WGB 

I saw this on CL and don't own it and not looking at it for myself.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...3559440504771/

I posted it on the eBay/Craigslist thread because I know people have fond Varsity memories and because I was surprised that it had braze-on shifting.

Seller simply states: "Bought not realizing the angle of the seat, it's definitely for a more avid rider. Just want it to go to a good home"

@Merziac suggested "More vintage than usual, this one is older than we normally see, this one is a 60's I think, they were built more along the lines of the better models that preceded them."

Any thoughts on what it is? I've never seen a nicer Varsity.

T-Mar

That looks like a 2nd generation Huret Allvit rear derailleur, which should put it in the 1960s. A quick search of the catalogues for those decals and colours indicates 1965-1967.

WGB 

How you can see the detail on that photo amazes me.

Thank you. It's actually not a bad looking bike, again nicest looking Varsity I ever saw. To my uneducated eye it looks almost as nice as a Canadian made Grand Prix.......

zukahn1 

The color and the braze on DT shifte's place it as 66//67 as T-Mar says. They only had had the 2nd generation Huret DR's with DT shifter's for a couple of years in the 60's. The mid 60's deluxe version's of the Varsity like this one are much nicer than and worth quit a bit more to the tight buyer than boring green boom era versions. I would put this one a real nice original parts bike with choice paint at $200-250.

Vintage Schwinn

That "purple" color looks great! WGB, you should get it for your collection. At just $30 you will be getting something nice enough to customize or ride as is.
What I would do if you wanted to keep it as a TEN SPEED form with the stock "racing" handlebars, WOULD BE TO REMOVE THE ALLVIT REAR DERAILLEUR AND SAVE IT IN A PLASTIC ZIP LOC BAG FOR ANY FUTURE OWNER THAT MIGHT WANT TO HAVE A CORRECT MUSEUM PIECE.
I would install a SHIMANO (seventies era or newer if you want to..) or a new old stock Seventies era SUNTOUR rear derailleur.
The GT-120 Schwinn Approved SHIMANO rear derailleur WAS factory equipment on 1974 - 1977 FIVE SPEED SUBURBAN and 1974-up Chicago built FIVE SPEED COLLEGIATES!! That would be an excellent rear derailleur replacement for any ALLVIT on any ten speed VARSITY, Suburban, or Continental.

People love to make fun of electro-forged SCHWINNs but they ride very nice IF WEIGHT ISN'T A FACTOR WHERE YOU WANNA FLY & GO FAST.
That circa 1966 looks like it has only the 50 teeth large front crank, where the later Varsity, and ... etc have 52 teeth large front crank and 39 teeth small front cranks.
Personally, I hate the DOWNTUBE SHIFT LEVER LOCATION. I'm one of the roadbike weirdos that love the Stem shift location and the Turkey levers.
I think this is because when I was a lot of serious road riding in the 1969-1973 era, that was how it was.
In 1967, Schwinn went to their TWIN-STIK -----(s).....(s)-------- located at the stem. "Turkey levers" where Schwinn was the first in the industry, I think, back for the 1969 model. Everybody copied because naturally normal folks preferred riding with hands on the bar tops instead of in the drop location.
I would buy that $30 bike if I were you.
It looks nice.
You have many options if you want to customize it to ride it.
Personally, what I would do with it: GET A 27 inch ( 32-630mm tire) REAR WHEEL from a 1970-1976 SUBURBAN FIVE SPEED. Why? Because you'd have the MODEL J freewheel with 32, 26, 21, 17, 14 teeth.
THIS WILL GIVE YOU MUCH BETTER RIDEABILITY AND GREATER ENJOYMENT because you will have GREATER(easier) HILL CLIMBING ABILITY such that the weight of the bike won't bother you. The model J freewheel is also better, as it has Shimano's patented seal (developed/patented around '68) that seals out debris and keeps lubrication inside and clean. Japanese= great, European=not so good!
Hey, the SHIMANO rear derailleurs of the seventies and the Maeda SUNTOUR rear derailleurs WILL EASILY shift the LARGE 32 teeth rear sprocket. You can likely even go to a freewheel with 34 teeth on the largest rear sprocket. MaedaSUNTOUR made a bunch of such five sprocket FREEWHEELS in the 1970's that ranged from 34 to 14 teeth.
You just didn't have that Wide Range during the Sixties because the Europeans could NOT get the quality of derailleurs such that it would reliably shift such an arrangement. Of course, leave it to the Japanese to refine and develop perfection even at the lowest price point!

