Schwinn Super Sport resto-mod 3-speed
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Schwinn Super Sport resto-mod 3-speed
A couple things you need to know about me:
1 I ain't normal. (In this group, that should be a given.)
2. I like Schwinn fillet-brazed bikes from the '70's.
A couple of you might remember my Schwinn Superior with mostly XTR components: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/a...57642470085394 . While I was working on it, I also acquired a Super Sport which was missing a few pieces. Me being me, I decided to build it up as an upright town bike. I already had a Sturmey-Archer (Sunrace) 3-speed hub, so it was a pretty straightforward build.
My intent was to build a "what-if" bike. As in "what if Schwinn decided to build an upmarket 3-speed using their fillet-brazed frames as a basis". (Schwinn offered Paramounts with 3-speed hubs in the late '60's. Seriously.) This is what came out. Nice rigid fillet-brazed frame, all aluminum components, really shiny. I'd like to have the frame repainted to eliminate the chips but that probably won't happen this year.
It's mostly finished now (I really should put fenders on it) but it's rideable . Here's the complete photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/a...57670249022375
Of interest is the crank/bottom bracket area. I've wanted to do something like this for a while, just to show how fungible bikes can be. (I also wanted to use "fungible" in a sentence.)
It's comprised of:
Truvativ adapter rings (USA)
Shimano bottom bracket (Japan)
Nervar crank arms (France)
Shimano dust caps (Japan) (Thanks #randyjawa !)
TA crank bolts (France)
Velo Orange chainring (Taiwan?)
MKS pedals (Japan)
SRAM chain (Portugal!)
They all work together without a single complaint (so far).
Photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/5...7670249022375/
The complete bike. Photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/5...7670249022375/
1 I ain't normal. (In this group, that should be a given.)
2. I like Schwinn fillet-brazed bikes from the '70's.
A couple of you might remember my Schwinn Superior with mostly XTR components: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/a...57642470085394 . While I was working on it, I also acquired a Super Sport which was missing a few pieces. Me being me, I decided to build it up as an upright town bike. I already had a Sturmey-Archer (Sunrace) 3-speed hub, so it was a pretty straightforward build.
My intent was to build a "what-if" bike. As in "what if Schwinn decided to build an upmarket 3-speed using their fillet-brazed frames as a basis". (Schwinn offered Paramounts with 3-speed hubs in the late '60's. Seriously.) This is what came out. Nice rigid fillet-brazed frame, all aluminum components, really shiny. I'd like to have the frame repainted to eliminate the chips but that probably won't happen this year.
It's mostly finished now (I really should put fenders on it) but it's rideable . Here's the complete photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/a...57670249022375
Of interest is the crank/bottom bracket area. I've wanted to do something like this for a while, just to show how fungible bikes can be. (I also wanted to use "fungible" in a sentence.)
It's comprised of:
Truvativ adapter rings (USA)
Shimano bottom bracket (Japan)
Nervar crank arms (France)
Shimano dust caps (Japan) (Thanks #randyjawa !)
TA crank bolts (France)
Velo Orange chainring (Taiwan?)
MKS pedals (Japan)
SRAM chain (Portugal!)
They all work together without a single complaint (so far).
Photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/5...7670249022375/
The complete bike. Photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/5...7670249022375/
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Last edited by Jeff Wills; 09-09-20 at 09:52 PM.
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Fantastic. Always thought the fillet brazed Superior was the one to upgrade for road, while the Super Sport and Sports Tourer were the perfect basis for higher-end IGH builds.
It'd be fun to throw some fenders and a chainguard on this one - just to go full wannabe I Look Like a 3-Speed Collegiate Q-ship
-Kurt
It'd be fun to throw some fenders and a chainguard on this one - just to go full wannabe I Look Like a 3-Speed Collegiate Q-ship
-Kurt
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BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I love any/all resto mod 3 speeds 🥰
I'm digging the cranks/chainring :-)
I'm not all that familiar with the schwinn lineup, where does the Super SPort fall into the hierarchy?
I love any/all resto mod 3 speeds 🥰
I'm digging the cranks/chainring :-)
I'm not all that familiar with the schwinn lineup, where does the Super SPort fall into the hierarchy?
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...and I just tossed out an old '60s Collegiate chainguard which could have been painted to match. I do have some NOS Wald chrome fenders which would fit.
I'm really digging the multi-national drive train.
