Vintage Schwinn

Hey Brandon & RB1:
THERE IS NO BETTER CAMPUS CRUISER BIKE ON THE PLANET THAN THE ANCIENT CHICAGO SCHWINNS!!!!!

I am sure that Eswau's daughter is now midway through her Junior year in College now, since the original post was from Oct 2020.

Still, it is great that you did revive this topic because there are always students in college and students going off to college for the first time.
They always need durable and reliable campus bikes.
None are better than ancient Schwinns!
There is a reason that some of those ancient Schwinns have served as campus bikes during Grandma's generation at College (1966-1970) and also during Mom's generation at College (1991-1995) and now for little Brittney's generation at College (2023-2027).
****There is a reason that thousands of old ancient Schwinns get dusted off, and new tubes and tires each AUGUST as those fellows across the country located in the big college towns look to sell USED dependable campus bikes to the thousands of FRESHMEN arriving on campus each fall.
No joke, the ancient Schwinns are probably the biggest sellers every year for the past 55 or so years.
Nothing withstands the rain,and the snowfall like the ancient Schwinns with their durable high quality enamel paint and the fact that they featured the best chrome plating that the bicycle industry has ever seen. The ONE PIECE Ashtabula crank is a marvel of simplicity and is also one of the most durable if one liberally greases the two #64 crank bearings with synthetic waterproof GREEN grease. Heck any fresh grease that could be anything from 1940 military spec grease would be okay as that is what they originally had in the 1940's through the 1970's. Schwinn bicycles featured the finest bearings of any manufacturer in the bicycle industry. The same is true for their chainrings and the rear gear cogs. The same is true for the strength and durability of Schwinn frames. The same is true for the kickstand. Schwinn chrome plating was by far better than any other bike manufacturer on the planet, ever. This means that Schwinn's are more resilient against the elements of weather and do not rust quite as quickly as other bikes do. About the only things on an ancient Schwinn that were not superior to every other manufacturer's bikes were the PEDALS and the SEATS. (****on 10 speed bikes, Schwinn did employ a HURET ALVITT rear derailleur WHICH WAS INFERIOR to the 1967 SHIMANO LARK and all other later Shimano rear derailleurs.......the HURET ALVITT rear derailleur WAS INFERIOR to all Maeda SUNTOUR rear derailleurs from about 1969-'70 on **** .........so yes there were numerous Columbia's, Murray's, Free Spirits etc as well as Japanese bikes from 1968 to about 1978 that did have better made Japanese rear derailleurs (Shimano or SUNTOUR) rather than the second rate Huret Allvit that Schwinn continued to employ on the Varsity, the Continental, and the 10 speed Suburban.

No single speed bicycle on the planet is built better than any single speed SCHWINN that was produced in Chicago between 1954 and the end of 1980!!!
The build quality is second to none.
You can find LIGHTER bicycles that weigh less and are easier to lift and carry up stairs into a second floor apartment.
You will not find a bicycle which rides better than an ancient Schwinn made between 1954 and the end of 1980!!
You will certainly NOT find a more durable and reliable bike than the ancient Schwinn!!
They are simple to Do-It -Yourself service as are any ONE PIECE Ashtabula CRANK bicycles.
The tried and true, proven reliable, old school method of oiling the chain with MOTOR OIL (fresh motor oil, the same as what your car's engine takes...) IS THE BEST WAY TO PROCEED FOR ANY BICYCLE THAT WILL BE LEFT OUTDOORS FOR ANY PROLONGED PERIOD.
When it gets grimy and dirty, using throwaway rags or ripped up throwaway towel, clean the grime and dirt from the chain with the throwaway rag damped wet with either Lighter Fluid, Gasoline, or Kerosene. (NO NEED TO REMOVE THE CHAIN FROM THE BIKE!!! just be sure to do it outside away from sparks, flames, pets, children. ...wear protective gloves, and old clothes) .....Immediately apply a liberal amount of new fresh motor oil on to the entire bicycle chain......wipe of excess such that it does not drip oil, but is completely oiled. If you do that, your bike will withstand the prolonged period of being left outside in the elements.