Now, I would also CHANGE THE HANDLEBAR ARRANGEMENT to Schwinn Northroads handlebars from a COLLEGIATE, BREEZE, SUBURBAN, VARSITY TOURIST etc from the seventies, or sixties. I would do that simply because I am old and I find that much more enjoyable for me now.
I'd get the factory seat from a 1972 - 1978 era COLLEGIATE (that black rubberized vinyl tough covered spring saddle SCHWINN APPROVED made by Messinger) I find that is the best saddle of its type. It is better than any of the saddles on any SUBURBAN or any earlier COLLEGIATE or any VARSITY TOURIST!!! That is just my opinion. I exclusively ride electro-forged SCHWINN "lightweights" more than 1500 miles every year. I like the 1970 -1976 COLLEGIATE 5 SPEEDS and the 1970-1976 SUBURBAN 5 SPEEDS in the larger WOMAN'S (step-through) frames the best.
I WILL NOT RIDE ANY SCHWINN WITH A HURET ALLVIT REAR DERAILLEUR. I did in the sixties, but SINCE 1971, I have always REPLACED that Schwinn Approved Huret Allvit on the Ten Speeds with a Japanese built rear derailleur, SHIMANO Lark, Skylark, Eagle, MAEDA-SunTour units, Shimano built GT-100 Schwinn approved, or Shimano built GT-120 Schwinn approved rear deraileurs.
To borrow from the Michelin ad, "with so much riding on the functionality/durability of the rear derailleur, why in the heck would you trust that to anything made in France or Italy, when the Japanese produce perfection and IT IS SO SIMPLE TO CHANGE THE REAR DERAILLEUR AND GET IT SET UP especially in the case of the GT-120 unit, or the SHIMANO EAGLE, Skylark, Lark, etc or even the clones of the old Skylark etc.
IT JUST MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO RIDE WITH ANY REAR DERAILLEUR FROM HURET or CAMPAGNOLO, or SIMPLEX or anything else that isn't SHIMANO or Maeda SUNTOUR! You're not racing. Weight doesn't matter. QUALITY & RELIABILTY-DURABILITY DOES MATTER, so choose to install Japanese quality and not European junk, no matter how cool it might look!

