dddd

The electro-forged Schwinns were great bikes for urban rides, their geometry making the bikes most easy to ride with their swept-back upright bars, and the forward-offset stem shifter axis giving easy access to the shift levers while maximizing clearance to the rider's knees.
The Schwinn headset-mounted bracket also lowered the long levers, making them more level with the bars and unaffected by any raising or lowering of the stem itself.
Lastly, Schwinn's arrangement didn't have to clamp onto and scar the stem quill.

I think that the frame's geometry is key to the decision as to what bar and shifter arrangement is most appropriate. The cheapest and oldest Japanese bikes (as well as the Electroforged Schwinns, and Huffies) typically all have quite slack geometry with HT angle near 70-degrees, which very much favors the use of the upright style of handlebar and relatively short stem (that same sort of setup would however be skittish and thus inappropriate for utilitarian use if used on a steeper-angled racing frame).

Also, the slacker-angled frames of the cheaper variety usually have somewhat shorter reach due to the slack seat tube angle effectively pulling the top tube rearward, which makes a largest-possible frame size selection a good idea if the rider will still be stable while climbing aboard. So for example, I at 5'9" need the larger 23" frame size with these sort of bikes to get a needed amount of reach without using a stem longer than 9 or 10cm (which would make the steering hard to control when out of the saddle).

Stem shifters are great imo, but their longer cabling needs more setup attention and good, lined housings to keep friction and sponginess out of the system (which can wreck the shifting precision).
Their ferrule stops/sockets may or may not support the 6mm OD ferrules that work with modern cabling, but I always hack/modify my way around that one way or the other, and pay attention to the rear-most loop of cable housing as well as the bb-area cable routing to keep the cable moving as freely/smoothly as possible.

I don't have a dedicated "pub" bike, so I look at stem shifters more from a perspective of spirited foothills riding, hence my biases.

The OP's bike has DT shift levers now, so it would be just as easy to install bar-mounted levers as stem levers. Inexpensive thumb shifters would however only lend themselves readily to an upright bar, not the current road bend unless the bar is made from 7/8" steel (and is wide enough to give plenty of grip alongside centrally-mounted thumb shifters).

That bike has steel rims, so wouldn't be very safe in the wet unless appropriate brake pads were used. The safety levers might be fine if their pivots are kept tight enough and the rims are straight enough to keep the cables well-tensioned without the pads rubbing. Filing away a few millimeters of aluminum from the lever housings (to increase the lever throw) would help greatly in this regard.

This might be the closest thing to a "pub" bike that I own, though it by now sort of fails on the theft-resistant priority because of my lengthy tinkering and upgrades. Though perhaps biased towards more-spirited riding, it could however be a good template for what works well while actually riding home from a pub (it's stable as a rock even after some drinking), and it's clipless platform pedals accommodate street shoes just fine.

MooneyBloke

This is the sort of thing I use about town.

1980 Trek 510.

Sometimes it gets a first generation Burley DLite for hauling stuff around or carrying the dog father then he'd run on his own.





The back end is a modern Sturmey (SunRace) S-RF3 controlled by a vintage Sturmey trigger shifter on the bars. This beast gets ridden all year 'round, and I've certainly ridden it with a pint of bitter in me. Note: I don't ride my bike when severely inebriated, and I generally avoid that state.

79pmooney

Along those lines - the Raleigh DL-1. My story (having nothing o do with alcohol but very applicable here) ... head injury fall of 1977 when I was an active racer. That winter, back in my city apartment, I went to the bike shop that was an after hours hangout. On this particular visit it was time to go home, roughly 10 pm Friday night but his was no ordinary Friday. Tuesday the city saw a massive blizzard. Main streets were still 10" deep in random, hard packed snow. (There was simply no place to put that much snow. I watched a huge National Guard cat fill a parking lot 30 deep with the stuff.)

