1988 Schwinn Traveler in White / Teal green fade

[rickpaulos]

Greenville Mississippi build. Tru Temper cromo.
Weinman concave rims.
Nice index shifting.

Hub cones worn out.
bb worn out.
pedals shot.

new cones
Shimano UN052 bb.
Duro tires with green stripes.
white paint touched up.
Bar set from another Schwinn.
Seat was changed before I got it.
Looks like the chainrings were also changed out.  I did notice the inner bolts weren't flush, now I see the rings aren't biopace or black.

I have a matching womens in the queue.  Want to get it done by the Ignaz Schwinn Birthday Bike Ride next spring.  It has a black stem and still has the suicide levers.


Never seen an all Frost White version.  In 1988, mountain bike sales were taking off and road bike sales were tanking.

Before and After photos.

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[JeffC]

My co-worker Vinny had one of those. It was in very good shape and just needed to be greased, new cables inners and tires. He wanted me to take off the generator which was located underneath the rear stays and ran off the tread of tire. I can't remember what the name of that set up was now. I think the True Temper frame bikes are real sleepers and are very nice bikes.

[Sleeper]

I have this bike too! It's definitely one of my favs. I bought mine back in the late '90s (1998?) from a guy that wasn't riding anymore and never rode it very much. While not pristine, there weren't any major issues and only normal "wear & tear" on the frame. I cleaned and regreased the wheels, headset and bottom bracket. Not sure if it was necessary but I replaced the cables. Tires and tubes did need replacement. Most would have considered the frame to be too large for my (then) height of 5'9" but I have disproportionately long legs so I'm still able to get a decent fit. I have at least 3" of exposed seat post and a similar amount of exposed handlebar stem. I may have swapped out a few components (would have to check my notes  ). Not sure if the KHS ULTRAcel saddle was OEM (prolly not) but that's what it came with as purchased. Not sure if it was OEM but it has Biopace chain wheels up front. Would again have to check my notes to see if they were part of my swap outs. I know that the elliptical chain wheels (Biopace at least) fell from grace but I don't have an issue with them. Again, this is one of my bikes that I ride most often and I'm glad to learn that there's at least one other person on our forum that has one to enjoy. One thing tho, those handlebars in the first pic really needed to go "buh bye" !

[rickpaulos]

I used Sanyo bottom bracket/chain stay generators for a few years in the early 1980s.  Far smoother and less drag than the bottle generators. Soubitez made a version too but the drive wheel was rather rough.  The main problem I had was when I hit potholes, the generator would bounce hard enough to lock in to the disengaged position.  I got good at flipping it back om with my toe so I didn't have to stop. 

I bought a Sanyo from Sears that came with a built in battery backup so a light would stay on at stop signs.

I've seen both Sanyo and Soubitez destroyed by using them all winter. The grit and salt will eventually chew up the drive wheel.

Now I have Shimano hub generators on a couple of my touring bikes.  No mechanical drag, just magnetic drag when the lights are turned on.  Soooooo much better.\\

[rickpaulos]

PS I have the same exact World Sport on the same catalog page above.  That ugly blue and gray with the yellow decals.

Looking through the 1988 catalog, I've owned every model except the aluminum Avion model.  The Rose, White & Blue Prelude is the only keeper.  Too bad they didn't get the red right.  I think every 1988 Schwinn road bike was made in Greenville.  I'll have to inspect the World Sport more closely.

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[Sleeper]

I have this bike too! It's definitely one of my favs. I bought mine back in the late '90s (1998?) from a guy that wasn't riding anymore and never rode it very much. While not pristine, there weren't any major issues and only normal "wear & tear" on the frame. Not sure if it was necessary but I replaced the cables. Tires and tubes did need replacement. Most would have considered the frame to be too large for my (then) height of 5'9" but I have disproportionately long legs so I'm still able to get a decent fit. I have at least 3" of exposed seat post and a similar amount of exposed handlebar stem. I may have swapped out a few components (would have to check my notes  ). Not sure if the KHS ULTRAcel saddle was OEM (prolly not) but that's what it came with as purchased. Not sure if it was OEM but it has Biopace chain wheels up front. Would again have to check my notes to see if they were part of my swap outs. I know that the elliptical chain wheels (Biopace at least) fell from grace but I don't have an issue with them. Again, this is one of my bikes that I ride most often and I'm glad to learn that there's at least one other person on our forum that has one to enjoy. One thing tho, those handlebars in the first pic really needed to go "buh bye" !

Hmm don't know why this reposted? Sorry 😞

[JeffC]

I fix.

[Sleeper]

Here are a couple of pics of my '88 Traveler 

[JeffC]

The bike looks to be very good condition. At the time there was also the Le Tour that had the True Temper Main tubes on them. I think as far as the frames go the only difference was the Le Tour had chromoly stays.

I put the foam handlebar grips back on my co-worker's bike when I fixed it up for him. He wanted the foam and at the time I was able to buy it from Harris Cyclery (Sheldon Brown's store) before they went out of business. Rick said the name of the generator that was on the bike it was a Sanyo.

[Sleeper]

BTW, those aren't ordinary foam grips on my Traveler  . They are "high end" Spenco grips! Considerably thinner than the "low end" foam grips that frequently came on entry level bikes. TBCH, I kinda like the OEM foam grips  as they provided more padding for my palms than basic handlebar tape. RE: the Spenco grips, over the years of NOT riding in the "drops", the foam part of my Spenco grips on the tops deteriorated and I had to cut them off. I replaced them with some heavy padded tape/wrap made for padding tool handles . Not a perfect solution but looks OK and saved me the trouble of removing the brake hoods and lower Spenco grips in order to put new foam ones on the tops .

[Sleeper]

I really like that Waterford bikes has the catalog scans (and more importantly the spec sheets) for many of the bikes in the Schwinn line up of years gone by. The spec sheet for the 1988 lightweights posted by JeffC tells me that the saddle and large chain wheel on my Traveler are not OEM. I guess it really doesn't matter tho as mine isn't in the running as a "collector's piece" .

[JeffC]

The foam grips I got from Harris Cyclery were probably the higher end ones too. Sheldon Brown or whoever was in charge at the time noted that ones they were selling weren't the cheapies even though they didn't particularly like foam grips. I remember they came with detailed instructions for installation.

I don't know how long Richard Schwinn will keep the Waterford website up since they shut down the business but I hope that if they decide to shut it down they will offer the Tom Findley scans to one of the bike forums. A truly valuable resource for collectors and it was very generous of  him to display those scans after Tom Findley passed away.

[Sleeper]

I don't know how long Richard Schwinn will keep the Waterford website up since they shut down the business but I hope that if they decide to shut it down they will offer the Tom Findley scans to one of the bike forums. A truly valuable resource for collectors and it was very generous of  him to display those scans after Tom Findley passed away.

Well, to be on the safe side, I'm going to take screen shots of the available spec pages for the Schwinn bikes that I currently have. Sadly, my bike collecting days are all but over and I may have to start "downsizing" my collection. I have lots of other stuff to jettison first tho so it might not be happening right away !

[HerrOtto]

Where do you find scans of the Waterford Schwinn spec sheets? I have only found the catalogs. Thank you

[JeffC]

The spec sheets for many of the years are in the catalogs themselves. In some years they listed the specs on the page the bike was on in the catalog.

https://waterfordbikes.com/fv/schwinn-catalog-scans/

https://waterfordbikes.com/SchwinnCat/flschwinn_1981_1990/1982_10.html



https://waterfordbikes.com/SchwinnCat/flschwinn_1981_1990/1984Ltwt18.html