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Very nice! I made a Super Sport into a 5-speed with upright bars some years back, also going with the Truvativ adapter and a Huret crankset with single ring. It rode like a Lincoln Continental. Here's a pic:
Last edited by nlerner; 09-09-20 at 11:07 AM.
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Very nice. Love the Super Sport. Just got 2 from the co-op and am looking to do upright conversions for son and I also. I see most conversions with swept back bars like the old 3 speeds, but I was wondering about one with a lesser bend to encourage a bit more aggressive ride to complement the frame. Not flat bar hybrid style, but I think I see some 15 degree bend listed. Yours looks inspirational. Chain guard sounds real interesting too if a respray was being done.
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Very nice. Love the Super Sport. Just got 2 from the co-op and am looking to do upright conversions for son and I also. I see most conversions with swept back bars like the old 3 speeds, but I was wondering about one with a lesser bend to encourage a bit more aggressive ride to complement the frame. Not flat bar hybrid style, but I think I see some 15 degree bend listed. Yours looks inspirational.
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
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Nice job. I've thought about picking up a schwinn supersport to build a townie with if I can find one at a non-crazy price. The nicer Chicago built Schwinns tend to command a premium in the used bike market though.
Did you build this with 700c wheels or did you stay with 27 inch? What sort of tires are you running? I'd like be able to run 700 x 35 tires if I build a townie like this.
Did you build this with 700c wheels or did you stay with 27 inch? What sort of tires are you running? I'd like be able to run 700 x 35 tires if I build a townie like this.
Last edited by bikemig; 09-09-20 at 07:24 AM.
#9
framebuilder
While they don't look all that different, the Super Sport with its chrome molly fillet brazed frame is in reality a big step up from its Variety and Continental brothers. They were brazed by hand instead of being spit out of a machine. They are also a lot rarer and much more collectable. The Varsitys weighed about 40 pounds and the Super Sports 31. The one piece Ashtabula steel cranks were part of the reason they were so much heavier than European 10 speeds.
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Wow that turned out nice!!! As my avatar tag shows, I'm also a huge fan of the fillet-brazed Schwinns. Building a semi-upright all-rounder from a Super Sport is in the project queue, and you've provided some inspiration/motivation. Nice bike... thanks for sharing!
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That is really nice!! Love it!!
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A couple of you might remember my Schwinn Superior with mostly XTR components: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohpv/a...57642470085394 .
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I just looked at the photos of the green bike resto - how did you fix the paint so well? It looks great!
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Doug Fattic is not correct when he says that the SUPER SPORT was next under the PARAMOUNT!!
The Super Sport was the most "low-rent" of the hand constructed Schwinns. THE SPORTS TOURER WAS NEXT UNDER THE PARAMOUNT.
The Super Sport was Below the Sports Tourer!
The Super Sport was the most "low-rent" of the hand constructed Schwinns. THE SPORTS TOURER WAS NEXT UNDER THE PARAMOUNT.
The Super Sport was Below the Sports Tourer!
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Not An Argument
In the 10 speed group in the 60's and 70's, The Super Sports were the next step down from the top of the line Paramounts. Below the Super Sport came the much more common Continental and the most plentiful of all was the Varsity (their most basic model). Some years their were other models like the Superior and Sierra but the 4 I mentioned were the consistent sport models they sold through the years that were made in Chicago.
While they don't look all that different, the Super Sport with its chrome molly fillet brazed frame is in reality a big step up from its Variety and Continental brothers. They were brazed by hand instead of being spit out of a machine. They are also a lot rarer and much more collectable. The Varsitys weighed about 40 pounds and the Super Sports 31. The one piece Ashtabula steel cranks were part of the reason they were so much heavier than European 10 speeds.
While they don't look all that different, the Super Sport with its chrome molly fillet brazed frame is in reality a big step up from its Variety and Continental brothers. They were brazed by hand instead of being spit out of a machine. They are also a lot rarer and much more collectable. The Varsitys weighed about 40 pounds and the Super Sports 31. The one piece Ashtabula steel cranks were part of the reason they were so much heavier than European 10 speeds.
source
And the later fillet brazed Schwinns were, from what I've read, only three main tubes cro-mo?
I had a '74 Sports Tourer when I was in Pgh and I was confident bombing down hills, and didn't labour too much getting up them either. It was a fun ride. Now I've a '72 Super Sport in Opaque (Lime) Green. It is entirely disassembled at the moment, so indisposed for photographs, but not for weighing.