Now, I hadn't ridden a bike since my crash. The shop mechanic, unknown to me, had taken it on as his job to see to it I was safe and cared for. (I barely knew him and he did this like a true friend.) Anyway, time to go home. Most of 3 miles. I'd walked there and thought nothing of walking back. But Jim, the mechanic, said "Why don't you take the DL-1?". Pulled it out and checked the tires. And I rode off, escorted by the mechanic of the shop I'd worked the summer before, an excellent off-road rider on his trusty 3-speed.

The DL-1 - what an easy ride! The fact that I was on that thick layer of bumpy very hard packed snow with potholes to the pavement in places meant nothing. The bike with its huge wheels and huge tires simply didn't care. Only issue - I had to keep stopping and waiting for my skilled friend who was struggling to manage his skimpy, lightweight 3-speed!

And unrelated post-script: My love of riding was back! And this was obvious to Jim. Knew I wanted to race again. So he arranged to have me bring my fix gear to his brother' place and ride his rollers until they judged I was road worthy again. I did, they did and in three weeks I was back on the winter roads training. Raced the spring frostbite series and the rest of that summer. Jim and his brother did the work to land me a job assembling bikes at the shop that had just taken on sponsorship on my club. I got to re-learn how to use my hands and tools with a very patient Greek mechanic. Took me many years to see just what Jim did for me. When I called to thank him after 33 years had passed, his reply was just "That's what friends do."

MooneyBloke

I am not so familiar with the old Raleigh models, and I had to look up the DL-1. I can see from the geometry why that would help re-instill confidence. The front end has trail by the bucketful. Add forgiving tires, and you have a winner. My Trek 510 with 28mm Contis is far a more demanding mount in the winter.

79pmooney

Thank you for posting that photo! I have that bike only a couple of years later and never knew what it was. I was told it was an '83 by the long time Trek shop manager when I got it and seem to remember him telling me it was a 4something but I've never seen a matching 400 anything Trek. My bike is that bike - except the cables run under the BB, not over. "83 vs '80 - no surprise there and mine has a slightly different bend to the fork.

My bike feels like it has decent hi-ten stays and forks and Cro-mo main tubes. (It came to me with factory paint and head badge but no decals or history.) So my surmising of the tubes is based entirely on over 20,000 miles of riding. Does that tube assessment sound like what you have?

And the other difference - as best I can tell from your photos - mine got the TREK stamped.cast deeper into the seatstay caps. I think my lettering is also wider. More pronounced, more visible, better advertising. Also famous as a crack starter. Both of my caps cracked. (When I called the framebuilde to tell him of the crack I saw, he said "Look at the other side. You will see them there too." He'd never seen that bike. And he was right.) So with just the usual amount of luck, your bike should go the rest of its perhaps very long lifetime with nary a seatstay cap issue. Mine too, now that Dave Levy of TiCycles has removed both and brazed them back on with a ton of fill! (And filled the cracked "R" completely so the drive side is just a "T EK".

Bike from day one with me has been set up fix gear. 5th edition of my winter/rain/city bike. Drop bars, super long stem - a TiCycles custom steel 175. I have arms! Mafac RACER front brake, Weinmann rear (that add up to very similar feels but the stopping power is in front where I want it; bikes a stopper! Fenders, LowRiders. Sky blue powdercoat decorated with an entire role of reflecting 3M tape of exactly the same color. (The paint is a stock color. I picked the tape from an industry supply website. How they matched so close? ??? but I'll take it!_ And wheels - Velocity Aeros, DT Competitions 3X, Miche fix gear rear, Campy Tipo front. (I cannot wear out Tipo fronts. When the bearings go I put new balls in the scored races and stuff it with marine grease. Reason says you can only do this for so many years but I am working on my 4th of 5th of those "so"s and it is still going just fine. If I don't open it up and look, I have no clue there's an issue so I just don't. And those huge Tipo flanges built rock solid wheels and never break.

Oh, seat and post. Specialized body geo comp with the full length groove on a Campy Chorus aero post. (Picked up used and badly scored but on the bike, almost all the scoring is inserted so bike has fun with a touch of class. With its plastic covered saddle, powder coat, fenders and fix gear (plus sealed or marine grease stuffed bearings) this is a true rain bike. Doesn't care if it is locked to a rack in a downpour.