Let me tell you that a TREK or SPECIALIZED is NOT a better campus bicycle than a HUFFY CRANBROOK from Wallyworld!!!!!
Yes, the TREK and the SPECIALIZED are better and more capable bicycles but nothing much is needed to get across campus.
TREK and SPECIALIZED bikes will be much more likely to be STOLEN since they carry significant re-sale values and are very capable bicycles for more than campus use. GIANT, NERVE, and ELECTRA bikes are also likely to be STOLEN although they aren't that good as far as being considered as quality bicycle.
Being left out in the elements will take its toll on any TREK or SPECIALIZED. Electras, Giants and Nerves won't survive as well as they are not built any where close to TREK quality. The HUFFY CRANBROOK from WALLYWORLD is going to exhibit rust after one month outside that exceeds that of any 75 year old Schwinn that has been left outside for years. The reason is the poor excuse for chrome plating which rusts from ordinary humidity almost like you poured Clorox all over it. You can mitigate this problem by installing ancient Schwinn handlebars on the new HUFFY (something such as old 7881 Schwinn handlebars or 7819 Schwinn handlebars or anything really old when chrome plating was chrome plating....anything from the fifties, sixties, or seventies from any bike with chrome steel handlebars with the standard 25.4 clamp area would work. ----Assemble the new WALLYWORLD Huffy Cranbrook properly and make damn certain to liberally GREASE the one piece crank's two bearings(because they don't provide adequate grease, almost none as that insures the bike will develop problems soon if the owner isn't smart enough to realize that).
Then check and do the same for the headset bearings (steering of handlebars...).
Routinely OIL the bicycle chain with clean fresh motor oil, and using a golf tee, a small piece of coathanger wire, or a nail, DIP the golf tee (or Nail or coathanger wire) into the fresh clean motor oil, then using that golf tee....etc, as a means of dripping drops of fresh motor oil into each side of your WALLYWORLD Huffy cranbrook front wheel axle (by turning the bike on its side.....spinning the wheel while dripping a good two drops of oil into there while the wheel is slightly spinning........flip the bike to the other side and Do the same thing for the other side of the front axle)......................Now then do the same thing with both sides at the rear wheel axle.
You'll have to do this at least once a month on a New wallyworld Huffy Cranbrook, because neither their grease quality....lack of, and lower quality bearings compared to a Schwinn from 60 years ago............but if you do this, your HUFFY CRANBROOK will be an outstanding reliable campus cruiser that will serve you well. If you don't do this, the cheap, minimally lubricated bearings in the axles will rust and become pitted and problematic. Bicycles are simple. Liberally oil those cheapo chinese wallyworld Huffy Cranbrooks and they will do fine. Wallyworld and other box stores figured out that by not spending an additional $0.15 per bicycle to have them come with an adequate amount of grease and lubrication, that the bicycle will become unuseable six times as fast, thus requiring mr. & mrs. jones to buy a new Wallyworld bicycle that much sooner within a few years.
Oil & Grease the heck out of those new chinese Cranbrooks, change out those plastic cheapo pedals and change out the soon to become rusty cheapo chinese handlebars with something nice from a 50 year old Schwinn, and that new $164.95 WALLYWORLD Huffy Cranbrook will be an incredible campus cruiser.
You don't need something expensive from your Local Bike Shop for a college campus cruiser bike.
The only doofusses that will tell you that you do need to only consider Local Bike Shop bikes are the guys that own local bike shops, or work in them and have a significant vested interest in convincing you that bike shop bikes are the only bikes that you should ever consider.
Just like, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, you don't need anything special or expensive for a campus bike!

Hey, if you do want to see some potential old ancient Schwinns, and to see what various frame sizes and cool snazzy colors that that came in back in the day, GO and GOOGLE: 1961-1970 Schwinn Catalogs
(***You will see the WATERFORD site link to CLICK ON......the waterford site houses 1971-1980 Schwinn Catalogs, also the 1961-1970 Schwinn Catalogs, & 1951-1960.)
GOOGLE: 1971-1980 Schwinn Catalogs

GOOGLE: 1951-1960 Schwinn Catalogs

Yes, you have about six hundred pages for each decade block with the total number of pages for all ten years of that decade's catalogs,

My advice is that you are MOST LIKELY to more easily find 1966 through 1976 ancient SCHWINNS.
Of those, perhaps the world's best basic single speed in my opinion is the step-through Women's SCHWINN BREEZE model.
Unlike the new chinese Wallyworld bikes such as the Huffy Cranbrook and new local bike shop bikes like TREK, SPECIALIZED, ELECTRA etc, those ancient Schwinns came in a lot of sizes, many of which are larger than what you can get today........also the old Schwinns came in more size choices than what is currently available today.


Spend some time there on those Waterford links looking at the many ancient Schwinn models there in the catalogs such that you may wish to seek and find for your campus bicycle. Schwinn sold hundreds of thousands of those ancient bikes because as Captain Kangaroo correctly said "Schwinn bikes are the best." *
* Hey, if you are under 60 years old, you'll probably have to GOOGLE who the hell Captain Kangaroo was, and yeah he was compensated for saying that on his tv show and for appearing in print ads for Schwinn saying "Schwinn bikes are the best."