bark_eater 

I don't find a bike everytime I take a road trip.... But this particular detour netted a sweet 1984 Schwinn Tempo. Its a one owner bike that got a lot of initial miles, earned a rebuild and an upgraded wheel set and then sat in the garage for 30 years.

A quick inspection found rusty top tube cable guides, but thats it for glaring problems. The bike is shoe horned into the van with the rest of the vacation parifinalia, so pictures may have to wait till we're home.

I've got some questions, of course.

As far as I can tell this bike has a number of differences from the following years of Tempos. The 1984 is a Panasonic frame built with Tange Champion 2 tubing and set up for 27" wheels.

1985 and on Tempo's are built in the USA with Columbus Tenax tubing and are set up for 700c wheels.

So I'm wondering how much these bikes share besides the name?

Most of the Tempo's I've seen on the forum are the 1985 and later bikes that are reported to be the bee's knees. Hopefully this first edition Tempo performs the same.

The 27" wheel set was a selling point for me. I little googling came across references of running 700cx35mm tires, or 650bx42mm with no frame dimpling. There's going to be a set of 27x1.25 Pasela's waiting for me when I get home, just to get bike on the road for a test ride, but I've got 700c wheels and tires to test fit.

Only other thing I can see changing is the chain rings. The crankset is a SR Sakae CR 110 bcd 52-40t "Turbine". I think I have a matching 50t outer ring, and I'll probably use a 36t inner. The bike having a 110 bcd crankset was also a selling point.

Anyone else had one of these Panasonic Tempo's?

Sierra

Here's my '87 model that I re-did to my liking. I think it's a fine bike.

Classtime 

If your Tempo rides nice and fast like my Red-Green-White Tempo and allows tires typical of 27”/700c conversions, you'll have a great Gravel racer.

CO_Hoya 

This post needs pics . . .

Here are the catalog pages:

bark_eater 

plonz 

The stated catalog weight dropped from 26 lbs in ‘84 to 22 lbs in ‘85. In stock form, I think they’ll feel quite a bit different from each other.

I love my ‘85 Tempo. My build is a 58cm ctc weighing 22.5lbs.

bark_eater 

I'll check the complete weight when I get home. Im not sure if I will be taking it down to bare frame any time soon though. I'm pretty sure that extra 4 pounds is not just in the frame.

seedsbelize2

Tenax is a nice tube set, but imo Tange 2 is much nicer. I also have a fondness for Panasonic built bikes. Nice score!

bark_eater 

My phone bricked on the way home so no pictures yet. I took a less than scientific measurement and the bike comes in not much more than 22 pounds, with a bottle cage, computer and and upgraded Shimano 600 7 speed cassette wheelset. I'm scraping the paint and rust away from the top tube guides, and there's not a lot of paint thickness on the frame. I'm going to use evaporate followed by a phosphoric acid converter. Then I'll prime with a Rust oleum anti rust primer. I hit all the paint sellers and the nail polish isle, and couldn't find anything close, so I ordered a rattle can of Rust oleum "Champagne Bronze" on line, and hope my low expectations will be exceeded. I'm going to be spraying into a cup and brushing the paint on, and call it good enough. The rust has crept under the "Tempo" name decal, and I think I will try and save it for now, as I'm good with a 5 yard finish.

icemilkcoffee 

I've had good luck buying touch up paint from this hobby store:
https://www.hobbylinc.com/hobby-and-model-enamel-paint
They have a huge selection of enamel paint.

bark_eater 

I thought about buying a bunch of colors to try and get a match, but figured I'd just go with close enough. There's no reason I cant touch up the touch up later. Focusing on the the top tube, It looks like I'll have 3 patches to cover, the largest being the size of a quarter, so I might cut masking tape into circles that cover the spots, verses a shmear of paint. I got the original brake cable out of the guides, but stretched the plastic housing to be longer than the internal coil. I think I will trim the plastic and reuse it for now. New 27x1 1/4 black wall Paselas showed up yesterday. I'm going to risk riding the original grease for a bit, just to try it out.

bark_eater 

I got a little sloppy with the sand paper and ahead of my self with the chemistry, but this is what I got after a 24 hour soak with Evaporust on paper towels, followed up by POR-15 Metal Prep. I'm going to do a little more paint feathering and try and get some sort of masking tape stencil cut for the paint. I found more paint bubbles under the down tube that will need attention later. Mainly I just want to stop any further damage from corrosion, and not worry to much if the bike gets wet.

bark_eater 

Here we are starting attempt #2. First try involved a 5 year old rattle can of primer. Not so good....




The paint is not even close. I compromised a lot to keep the "Tempo" decal. The masking tape exposed another rust worm when it came off, so I don't realy have high cosmetic expectations at this point....


And while I have the house to myself...


The Great Rustworm Hunt of 2023 continues