MooneyBloke

I still have Trek in the stay caps. Now I'll have nightmares. Happily, a glance with a magnifier shows no cracking, and the Imron looks as pristine as one could expect in a 43 year old bike This guy had Ishiwata 022 DB throughout. 1980's also the year they started gluing rather than screwing the head badge. The only odd thing about mine is the serial number indicates a 54cm, but it's a 56. Perhaps a cm tall, but it's worked for me since 2014 when I grabbed it off an eBay auction. My only grumble is it pulls right no-handed and has a tiny braze gap on the left rear DO. Doug Fattic offered to straighten it many moons ago for not very much money, but given that I don't drive these days, the bike just doesn't ever seem to have enough downtime to send it away.

79pmooney

You have the Trek lettering but it looks nowhere near as wide or deep. I wouldn't worry about. It's the bikes of my era that were known to crack. Then Trek went to the socketed seat lugs and dropouts, almost certainly due to the cracking issue.

cocoabeachcrab 

you could always skip the shifters altogether for your pub bike!

panzerwagon 

As some have already mentioned, it should depend on the intended user and typical usage. For me personally, a bike for errands and pubs needs to look unattractive-- at least compared to what else might be on the rack. Pub usage poses the added requirement that riding needs to be effortless and second nature.

In my case, a very scratched-up and dull looking dark blue Trek 600 frame from 1985, coupled with a scratched-up shimano 1055 gruppo (7-speed downtube indexed), satisfies both conditions. You'd have to look really close to read the faint sticker that says Reynolds 531cs, and that the gruppo is complete and matched. My buddies sometimes comment "you have all these nice bikes and _this_ is what you ride??" It helps that 1055 is one of the ugliest component groups of that era (matte gray), and looks even worse with scratches. Smooth as butter though, and can be ridden semi-conscious...

BFisher

Beater 1: An old Schwinn, hand painted a bunch of different colors, single speed, cheap platform pedals, Box O' Crap grips. Any old bike will do. Make it weird and/or ugly.


Beater 2: The blend in bike. Pick any ubiquitous piece of crap you can find and slap a few better performing parts on it from your stash. Make it work.

wrk101

I find some riders prefer stem shifters over DT shifters. And there were some indexing models, which some riders prefer too. I have heard many, many times, that reaching down to shift was thought to be unsafe. Meanwhile, I see the same riders riding no handed, or riding without helmets, so who knows?

I was offered $$ to swap out bar end shifters for stem shifters. I did it for free (kept the barcons).

tkamd73 

My “bar” bike, not many pubs in WI, but lots of bars, has a 2 speed kickback hub, and coaster brake. Best to keep it simple after a few pints, or bourbons. 😄

canklecat

I wouldn't put much effort into making a pub bike or beater look unappealing. It won't deter thieves. If the thief is stealing bikes worth selling, they won't be fooled by superficial cosmetics. Most thieves I've seen are just opportunists and don't even look at a bike other than to check for locks.

My neighborhood has declined rapidly the past three years and I've literally watched a few bike thefts. These are always opportunists. They don't spend a moment trying to decide whether a bike is worth any money. All they care about is whether it's unlocked. If it's unlocked they just grab and go. If the bike is any good, it's gone for good. If not, the thief might discard it after a joy ride or out of boredom. I've watched some thieves ride a bike a block or two, then leave it in the middle of a street to be run over, or bash it a few times against a utility pole or wall just to wreck it.

All it takes to deter these guys is a simple lock. They rarely bother to carry cutting tools. They might still go ahead and kick in the spokes or break something else, because it isn't about money. They just want to screw up other people's stuff.

It's gotten bad enough I don't even ride my errand bike a mile to the grocery store anymore. Doesn't do any good to lock it up because some idiot will just kick in the spokes or cut the saddle.

