JacobLee 

This is a Schwinn Twinn that my wife bought for us on Bay Area Craigslist 20 or so years ago. We used to have an old single speed coaster brake tandem that was stolen from our yard, and we really missed cruising around on that thing.




The only problem with this one was that the wheels were shot. The bottom tube is engraved Calif. School f/t Blind, so who knows who had been steering, but it looked like they had run up a few curbs.




I was twenty-something, and it was early internet, so rather than finding some Scwinn rims, my buddy at the bike shop rebuilt them using 26” Sun anodized rims. We were in a hurry to take it on a weekend trip, so he used the spokes that he had, and they came out pretty scary. The rear is okay.




But the front is spooky.




I found a long reach caliper, and the whole thing worked for one or two rides, but it just wasn’t safe, so it has been gathering sawdust for a couple of decades.




Aside from a few odds and ends, the big question is what to do with the wheels. Is this a candidate for 650b? Do I track down some original wheels? Keep it at 26 and just find a new front? My priority would be for the brakes to work as well as possible, so steel rims seem like a bad idea. I dunno!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

billnuke1 

And that’s why you get a pro stand! You never know when gonna have to hang up a tandem! I think those tandems are 62lbs...ish...

curbtender

What's not safe, braking? Looks like a 1980.

JacobLee 

Ha! Yeah, I did a bunch of carpentry work for Cyclepath here in Portland over the years, and got that stand in trade at some point. Great shop, cool guys, the stand had plenty of mileage when I got it. I love that thing, and it slides around easily when you need to move stuff in a garage that is overstuffed!

JacobLee 

If you look at the front hub, the spokes are pulling through the flange because they aren’t thick enough. The old spokes were some huge gauge. I understand you can use washers, but I figure as long as they need to be rebuilt, they could be improved.

curbtender

I see now. You have any 26" mtb front wheels laying around?

thumpism 

I had a yellow one. The original rims were the Schwinn 26 x 1 3/8 S-6 (597mm) and might be hard to find. You could try "normal" 26 x 1 3/8 (590mm) instead of the 559mm rims on there now. The rear drum would work with anything but one of the larger sizes would be best for use with a front caliper like you have on there.

bulgie 

We have hills in Seattle, so the inadequate braking was a deal-breaker.

I replaced the fork with an '80s 26" MTB fork that came with canti posts. Regular if somewhat heavy MTB wheel, and the bike is totally transformed, much more rideable now. I realize that's not a good solution if keeping it original is important to you. Ours is a total dog's breakfast of different eras and styles, no attempt to be original, but it does have a high funk quotient.


The head tube is painted black because I brazed in a 1-1/4" head tube, to allow use of a regular 1" headset. The Reynolds 531 head tube fit through the inside of the Schwinn head tube, that's how much bigger the Schwinn/BMX style headset cups are compared to ISO or JIS cups. I could have just shimmed the existing HT at top and bottom, but sliding a single tube all the way through was easy, ensured alignment, and we don't care about weight so why not? You don't have to do that surgery to use a MTB fork though, you can stick with the original Schwinn headset.

Oh yeah it is probably also possible (and preferable) to replace the fork with one with an "oversize" 1-1/8" steerer. I haven't done the math, but I think you'd need to mill the existing head tube out a bit for the OS headset cups. I think there's enough "meat" there to ream to OS but don't take my word for it.

I'm pretty sure the bike weights 80 lb with the racks and baskets, long seatposts, dynohub, big steel bells, toolkit etc. It was over 160 lb one time when I weighed it with an especially large load of groceries.

Mark B in Seattle

JacobLee 

I like what you’re layin’ down. Thanks. It’s gonna take me a while to process the headset stuff, but I think that’s what I’m looking for. We’ve got hills in Hillsdale.

thumpism 

Do you also have dales?

63rickert

Schwinn 26x1-3/8" was 597. Quite a bit larger than 559. Every Twinn I've been on had rough wheels and marginal braking. For low speed cruising on level ground they were a lot of fun. Anything else is at your discretion.
If you want a more capable mount from vintage Schwinn start looking for Town & Country tandems. There are still a few to be found.

