Free Spirit FS10
07-05-18, 05:40 PM
#1
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Free Spirit FS10
Well, against my better judgement and my advice, I was convinced to restore/customize my friend old free spirit. This poor thing crankset was rusted to beyond belief. Thankfully, it was removed in a couple of hours of polishing with water , aluminum foil and polish. Then I tackled the issue of tires. Damn things were dry rotted on the rims, which need to be trued anyway. Took me 1h our and various cuts to the fingers to take them off. Putting on the new tubes and Kenda gumwall tires took around 25 minutes. The plan for the future is to get some new brake levers, new brakes and maybe some leather bar wrap. It seems I can’t post any pictures until I get 10 posts.
07-05-18, 10:00 PM
#2
...addicted...
That's a lot of work and effort for a free spirit! You're a good friend to undertake such a project on a bike that's not worth anything, but if your friend appreciates it, that's the main thing.
dry rotted tires are the worst. I just did some on a 74 Montgomery Wards. ...speaking of bikes that aren't worth anything... I needed three of the levers with the steel inside. Made me think about getting a tire jack.
dry rotted tires are the worst. I just did some on a 74 Montgomery Wards. ...speaking of bikes that aren't worth anything... I needed three of the levers with the steel inside. Made me think about getting a tire jack.
07-06-18, 09:27 AM
#3
feros ferio
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I guess a Free Spirit is not free if you supply that much labor. 
__________________
"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
07-06-18, 09:46 AM
#4
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So I went digging through my storage last night and found a pair of brake levers that I had order a few years back for my , I want to say 1988 specialized but I’m not sure. Anyway, It had turned out I had ordered a pair of non aero Dia compe Gram compe brakes when I needed aero brake levers, so in the storage they went until now. So I go to uninstall the cables from the old brake lever when the cable snaps on me. So now I need to go buy some brake cables.
07-06-18, 09:50 AM
#5
...addicted...
a little advice: don't. new levers won't change the flexy calipers. squirt a little lubricant down the cable housing and moving parts, get a set of replacement pads (under $4, at Wal-mart, or your LBS) and skip the $50 leather wrap. Get cork handlebar wrap or even tennis racquet wrap.
07-06-18, 09:54 AM
#6
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Most of these parts I’m putting on this bike come from my stash of parts that my father and I have hoarded over the years. Actually I might have lizardskin wrap somewhere in the unit.
07-06-18, 10:25 AM
#7
...addicted...
Ah... yes, that changes things... sunk cost seems like free! By the time you're done you'll be able to post pictures, and it'll be the nicest (non- Ted Williams) free spirit on here.
07-06-18, 10:31 AM
#8
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If that FS-10 is one of the Asian built lugged frames, it can be a nice rider.
07-06-18, 05:37 PM
#10
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Thats such a weird cooncidence: I just did the same thing for a friend of mine! I used a bottom bracket adapter and stretched the frame so I could use all new parts. He loves it, and we just went bombing down a 9-mile trail of loose gravel together in South Dakota; it’s a really nice, capable bike! Let me know if you have any questions about how I did anything.
Well, against my better judgement and my advice, I was convinced to restore/customize my friend old free spirit. This poor thing crankset was rusted to beyond belief. Thankfully, it was removed in a couple of hours of polishing with water , aluminum foil and polish. Then I tackled the issue of tires. Damn things were dry rotted on the rims, which need to be trued anyway. Took me 1h our and various cuts to the fingers to take them off. Putting on the new tubes and Kenda gumwall tires took around 25 minutes. The plan for the future is to get some new brake levers, new brakes and maybe some leather bar wrap. It seems I can’t post any pictures until I get 10 posts.
07-06-18, 05:39 PM
#11
PM me your cotters
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As long as you're enjoying the work, does it matter what it costs? No, not in my opinion. There's a certain mental cleanse that goes along with turning wrenches, no matter how fabulous or pedestrian the bike is.
Everyone has their thing, that's what's awesome about this place. Sometimes even I forget about my humble cycling beginnings. I dunno about you, but my first road bike was a crappy old Spartan my parents bought for the family to share. I think they got it at Sears, Montgomery Wards or JC Penney or something.
When you get a few more posts, please post a picture!
PS: Great job @PennyTheDog !!
Everyone has their thing, that's what's awesome about this place. Sometimes even I forget about my humble cycling beginnings. I dunno about you, but my first road bike was a crappy old Spartan my parents bought for the family to share. I think they got it at Sears, Montgomery Wards or JC Penney or something.
When you get a few more posts, please post a picture!
PS: Great job @PennyTheDog !!
07-06-18, 05:52 PM
#12
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So in my ride back home on my Royal Enfield , I came across this garage sale where this older gentleman was selling things. I bought a box of bike parts and to my surprise there was a pair of tektro brakes and a pair of mountain bike pedals. Not bad for $15. The pedals will probably go to the next jamis explorer xr I find,that is if I find one again. The brakes if my Kentucky style math is correct will fit on the free spirit.
07-06-18, 06:10 PM
#13
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You had a 1 piece crank on that bike before? The one I’m working on has a 3 pice cottered crank, I think.
07-07-18, 10:08 AM
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These I haven’t seen in years. Reminds me of my minor obsession with replacing all my brake components with dia compel
Not as good as I hoped but it’s much better than it was before.
The first day I met the new pain in my life in front of my other two pain of my life.
It’s a bit too tall for me but I’ll manage to test ride it and hopefully not die
07-07-18, 10:39 PM
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Front brake was a bit difficult to get it working but eventually I figured out that the brake housing was catching the cable which prevented it from completely disengaging. Also learned that the brakes are a bit too long for the front rim.
The little one looking at me pondering why his human is working on this alien piece of technology.
