jj1091

I was walking around the flea market, and a couple of early-70's Schwinns caught my eye. I wasn't really interested, since I'd sort of sworn off anymore N+1 acquisitions, so I was just looking out of interest's sake. I walked past them and wedged in between some junk and blankets and bedframes I noticed an old rusty black Schwinn sticking up, a frame with drop bars, a back wheel, crankset, handlebars, one brake caliper, and some early Weinmann levers. Looking at the graphics, I realized it was something I hadn't come across before, a Schwinn World model. Picking it up, I scraped off the grunge from the rear hub, and saw 12 53 Sturmey Archer, and those interesting graphics. I knew it was a lost cause, what with all the rust which was about to eat completely through the toptube and chainguard. The chainguard said "Traveler". Cool. "Hey, how much do you want for the old Schwinn?" I was figuring if it was more than $25 I'd walk away. "I'll take $10 for it."


Dang it, now I have a Schwinn.


So anyway, it took a bit to save this one. Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" pics of the bike, just some pics of the graphics before I restored them. Honestly, the graphics are the only thing I liked about the bike. But, you can picture the condition, just think 'piece of junk with severely pitted rust everywhere' and that's this one. The rear rim was shot from rust and I needed a front wheel, so I managed to get a replacement S-5 wheelset for $30. I disassembled the rear wheel, wanting to save the original 1953 hub, hand sanded and polished the spokes, cleaned the hubs, then re-laced both wheels with the old spokes and new rims.


For the frame, I used Evaporust, wrapping soaked paper towels covered with plastic wrap. It did a fair job of rust removal, but the pitting was pretty rough. So, it just got a basic primer-and-rattle-can job with Rustoleum black enamel, after masking off the graphics. Nothing special, a bit rumply, but painted.


The 3-speed S/A trigger shifter on the drop handlebars wouldn't work because they were designed for cruiser bars, and I hate any shifters that aren't downtube shifters, and I hate cruiser bars even more, so I modified the cable setup from the S/A shifter, and routed the cable to an old clamp-on shifter I had via an added-on BB cable guide. Worked perfect, in spite of everything telling me it wouldn't.


The graphics turned out to be more intensive. Luckily in my past I was an artist, and the fix here was to just repaint the graphics to be presentable, and not worry about the overall details, just a "looks good from ten feet" effort.


The graphics, before.








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The "after" pictures on following posts.

jj1091

The frame graphics after.
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Getting started.
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When done.
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jj1091

The fix for the shifter. The clamp-on band was too large, so I added a thick piece of leather under it to make it fit, and to stop it from slipping since the frame doesn't have a brazed-on stop for the band.


​​​​​​ I didn't want use one of those after-market S/A conversion clamp things at the rear, so I cut off the fixed cable-end at the shifter, then threaded it through my new Deore shifter and just tied a really tight knot in the cable and pulled it tight in the hole which normally takes a built-on cable end at the shifter. Had to measure 3 times and cut once, otherwise I'd have to get one of those clamp-on things to run all new cable. This way, the connection at the hub looks OEM-normal.

jj1091

And finally, the whole bike, restored. Closer shot of the overall graphics restoration.


The chainguard was almost a complete repaint. I masked off the "Traveler" logo which was mostly just a ghost image, enough to give me an outline.


The Art-Deco-ish headbadge.


The whole bike. I ordered some chrome Wald fenders for it, which I think will make it look just right. Rides comfy, just the thing for an urban cruise.
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nomadmax 

Stunning!

PilotFishBob 

Excellent! Nothing better than to see something that was likely headed to the scrap yard morph into such a beauty.

crank_addict

Way Neato!

TenGrainBread 

Cool B)

3speedslow

BigChief

Very well done. In fact, I think all the "by hand" detailing is well done and gives the bike a unique character. A great rags to riches story that ends with a pretty bike.

ollo_ollo

Very nice. Quite a ride actually! Don

bwilli88 

That looks great, nice job on the graphics.

gugie 

jj1091

Yeah, it was one of those, "well, it's only 10 bucks..." decisions, "...so it won't cost much to fix up". It needed a bit - tires, tubes, cables, brake levers, brake caliper, brake pads, a few spokes, 2 rims, and a can of spray paint. Then, I ordered some fenders for it. So now I call it my ten-dollar, $185-dollar bike.

jj1091

I was surprised after cleaning the hub up, that it worked smooth as silk. I didn't even attempt to disassemble and clean, just put some oil in it and let it spin. It's a '53, and I was born in '54, so I have to give it respect.

Whit51 

pastorbobnlnh 

Excellent! A real stunner! How challenging is it to friction shift an SA hub? Since I live in the mountains and rarely ride a SA, this is something I've never thought to do. I suppose a barend shifter could work as well.

rhenning

Pastor Bob I have used friction shifting with SA hubs. You soon learn where 2nd is and never stand up in 2nd gear. Roger

jj1091

I wrapped paper towels around them, soaked with Evapo-Rust, then covered them with plastic-wrap, and let sit for 24 hours. Removed the wrapping and wiped it down with denatured alcohol. Rust was gone, but the pitting was still there, so it took some sanding to get the pitting down to an acceptable level to paint.

jj1091

Not challenging, but I suppose it depends on your particular setup. For mine, I needed to get the shifter lever's wing-nut tightened down very tight, otherwise because of the tightness of the SA hub's spring wanting to pull the linkage chain and cable back in, it slips and wham, you're in another gear. Good and tight, it shifts right every time.

Also, because it has the barrel adjuster at the hub end, I set the length adjustment so that when I'm in the high gear (all the way forward on the shifter), I only have to pull the lever back about 1/2 inch to downshift. It makes it an easy index position. Pulling it all the way back, then I'm easily sure to be in low gear. You have less pull distance on a bar-end shifter, so it might be a little iffy. But, hey, that's what innovation is all about.

jj1091

Luckily, I didn't have any problems with that on my test ride, but when I put on the brakes the first time, I found out why it's a good idea to really, really, tighten the handlebar stem clamp. I was staring at the ground for a minute, and glad I didn't have one of those quadrant shifters mounted on the top tube, which would have impaled me.

jj1091

And of course, 2 hours after I took the photos, the Wald fenders showed up. Here's the new look.

PilotFishBob 

^^^ Completes the look. Very, very nice.

rickrob 

Excellent job! That's a really nice looking bike.

pastorbobnlnh 

How would you like some black leather hoods for those brake levers?