1977 Schwinn Varsity Tourist

[JeffC]

I bought this 24" frame Varsity assembled May 12th 1977 (1327) from a CL ad from a man that lives just outside of New Hope PA. There was traffic backed up for miles going to Peddler's Village and New Hope both tourist destinations on the weekend. I used Google maps to get to his house and get around the traffic with little trouble and a couple of extra minutes.

The bike itself had little usage and the decals were in sad shape but this was my Varsity Tourist project so all those things were over come. As I mentioned in the tire post I made the bike had pretty hard Michelin World Tour tires on it and I had to abandoned them after I got the wheels back into shape. They had a few stuck spoke nipples and I ended up replacing two spokes when I trued the wheels. The World Tour tires just would not seat correctly when I tried to reinstall them. I also mentioned in the tire post that I swapped out the white wall Schwalbe HS 159 tires from the Super sport I was working on.

I bought new decals from Bicycle Bones on eBay. They worked out nicely but to get the old decals off was a chore. I used the micro set decal solution on them over night but that also softened the paint and when removing the decals some paint was also coming off. After finally getting all the decal remnants off with lacquer thinner I had to touch up the paint. What I did was sand down the entire area finishing with 1500 grit. Then taped it off just for the section that was to get the new decals. I tested and used a spray touch up paint that pretty much matched the Radiant Red that was purty darn close to the color of my Mercury Grand Marquis called Metallic Toreador Red. I painted the area and let set for 48 hours and then used some rubbing compound and clean with alcohol. It was a darn good match. It was going to be under the decals so it's almost unnoticeable. The downtube decals are just slightly off at the top but I'm the only one that will notice it. The top tube decals are perfect.

The handlebars are from my 1980 Red Collegiate 3. It came with the 7881 Tourist handle bars and I swapped them out for the 1979 7834 flat style handlebar. The levers are NOS levers. The cable adjusters came from a one year only 1971 Women's Super Sport that used 7896 allrounder handlebars. The knurled adjuster is brass. 

The fenders came from Ventana when he was selling fenders on eBay many years ago. I had purchased 2 24" frame rear fenders from him. They are the older style that uses the single reflector hole instead of the later two hole fenders for the Tombstone type reflector. As the page I posted in the Catalog post says "front fenders are all the same, only the braces are different between 26 and 27 inch models". I found a Varsity front brace on eBay few weeks back and it worked perfectly.

One other important item, the saddle. A few years back you could get Brooks saddles from Charlie Persons. These were Sturmey Archer owned Brooks saddles and he was selling them at 2/3rds the price of new Brooks owned Brooks saddles. This one is a B66 and it's brand new most likely made right around 2001 or so. The adapter seat post is a Wald that lets you use a 7/8ths saddle on your Schwinn. I have them on both of my Collegiate 3's with Brooks B66S saddles and they work very nicely, time tested and proved. The Wald part # 940-10 for 10" version.


Ok enough waffling here are the pictures so far.

 

[JeffC]

more pictures

[JeffC]

One more

[JeffC]

This was my 1968 Varsity Tourist. It was my first bicycle since I was a kid. I bought in 2008 and cleaned it up and put it back into good condition. I sold it to Tim S. I needed room in my basement at the time but I didn't feel great selling it.

If you will notice the handlebar stem. It is aluminum. One of the members mentioned about the aluminum stem that is on my 1970 Suburban 3 speed. Yes, Schwinn used a few different stems from when they changed over from .890 to .830 during the year of 1966. There were a couple of aluminum ones and a couple of forged steel stems. I had done a post about that on the prior version of the forum. Suffice it to say the aluminum one on the '68 Varsity Tourist worked well for the Twinn Stick shifter. It had a longer reach and made room to work the shift levers. On my '77 I used a standard up swept forged steel stem and the Twinn Stick shifters are right up against the handlebars. If I get some time I make another post about the different stems used on the 60's and early 70's EF frame bikes.



 

[JSchmo]

Nice job on this bike.  Looks brand new!

How's the ride compared to early 70's Varsities?

The stem compendium would be interesting to see.  I think in mid 70's the stems on 24" Continentals also got longer - from 80 to 90 mm...

[JeffC]

Nice job on this bike.  Looks brand new!

How's the ride compared to early 70's Varsities?

The stem compendium would be interesting to see.  I think in mid 70's the stems on 24" Continentals also got longer - from 80 to 90 mm...

I just got done this Varsity and haven't gotten it out on the shakedown ride yet. I suspect it'll ride the same as the '68 I sold to Tim S. It has the same tires and Schwinn steel S-6 rims on it. I'm no weight wienie but it's a pretty heavy bike. Once you get it going it takes less to keep it going from the weight momentum. I'll be using it down the Jersey shore. It's flat down there so the weight is no big deal and it won't be used for time trials.

Fitting new fenders on a bike that never had fenders on it was a chore. I had to rivet the braces on with a rivet press. Getting everything to line up properly took some work.

[HerrOtto]

The 24" looks great. Nice job with the water slides also.

[JSchmo]

Jersey Shore - me too.  I am getting a Continental ready to bring down there for the summer.  Lavallette.