I would probably also consider converting it to 5 speed, and making it essentially a SUBURBAN five speed (a.k.a. 5-speed CUSTOM-Varsity tourist)
Get a 46 TEETH Single front crank wheel. Schwinn had the CLOVER STYLE with 4 round holes, or the MAG-STYLE, or there is the ancient but reproduced SWEETHEART STYLE which looks somewhat like the Clover except it appears to have heart-shaped holes instead of round holes.....
You could use pretty much anything for a single front crank wheel from aftermkt or ancient used from any bike that had a ONE-PIECE ASHTABULA crank.
IF YOU GO WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE 46 TEETH, Remember to calculate your gear ratios........gear inches....whatever you you call it.....you simply need to be able to calculate/compare whether it will be beneficial for your riding.
IT IS INCREDIBLY SIMPLE TO SERVICE THE "hanger set" (BOTTOM BRACKET) on bicycles WITH THE ONE-PIECE CRANKS. You only need a large CRESCENT WRENCH and a FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER.........................you'll also need a 15mm wrench to remove the LEFT SIDE PEDAL (if you have a bicycle with a chainguard, you'll need the simple tools to remove that chainguard).
The crank (bottomBracket's) bearings ARE caged so they are not loose individual bee-beeze! You only need quality wheel bearing grease, like that for boat trailers etc that you can buy at any auto parts store, marine parts store, or at Walmart for no more than $10 for enough to do plenty of bikes and plenty of boat trailers.
It usually comes in a tube-cylinder that can be fed into a grease gun, the tube-cylinder looks like the old frozen MinuteMaid Orange juice concentrate cans. Just open the tube-cylinder and then scoop out what you need as you need it.................Use a piece aluminum foil from your kitchen and a large rubber band to close the tube-cylinder if it is in a Minute-Maid like container. If it is in a butter tub like container, it will have a removable and replaceable lid. IT IS ALL GOOD STUFF, NO MATTER THE BRANDS, IF IT IS FOR AUTOMOTIVE-BOAT TRAILER WHEEL BEARINGS!!
You do want to install NEW GREASE in your One-Piece Crank's Bottom Bracket IF YOU DO NOT KNOW IF IT HAS BEEN RE-GREASED AT ANY POINT WITHIN THE PAST 10 YEARS!
Just remove the crank and you'll have Two Caged BEARINGS. CLEAN EVERYTHING With "Formula-87". Take two empty Coke or beer cans (12oz -355ml size) and cut it in half or where you are left with about a third of the can from the bottom up............................FILL THAT cut Coke can with "FORMULA-87" . *****Make certain that you DO THIS OUTDOORS AWAY FROM SPARKS, FLAME, AND AWAY FROM PETS!*****
Formula-87 = Gasoline from your lawn mower's fill can.........see 87 octane gasoline is formula 87. Formula-87 will CLEAN ALL THE OLD DIRTY CAKED GREASE, etc..........................just let the bearings soak for at least several hours, you might get them clean in just one-half hour of soaking them but you want them super clean............***********CLEANING THE BEARINGS IS ESSENTIAL......... I also prefer to install the BEARINGS so that they are configured exactly to the same "cups" as how they were when taken out. My neighbor takes his bearings once cleaned from gasoline soak and then dips-dunks them into motor oil.............and lets that drip off really good, and then places them on a piece of a cardboard box, BEFORE SATURATING AND HEAVILY COATING THE caged bearings WITH THE WHEEL BEARING GREASE. You want to really use a heck-of alot of grease. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT GETTING MESSY, You want to Use a Lot.......................wear surgical type vinyl gloves if you need to or a bread bag or hotdog/hamburger bun bag will work if you place it over one hand when you're greasing etc.
REPLACEMENT caged bearings and cups are INEXPENSIVE but DON'T REPLACE THEM UNLESS THEY ARE PROBLEMATIC! ---If it ain't broke, then don't ..." The ancient SCHWINN stamped #64 caged bearings are made of a quality that is perhaps the best ever made. #64 is the size of the caged-bearings in most old Schwinns and you may find that a local bike shop that has a large clientele with more than road bikes will probably have then. Phil Cohen's Chain Reaction bicycles in Evans Georgia, near me has them and they are $2 each. He has them in #64 for Schwinns and #66 for other makes and he knows enough to tell customers the differences and explain the 28tpi and 24 tpi distinctions. Phil sells a huge number of very expensive high end road bikes, but he also has clientele that comes from rural areas miles away with mountain bikes and every ancient basic bicycles for servicing etc. Like most bicycle shops, most of the young staff might not know what you're talking about when you say One Piece crank bottom bracket because they don't ride that type of bicycle, but nearly all of the proprietors or folks there older than fifty years old will know what you need. If you can't get them locally, you can easily get them from webland, BUT CHECK LOCALLY BECAUSE YOU MAY FIND THAT YOU'LL PAY LESS FOR THE NEW caged-Bearings , over the counter from Your Local Bicycle Shop. It is so simple that you can do it yourself. It is much easier than changing Brake pads, on calipers, which is not hard to do.

