russian fighter

I'm thinking of buying a used Schwinn Traveler (bright blue, True Temper) on line. Is the frame suitable for touring? I believe it's only got rear brazeons for a rack. Anyone know the chainstay lenght (approximate?).

Thanks for any help.

cyclintom

The Schwinn Traveler was made from about 1950 onward. That covers a whole lot of territory.

Basically it was a sports recreational bike. It, like any moderately designed frame, could be used for touring with some changes. The chainstays on the modern (1980 onward?) Traveler were of moderate length. You could put a rack on the bike and use small to medium panniers without a problem. The tubing was SO strong that there wouldn't be a problem with loading the bike down. But the bike might object to loads by flexing about and riding funny under too much of a load.

Of course you could use medium sized pannier for short tours and a trailer for longer tours which is probably a better idea anyway.

And it may turn out that you don't like touring after a couple of short ones. And if you DO like touring you'd probably want a better bike at some point anyway.

I'd say go for it.

grolby

Well, it's suitable - suitable meaning "good enough." There are probably better choices out there, but if you're planning to do light touring only, you should be fine. If you want to do loaded touring, the lack of brazeons for a front rack could be frustrating.

Just about any bike with less than full-on race geometry and a comfy ride is suitable for touring, it's just a matter of degree, and whether or not you mind tinkering with things to get them to fit, etc.

russian fighter

Thanks for the advice, all. It's a beautiful bike--that electric blue color, very little wear, no tear, tuned and upgraded components, and pristine lugged True Temper steel, all for a few hundred bucks. I think I'll use it for riding in general, and I agree that a bike designed for touring makes more sense if I decide to do that one day.

The owner says the whole bike weighs about 22lbs. Assuming he's about right, that's not bad for a 20 year old steel lugged bike. At least I'll tell myself that.

I'm going for it...

Again, thanks.

russian fighter

Anybody know the estimated weight of a 61cm Schwinn Traveler w/True Temper (late 80's/electric blue)? I know it's a shot in the dark, but thought someone could ballpark it for me.

Thanks.

halfspeed

A =few= hundred? Just 22 lbs? Schwinn Traveler? How upgraded =are= those parts?

russian fighter

To be precise: it's about $250 for the complete bike. It is in great shape, but the parts aren't that new (or not as new as I thought). They have been tuned, etc. The True Temper steel sold me.

Thoughts on if this is a good deal or bad deal?

well biked

These bikes are discussed pretty often on the Classic and Vintage forum. By the late '80's, the Traveler had evolved into a fairly nice bike, not racy of course, but much different than, say, the Traveler's from the late '70's and early '80's. And I would agree with you, the best thing about them, by far, is the lugged steel frame, in this case probably butted 4130 chromoly. As far as weight, without knowing what the current components are it's impossible to say. But in its original form, the bike would have weighed about 26 or 27 lbs., with the frame weighing around 5 and a half pounds. And I'm not going to get into saying $250 is too much, a good deal, or whatever. Bikes like this are often sold at yard sales, etc. for $20-$30, so I will say that $250 seems ridiculously high, but that's just based on what I've seen. Prices may be much higher where you are-

russian fighter

Thanks. I think I agree--this bike, while nicely maintained, is probably too much. Ebay can be so tempting, eh?

cyclintom

Here's the problem - I just saw a Schwinn World in the bike shop. Aside from the fairly good upgrades the bikes was in absolutely showroom condition. The chrome looked like it just came out of the factory.

The owner had just bought it from the Goodwill for $16. Now I don't expect a deal like that to come up very often but for $250 you could probably ask at one of the local clubs and get someone's 'discarded treasure'.

Here are some locals:

https://www.chicagocyclingclub.org/more.html
https://www.windycitycyclingclub.com/wc_07_01.htm
https://www.elmhurstbicycling.org/
https://pages.ripco.net/~birdman/nbccindex.htm
https://home.cwru.edu/cycling/calenda...mwccc_road.htm
https://www.evanstonbikeclub.org/

THere are bound to be a few more so look around. Go to a meeting or if you have a bike show up for a couple of their rides and get to know them. Ask around and see if anyone has a bike in your size for sale. Most clubs have someone with a bike your size that they're trying to get rid of.

Inoplanetyanin

I used early 80s Schwinn Traveler to go from LA to NY. It performed beautifuly!

https://www.geocities.com/scosyrev/tr...k/bicycle.html


Otlichnyi velosiped! Udachi!

well biked

That's a nice looking bike......you should be able to tell the year model by looking closely at the head badge and finding four small numbers stamped into it. This is the code for the bike's date of manufacture, with the the first three numbers being the numerical day of the year, and the last number being the last digit in the year it was made. Example: 2501 would mean the bike was made on the 250th day of 1981, if it's an '80's bike......as for the tubing, if it's an '82 or earlier, I believe, it would be made of 1020 steel. I believe it was '83 that 4130 chromoly became the tubing material, although it might be slightly later for the Traveler......During this time, Travelers were made in Japan for Schwinn. This is not a bad thing, because in retrospect some of the best values in lugged steel bikes came out of Japan at this time.