Mounted the rear brake reverse. Was a breeze compared to the front if you don’t include the countless pinholes caused by frayed brake cables which refused to be cut by mortal means. Which means I had to bust out my handy carbide cutters which laughed at measly steel cables and housing. Also learned that the rear tire badly needs that true.
07-10-18, 02:45 PM
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Well, I have good news and bad news for the bike. The bad news is I won’t have as much time to work on it due to my car dying on me in some hills. Hidden lining I get to ride much more now. The good news is that I got a budget to work with now. Around $750 to work on it. So I threw some old look pedals on it and took off the old rusty flat pedals. That left pedal just refused to come out of its home. So I busted out the penetrating oil and soaked it for a couple hours. Even then it took around 20 minutes to take it out. These look pedals have some history to them. They originally belonged to my father who bought them off a lost tourist in Guatemala. He then proceeded to use the pedals to ride from San Francisco to the Mexican-Guatemalan border. The next step is to find some bar tape because those foam grips are destroying the nerves in my palms.
07-11-18, 10:48 AM
#18
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Here is a Free Spirit that I pulled from a dumpster. I put on a cheap Chinese crankset, 700C alloy wheels, cheap stem/bars, orphan bar end shifter, and yard sale tires, pedals, and recycled bar tape. It weighs about 26 pounds.
07-12-18, 04:21 PM
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The Reynolds 531 tubed, Austro Daimler built to order, Sears Free Spirits and Ted William branded bicycles sold during the heyday bike boom of the seventies, which for some odd reason I've always lusted after (at least for a test spin if nothing else) would obviously be my first choices of Sears bikes. But, there were a few high tensile steel tubed frames sold thru Sears during the seventies and eighties that were probably of equal quality and performance as similar entry cost frames sold at bicycle stores (during the same period). The only difference is that the Sears bicycles would probably need almost all the parts updated to something lighter in weight, and better in construction, to be on par. It could be sorta cool to frankenbike a Free Spirit into something approaching a "decent high tensile steel ride", if you believe that that is even a thing. An "under the radar" ride, if you will.
Last edited by uncle uncle; 07-12-18 at 07:27 PM.
07-12-18, 06:12 PM
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You know, this bike isnt as bad as some of the bike I have owned. Flashbacks to that huffy that I was paid to work on. So the next step is to replace these stem shifters to bar end shifters. But I never set up bar end shifter,shrugs never too late to learn.
07-17-18, 09:33 PM
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My other furry child asking that this is cheating and I should be running besides him.
I might of shifted gears while pedaling downhill so my chain jumped which required some manhandling but since that cheap chormed steel is so rusted it bent easily under the strength of my arms that are forged in handling massive auto parts.
Ready for the weekly trip to the hills. I have the kickstand that I rescued from a old diamondback hybird whcih gave me 700c wheel, the frame bike pump holder and pump and a fork that is going on my haro. The rear rack comes from my other free sprit. Side note , turns out my neighbors bought one exactly like this one. Of course still rocking that late 70s original gear.
11-08-18, 04:39 PM
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Free Spirit
I recently purchased a Free Spirit Explorer for $99 from Sports Junkies in Vancouver, Canada. I only found out about this forum "Bike Forums" yesterday as I searched the interweb for info on the bike. I am trying to work out how old the bike is. It is the best I can afford right now after my Brodie Bolt was stolen in early Sept.
One of the upsides from that is that I am blogging again at www.jarviscast.wordpress.com and for the most part there I am talking about The Wormtoad, yes I've named my FSE.
One of the upsides from that is that I am blogging again at www.jarviscast.wordpress.com and for the most part there I am talking about The Wormtoad, yes I've named my FSE.
Last edited by garyjarvis; 11-08-18 at 04:39 PM. Reason: detail
11-11-18, 07:39 PM
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So after a long period of no updates on this bike I have news on the poor free spirit. It still lives yet it is badly wounded by having its poor left crank torn off by a texting truck driver aka my classmate. Yet it still lives in its newish form due to the doctor saying that I have the knees of a 80 year old man due to my massive road trips while riding a 90s mountain bike. Anyway I digress, I keep cycling but this time with engine power to help me.
Here she is that old free spirit brought back from the dead by strapping a engine to it to help me cycle .
That little Chinese engine has failed me
My new pride and joy a Bridgestone mb6 with a little two stroke shoved in it. Top speed on this one is 71 mph going downhill. I burnt up my brake pads and nearly melted my rims. I don’t think I should stick with aluminum rims, anyone know where to get quality steel 26 inch rims?
A little speedo to help track my speed.
You know it’s fitting that a free spirit would give its life to become motorized. Quite fast too, I reached speed of 40 mph on flat ground .
I liked engines so much that I bought a beach cruiser and slapped a small engine on it to my my store rides easier.
Here she is that old free spirit brought back from the dead by strapping a engine to it to help me cycle .
That little Chinese engine has failed me
My new pride and joy a Bridgestone mb6 with a little two stroke shoved in it. Top speed on this one is 71 mph going downhill. I burnt up my brake pads and nearly melted my rims. I don’t think I should stick with aluminum rims, anyone know where to get quality steel 26 inch rims?
A little speedo to help track my speed.
You know it’s fitting that a free spirit would give its life to become motorized. Quite fast too, I reached speed of 40 mph on flat ground .
I liked engines so much that I bought a beach cruiser and slapped a small engine on it to my my store rides easier.
11-12-18, 11:29 AM
#25
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Seeing that Beach Cruiser with the engine on it and that chain tensioner brings back horrorid memories. You need to get rid of that chain tensioner asap, they fail a lot and often wind up stuck in the rear spokes usually at speed, look it up. The other bike has a tensioner I've never seen before and looks safer then the one on the cruiser. I like to build them up without that style and would run a lot without one altogether.
Glenn
Glenn