Darth Lefty 

650b seems like it should be an option considering the excellent tire selection right now

JacobLee 

In fact, we’ve got a few. They should have called it Hillsdales.

Darth Lefty 

I used to live in a place called Ridgecrest, which was in fact in the floor of a valley adjacent to a couple of dry lakes. If it seems like I'm making that up, it will not help that earlier it was called Crumbville

JacobLee 

This is a good point. It’s always going to be a Twinn. Still, I like building wheels, and if there was a way to get a good front brake on there (maybe a variation of Bulgie’s solution) it would be a fun cruiser (might have to walk down the big hills).

I’ve lugged this thing around for so long that I really have to follow through on it. Not to mention, my wife has nicely reminded me once a year for twenty years that I need to get it running. Fun! Funny!

JacobLee 

So you might know the answer to this question:

63rickert

On most Twinns the spokes would have been Schwinn/Union .092/.080 butted. And it was Schwinn so the hubs would be custom for those spokes. Some later bikes might have gone out with normal .080/.060 but I don't remember them. Kenda tires is what you can find now in 597. Kenda has come up a lot and they are decent tires. Only rims I know of in 597 are Schwinn originals made from the same soft 1020 steel they used for everything. English market 26x1-1/4 rims are all real old and sought after. Lack of good rims and tires is a good reason to play around with sizes but 559 is still smallish.

I can remember Oscar Wastyn brazing canti mounts to a T&C that had been sent back for service. So if you want to figure out how to get cantis on there it's a time honored fix. Just took a quick look at ebay, there are 5 T&C tandems available, all reasonably priced. Back when those were current there were very few Schwinn dealers who could manage service on those if a customer did something so strange as to go and ride them. Factory routed basically all parts and service requests over to Milwaukee Ave. and Oscar. He was the one who had the S-4 rims and the S-4 (650B) tires. He could not have kept up if any significant fraction of tandem owners had been tandem users. The old tandems are all pretty shopworn but rarely are they used up.

JacobLee 

Wow, thanks for the info! I might have a chance to visit Chicago in the next year, and it would be cool to check out that shop, just out of interest.

I like your impressions of tandem owners, and that’s exactly why this one has been hanging from the rafters for so long! So, was Oscar brazing canti mounts to those old flat blade forks? That’d certainly look interesting.

63rickert

Wastyn's on Fullerton is run by Scott Wastyn, the grandson. When you walk in the door the place looks like a museum. Oscar Wastyns and Emil Wastyns hanging everywhere. Ask Scott a question and the answer is "No old bikes." I keep hearing reports from those who have the magic open sesame but I can't break in. Supposedly the basement is full of treasure.

I visited with Oscar one day when he was working on a T&C. Those had massive tubular forks. In most ways they were Paramount tandems with earlier stickers and 650 wheels. Some were shipped with drum brakes front and rear, some were a mix of rim and drum brakes, some were all rim brake. Can't see why an Ashtabula fork could not have cantis, would take some work.

JacobLee 

Aha! I see what you’re saying, now. I had done some t&c image searches but hadn’t noticed that the forks were different. Funny, but I just went for a ride with a friend who worked at Bontrager in the 90’s and he still has a box of canti posts. He thought it sounded like fun. Just gotta find a fork and figure out a wheel size. It’ll take some work indeed.

JacobLee 

Here’s a 700c wheel and a center pull just for size reference. I wonder if this might not be a mediocre solution?

curbtender

That looks right. They have these dual pivot brakes available for long reach.
https://www.amazon.com/Tektro-Bicycl...WKRQMR5VYT21W0

J.Higgins 

Downright frightening.

I say build new bombproof wheels with S/A IG hubs and drum brakes, Sapim STRONG spokes, and Velocity Cliffhanger rims. you'll have a Schwinn battle-tank as a result. Plop on a pair of Lepper saddles and enjoy!

JacobLee 

I like the vibe, but I’ve got to admit that I can’t figure out what an S/A IG hub is. Maybe the shimano chain before HG?

JacobLee 

Aha! Sturmey Archer Internal Gear?