, putting it back on the truck, and unload it on the company's depot close to midnight, to ride back home.
Oh boy! ... was I ever fit or what! Fortunatelly there was plenty time to recover between rides and food was catered to the crew for free. They were amused by my ability to eat as much as a guy twice my size without getting any fatter. It made me a little oddball, but as an independent contractor, it also made me known among the production companies and crews, creating some preference for my services in spite of my relatively lack of experience on the field and industry.
I believe that that bike helped me through that time where I had to distinguish myself among other more qualified and experienced electricians. I was always there, always ready, and rarely tired.
I won a number of bets of feats of strength by moving a 1500 kilo generator - mounted on a trailer - around a parking lot too. All about the leg and lower back strenght that the fixie helped to build I supposed.
So I look back at the fixie with some love as you can imagine ... good times!
 
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