Occasionally there's a cop or security guard in the store, but they're only there to deter obvious shoplifters. They don't get involved in parking lot crimes since a guy was murdered in the open one weekday morning last year by three 13 year olds as part of a gang initiation. The kids didn't even run away. They just sauntered around until the cops picked them up.

SkinGriz

SkinGriz

Is this DFW area?
PM if you want. Looking for where to avoid in TX. What you’re describing is like the worst ghettos of LA.
The neighborhood used to be OK? What caused the change?

Vintage Schwinn

.





STEM SHIFTERS are unfairly ridiculed You should perhaps look at stem shifters as the "four door sedan" while down tube shifters and bar end shifters are the sexy more desireable sports coupe, and sports car models of the FRICTION SHIFTING PAST.

Stem shifters are practical but their commonality on so many ordinary bike boom era 10 speeds has forever stigmatized so many doofuses from realizing that stem shifters are really beneficial for some types of riders.

If you like STEM SHIFTERS, why not install them instead of using the factory downtube shifters.
It isn't hard to do. You won't ruin a bicycle by doing so. You can return it to the stock configuration later on if you wish to sell said bike or just wish to return it to how it was originally from the factory.

Your enjoyment of your bicycle is more important than what others think about how it should be.
You are the only one that really matters.
All shifters do an acceptable job but certain styles may be better suited for certain riding styles and prefered by some and at the same time disliked by other riders.
Go with whatever type of shifter style that you like the best, and forget what the rest of the world thinks about your personal choice of shifter..

Why be so concerned that it might be a fashion faux pas to be seen riding a bicycle with stem shifters.
Oh my, you might be ostracized from the weekly wednesday evening group bike ride because the committee has deemed that you have a non-conforming bicycle that exhibits a vulgarity and lack of refinement that only those that are not cyclists are known to possess........

You can't please everyone, so just do your bike however you would prefer it.

.

bikemig 

Agreed, ride the bike any way you like as long as you are riding the damn bike.

Stem shifters and "safety" levers don't get much, if any, respect on C&V. This is a trigger warning as the following content may not be appropriate for stem shifter and safety lever haters, :

BFisher

Agree also that stem shifters are fine. The Shimano Uni-Shift models are particularly nice.

jethin

The answer is yes, definitely.

ThermionicScott 

The only reason my "bar bike" would have stem shifters is if I enjoyed using them. And I don't.

dddd

Some 1970's Schwinns combined the fine UniShift levers on Schwinn's forward-offset, headset-mounted bracket for a great combination.
The Unishift levers were shorter than the levers normally used on their unique bracket, combining to give exceptional knee clearance.

But the standard Twin-Stick setup gave good shifting in it's own right, due to the generous leverage and comfortable lever shape.
Ignoring how much that it would weigh gave the Twin-Stick design team the freedom to make a truly great shift lever setup.

squirtdad

yes, no, maybe..... what ever you want.

thumbies are are great choice if you are changing over

stem shifters are fine, find some suntour power ratchet

keeping down tube if fine

do what works for you nothing has to be any thing

mine, but have different bars now, had to leave the arabesque shifters on...too cool not to

dddd

I'd say your SR Semi-Pro is the definition of a good, and good-looking, mid-priced bicycle.

I have it's twin brother! :

canalligators

I agree on the DL1. Though for the purposes of a slow race, you’d use different tactics. I’d probably ride more of a straight line with the Tourist DL1, than with any of the Sports frame models (LTD, Sports, Superbe, Record, Sprite, and the assimilated models like Dunelt et al). You can essentially stand still for periods on the DL1.

I took a one day Raleigh sales and repair class in 1973. The speaker was a Brit and former racer. All he had to say about the DL1 was it was “a postman’s bike” and he didn’t understand why anyone would ever buy one.

Aside from snow or slow races, the DL1 is delightful to ride. I love cruising the neighborhood on mine - whether or not I’d had a pint.

Fahrenheit531 

No shifters. Single speed with freewheel. Mix in a rear rack. Done.