Single Speed Project

I’m not sure what initially brought on the idea to rebuild an old bike but early in February I got the urge to search for an old “fixer-upper”.  Knowing my parents are pack rats when it comes to keeping things, I contacted them in search for a rustic bike that would suit the purposes of taking an old bike and turning it into a single speed.  I was in luck when searching the attic at my parent’s house where my pa and I came across an obviously old and neglected bike.   As I struggled to get the heavy steel bike with bent rims out between the superfluity of boxes, I couldn’t identify the brand of the bike besides the vintage seat that had a small metal tag riveted to the back with “Schwinn” pressed on it.  The bike was repainted sometime decades ago and the original badge or emblem on the frame was non-existent.  All I could go with was the seat tag.

I got the bike home and dismantled the bike down to the bare frame and fork.  I noticed that the serial number was stamped into the head tube and began with the letters "HC".  After scouring the Internet for details on old Schwinn bikes (still not knowing if it was a Schwinn or not), I came across a website that explained how Schwinn used letters at the beginning of their serial numbers to indicate the year and month the bike was made.  Evidently, beginning in 1960 Schwinn began using the two letter system to indicate the year the bike was made.  The first letter designated the year and the second letter designated the month.  Being that my frame’s serial number was HC, I was able to decipher that the bike was an original Schwinn manufactured in 1967 (H) in March (C).  From here I moved on to finding out what the model of the bike was.

While again scouring the Internet, I ran across an old Schwinn advertisement that detailed every model of Schwinn available in 1967.  Being that the bike had all original components, I was able to identify the model by validating the features and specs of the bike against the advertisement.  This vintage Schwinn bike I found in the attic wound up to be a Super Sport.  Sweet, a vintage 1967 Schwinn Super Sport!  A perfect bike to fix up into a single speed.

 

On to the dirty work… the bike needed a lot of upgrades.  I didn’t want to use the original bottom bracket and cranks, so I worked with Karrie at Extreme Ski & Bike to find a bottom bracket conversion kit to allow for the new style of bottom brackets to work with this frame.  Finding the part wasn’t hard, but installing it was another story.  I’ll elaborate.  In 1967, the steel tubes utilized for the frame were punched into the bottom bracket assembly and welded on the outside leaving small lengths of those tubes extending into the bottom bracket housing.  The conversion kit has three bolts running from side to side to keep the parts held in snuggly.  The tubes in the bottom bracket housing restricted the insertion of these bolts through to the other side, so we had to file down the tubes on the inside to allow for the conversion kit to work.  No easy task with only a rat-tail file to use.  We got it to work though and we progressed quickly from there.  We added a Sram Courier GXP Crank, Shimano brakes and some Alex rims for wheels that has a flip-flop hub.  That’s right, I can go fixie if I have the urge!  The rest of the components are basically all original from the brakes to the stem and handle bars.

Next up… paint.  Many hours were spend in the garage sanding down the frame to bare metal.  Many hours…  Next time I’ll just take one somewhere and have it sandblasted (well worth the time and money).  Two and a half days later I had a bare frame ready for primer.  3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, and three coats of a clear lacquer were applied over time to the frame and fork.  The painting couldn’t have gone better.  Until… I dropped the fork seconds after applying the final coat of lacquer.  Literally finished with the painting process and the fork went bouncing off the garage floor.  FAIL!  The fork was FUBAR and had to be completely redone.  After another 3 hours of sanding, the painting process was completed over a two day period.  Painting finished!

Finally, the build up process was underway and the parts went on smoothly.  The end result was a fantastic looking single speed bike that was ready for a test ride.  The test ride though has been delayed because of 14 inches of snow that fell immediately and I finished wrapping the bars.  I did however complete a quasi-test ride in my basement, travelling a whole 50 feet from one portion of the basement to the other.  Success!  

The project spanned a 3 week period but was in my mind one of the best projects I’ve done.  I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Look for this vintage single speed cruising around the Washington/Ozaukee county roads come spring and summer.