Frame - 3320 g (7 lbs. 5 oz.) (BB cups still in place)
Forks - 866 g (1 lb 14.6 oz)
Ashtabula Crank and Rings and Pant Leg Chain Guard and Bolts - 1658 g (3 lbs. 10.5 oz)
For reference, my '74 Ron Cooper (Racing)
Frame - 2019 g (4 lbs 7.2 oz) (Lower race of headset still in place, but it's aluminum)
Forks - 711 g (1 lb 9.1 oz)
Random Campagnolo BB and Crank picked up off my floor - 933 g (2 lbs 0.9 oz)
The '72 SS I sort of had to buy because though in "well used" condition, it was entirely original, and two miles away, and the headset in the posted picture looked about the same size as another one I'd been considering twenty miles away if the Southport Ferry had been running... It turned out to be a 24" frame which is did not look to be, because of the low bottom bracket. The SS I was really after turned out to be 24" as well, and was fabricated in February of 1964. The ones from the early years are allegedly entirely cro-mo, and don't have the brazed on kickstand but do have the forged dropouts and chromed fork and bar and stem inscribed "Sport Super Sport." Once I take it apart, I'll weigh for comparison. It feels lighter, and though I've only ridden the '64 Sport Super Sport twenty miles or more home, it was fun, save for the too low stuck seatpost, (now free), the replacement crap saddle, and the inability to shift the front at all and the rear covering only three cogs.
The geometry of the '64 Sport Super Sport and the '72 Super Sport is identical. The frames and forkses (sp) match up perfectly. It will be interesting to see what the weight difference might be? I will document it, of course, and may even start a thread here, or over on CR to preserve the numbers for posterity?
Congratulations, OP, on making your SS your own! And thank you for sharing your approach!
(As it isn't a real post without pictures, here's the seller's FB Marketplace photo of the Schwinn they had for sale, which I recognized as an early '60's SSS.
I've only decided to change out the saddle and seat pillar, shifters and derailers (because they are broken and would suck anyway on a good day), for the time being.)
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#19
PeopleCode delaminator
Also, to the original poster, what rims and front hub are you running?
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Beg To Differ
I own both a '64 Paramount, (the first tourer they made in that line), and a '64 (Sport) Super Sport.
Both ride really really well and entirely unlike the Continental or Varsity. The Paramount rides like a race bike should while the SSS rides more like a mountain bike drop bar conversion eventually would. If only the chain stays of the SSS were wider, it would have been a proto-mtb. The SSS is a very comfortable rider, and not to be disparaged, sir.
Check the catalogs.
Last edited by machinist42; 09-09-20 at 08:45 PM.
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On Post (#9) of 09-09-20 , 08:54 AM, Doug Fattic wrote, "IN THE 10 SPEED GROUP IN THE 60's and 70's, THE SUPER SPORTS WERE THE NEXT STEP DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE LINE PARAMOUNTS."
---------------------THIS IS FACTUALLY INCORRECT as by 1971 the SPORTS TOURER was next in line to the PARAMOUNT.---------------------------------------
---------------------THIS IS FACTUALLY INCORRECT as by 1971 the SPORTS TOURER was next in line to the PARAMOUNT.---------------------------------------
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https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...umber-5-a.html
#23
framebuilder
My dad got me a Super Sport for Christmas in 1965. I loved that bike and toured Vermont on it along with my cousin who had one too in 1966. It got stolen while it was in the bike rack in college in 1969. By that time I had moved on to an Italian Campy equipped bicycle. It was in 1967 that Schwinn added a kick stand to the SS and put the shifters up by the head tube. Those changes I thought put it more in the casual riding market.
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Fantastic. Always thought the fillet brazed Superior was the one to upgrade for road, while the Super Sport and Sports Tourer were the perfect basis for higher-end IGH builds.
It'd be fun to throw some fenders and a chainguard on this one - just to go full wannabe I Look Like a 3-Speed Collegiate Q-ship
-Kurt
It'd be fun to throw some fenders and a chainguard on this one - just to go full wannabe I Look Like a 3-Speed Collegiate Q-ship
-Kurt
And a chainguard would be nice, too. I was thinking of buying a burgundy 5-speed Suburban and stripping the fenders and chainguard but someone got the bike before me. Maybe an alloy chainguard like this Velo Orange item?
https://velo-orange.com/collections/...loy-chainguard
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Sun CR-18 rims and a generic "track" hub found in the bin at Community Cycling Center. I want to find a nice Maillard hub for the front but so far no luck.
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