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Modern fork on an old schwinn sport?

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Modern fork on an old schwinn sport?

Old 04-12-21, 12:31 PM
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Travisb.burch
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Modern fork on an old schwinn sport?

****Edited to say that I was not with the bike when making this post and the bike is actually a SCHWINN SPRINT and likely from the late 80's. Confusion around the age/serial was due to that serial being similar to late 50's serial codes IF it was on the rear dropout, but it's under the BB casing. ****

Looking for advice and examples - I have an late 80's schwinn sport SPRINT that I rescued from bulk garbage day some months ago

I’ve gotten myself hooked on the harebrained idea of building it up as a single speed steel beast for gravel and light trail use, but I’m not sure the stock fork can handle it.. I’m looking for examples of modern-ish suspension mtb forks (maybe with disc brakes??) that might work with this frame, or folks that have managed a thread less fork and headset conversion on something similar.

I’m NOT really interested in building it up and restoring as is, simply because I have an awesome Le Tour that is bone stock other than flat bars and appropriately matched brake levers, so I feel like they’d fill the same spot in my lineup.

thanks in advance for any advice!

Last edited by Travisb.burch; 04-13-21 at 07:09 AM. Reason: mis-stated bike in question
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Old 04-12-21, 01:30 PM
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Dylansbob 
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The stock fork is probably stronger than some modern forks. I occasionally ride singletrack on a '72 Schwinn Sports Tourer and regularly ride mountain bike trails on frame/forks from the 70s.
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Old 04-13-21, 04:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Dylansbob
The stock fork is probably stronger than some modern forks. I occasionally ride singletrack on a '72 Schwinn Sports Tourer and regularly ride mountain bike trails on frame/forks from the 70s.
that’s a good point- though I’m somewhat attracted to the frankenbeast nature of running a different fork. 😅 I have longer reach brakes on hand and was thinking of running 26” wheels so I could clear mtb tires on it
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Old 04-13-21, 05:26 AM
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Is it a "Sport," "Sports," "Super Sports," or "Sports Tourer?" Over the decades from the 1950s until the 1980s, there were several different models with "Sport" or "Sports" in the name. Can you describe or name some of the other components on your "Sport" in order to help us nail down which model you are trying to modify?

One challenge could be the headset. In some cases Schwinn used a size which is slightly different from other 1 inch headsets. For instance on a '60s='70s Super Sport, as best I know, other than the original headset, only an "Old School BMX" headset will fit.

Since most suspension forks have larger than 1" steering tubes, they won't work.
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Old 04-13-21, 07:11 AM
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Seeing your reply made me go back and look at the bike again - upon which I realized I'd dramatically misspoken. The bike is a mid/late 80's vintage SPRINT - not sport.... I wrote the initial post waiting in line at school for my son - The exhaust fumes must've been getting to me...

My bad....
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Old 04-13-21, 07:38 AM
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Ok, A Sprint probably has 27" wheels and a flat crown lugged fork.

If you can find a set of 700 wheels, you could probably fit ~38mm tire maybe a little bigger. I'd just do a threadless quill adaptor for the cockpit.

Putting 26" wheels would drop the bb pretty low, but not really a deal breaker unless you're a fixed gear nut. 650b would work better, but require custom building wheels. $$

There are a couple of problems that would still pop up, more than likely the spacing on an mtb wheel will be too wide for that frame (your frame is ~126mm spaced for the rear wheel, most mtb wheels are 135mm, maybe a 130 here and there). Again not a huge problem, stretch or cold-set to fit.

Tire size would still probably be limited to a hard 2" (50mm) width. Even dropping the wheel size down, there won't be clearance between the fork/stays for very wide rubber.

Now if you're just going to asthetics and are just going to "lowrider" it around, I'd find a dept store bike front suspension (sol if your frame is very big, most cheap bikes would have too short of steerer). Then I'd crimp the crap out of the chainstays with a pair of vise-grips and a bolt to try to get as big as possible in the back. Maybe a bannana seat, with the support stuts bolted to the fender eyelets....

I've seen a thing or two, because I've tried a thing or two.

Last edited by Dylansbob; 04-13-21 at 07:43 AM. Reason: more info
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