Again, as for how I'd do that beautiful purple Varsity...........................I would definitely install the (S).......(S) twin stik Schwinn stem shifters and remove the downtube shifters because I hate downtube shifters BUT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH DOWNTUBE SHIFTERS IF YOU LIKE THEM! (most roadbikers love them on classics and detest stem shifters these days because they see stem-shift as the standard of the millions of basic lower end Bike-Boom era bikes..)
The $30 PURPLE VARSITY is a bargain just for that COLOR!
You have plenty of options.
Heck, you could get a 3 speed Sturmey-Archer 27 inch rear wheel, and convert it to a 3 speed. You could do the same with 26 inch S-A 3 speed equipped rear wheel from some donor bicycle BUT YOU WOULD HAVE TO CHANGE the calipers to fit the wheel. THAT IS EASY ENOUGH BECAUSE Schwinn did use different sized WEINMANN calipers for the 27 (630mm) wheel and for the 26 (597mm) wheel on the Lightweight electroforged bikes and they are EASILY IDENTIFIED BY THEIR EXTERIOR MARKINGS ON 1969 and later Schwinns. .........something like L.S. 2.4 for the 27 VARSITY & SUBURBAN and something like L.S. 2.8 for the 26 COLLEGIATE/Breeze/Speedster wheels. In 1968 and earlier the L.S. 2.8 was just marked as WEINMAN 810 if I am not mistaken on the exact numbers. Schwinn had the code with the first letter on 1969 and later bikes to denote the TYPE of bicycle classification. Thus L indicates LIGHTWEIGHT . The SECOND Letter indicates the type of brake caliper. Thus S indicates SIDE PULL. ( if you were to see C as the 2nd Letter, that would indicate CENTER PULL .......... thus L.C. would be seen on Continental of the seventies.....)
I highly suggest that you buy a $4 free shipping Used copy of the (c) 1973 340 page book called GLENN'S COMPLETE BICYCLE MANUAL. Major used book resellers on Ebay have this book for about $4 with free shipping at all times, always!
SCHWINN electro-forged lightweights are great bikes IF YOU LOOK AT THEM AS BASIC BICYCLES AND NOT AS A COMPETITIVE LIGHTWEIGHT BICYCLE FOR THE ERA IN WHICH THEY WERE PRODUCED!
You should also remember that circa 1966 that SCHWINN went with a LARGER DIAMETER WALL THICKNESS ON THE HEADTUBE for improved strength and safety, thus 1966 and later Schwinns have a slightly thinner stem (outer diam of stem is smaller), thus 1965 and earlier -AND- 1966 and later SCHWINN bicycles have different sized stems. THIS IS NO PROBLEM SINCE THERE ARE MILLIONS OF BOTH TYPES. You'll find that the 1965 and earlier will interchange with many other old competitors' stems too. The 1966 and later will interchange with only those that are sized to that late SCHWINN standard. There are no shortage of them. YOU JUST MUST BE CAREFUL AND SELECT BASED ON THE EXACT SIZING DIAMETER WHICH Your Schwinn requires.
That bike could be 1965 or 1966 based on its look and color. You do want to know what you have and what you need.
SCHWINN electro-forged "lightweight" bicycles are very simple and are among the most dependable, most reliable bicycles EVER BUILT, but they are not LIGHTWEIGHTS as compared to the competition of the era. If you have no real need for speed, you might like a Schwinn, because the ride is very nice and you'll get perhaps more of a workout pedaling that 39 to 41 pounds around town. They are quality bicycles. Millions survive and they have very little market value relative to the quality of bicycle that they are. That is a good thing but unfortunately most folks don't realize how good those old Schwinn bikes are , especially in upright-Tourist style with those Schwinn Northroads handlebars(e.g. Collegiate/breeze/Suburban/speedster handlebars circa early seventies).
The icing on the cake is that SCHWINN painted them in some very sharp colors during some year spans and in addition to that, the paint quality(durability of ..) and the quality of the chrome plating on vintage Schwinns from the sixties and seventies was the best in the bicycle industry.
Yes, for $30 that purple Varsity would be an excellent fun project that you'd certainly enjoy riding, no matter how you would proceed.
That color is just one of those classic colors. It is a shame no maker is doing color on bikes these days like the bright, and sharp colors of yesterday.

WGB 

Waited too long to ask about it and now "Pending pick up".

Lesson - if it's 60's with brazeons don't wait!

All good I won't starve as something else will always appear

Kdogbikes

I agree on late 60s. My research on this turned out to be 66. I like the looks of the sprint chainwheel on these. I’m to like Schwinn twin stick shifters but it’s pretty cool to have down tube shifters on a varsity. Purple varsity looks in great shape. Here’s the one I redid recently.
As found.

Vintage Schwinn

GREAT WORK Kdog!! Orange and that Yellow (Kool Lemon) are fantastic bike frame colors too.

WGB 

He's right. Your painting job is amazing!

Sandstrom

Just beautiful...

dparks

Here is my 66 Varsity - yes it was repainted - not a Schwinn blue although. I like the downtube shifters!