RoadWearier

Is the New Schwinn Varsity Better or Worse Than a GMC Denali?

​​​​​​Anyone try one? Even as a joke? There is one near me that needs a new rear tube for starters. Asking $75 but I'm sure he'd take $50 if I offered. Thought it might be an ok sub 20 mile bike or maybe for 12-14 mile rides with the local club.
Aluminum frame at least....

marathon marke

I have no idea what the new Varsity is like, but I would almost bet rgat it's got to be a better bike than the Denali. Unless there's a newer version of the Denali, those things used to come with split handlebars rhatcwere kept together with 2 shims that were clamped in the handlebar stem. That design has to be the winner for the most dangerous accident waiting to happen.

rsbob 

Had a ‘69 brown Varsity that I rode until 1982. That heavy beast had 10s of thousands of miles on it when it was done. I used it as a commuter bike to get to school, college and work. It was always dependable no matter how abused or neglected. It was more of an appliance than a pleasure bike. Seldom did anything more with it than commute. Luckily I was young and strong then and could power that thing.

RoadWearier

Yeah those shifters didn't make much sense. Would stem shifters REALLY been that much more expensive?

MNBikeCommuter

I commuted on a used '80s blue Varsity I picked up for $20. All 38 lbs of it--more than the tandem I bought a few years later. I had a 6.5 mile commute. Half a mile from home on one of them, there was a "ping!!!" and the rear got a little wobbly. I figured a broken spoke. Three miles later, another "ping!!!" and even more wobble. The brakes weren't rubbing so I pushed on as I really needed to get to work.

Once there, I did a quick check: all rear spokes were fine. The axle had snapped. I did catch a ride home that day...

marathon marke

Oh yes, I had forgotten about those crazy shifters.
But my original reply wasn't about the shifters, but SHIMS that were used to splice the two halves of the handlebars together. The manufacturer most likely did this so they could compact the parts as much as possible for shipping. But this seperation of the two halves is a very dangerous design, not only because that's that point of the highest stress of the bars, but also because if it wasn't assembled properly (AND checked regularly for tightness), the bars could easily split in two at a moment when someone is riding hard, like in a sprint out of the saddle.

Iride01 

If you are riding up quite a few hills you might have to expend more energy to keep up with the group. But even if this was the 46 pound 1979 Schwinn Varsity that I use to have, then it's doable for just a 20 mile ride and especially for just 12 mile rides.

How much does the new Schwinn Varsity with aluminum frame weigh? The 3 x 7 gearing will have you shifting the front often to stay in the correct ratio for the terrain conditions. But at $50, it'll be a good enough bike to get some experience on so you can figure out what you really want.

Koyote

This is like asking if Bud Light is better or worse than Miller Lite.

rsbob 

Speaking of the original shift levers, I remember many a time getting out of the saddle to sprint or climb and knocking one of the shift levers with my knees and inadvertently changing gears. Quite the design. And then there was those auxiliary brake levers running parallel to the bars, which were a joke. A dangerous joke.

Koyote

Dangerous? How?

Iride01 

Turkey legs is what I always heard them called. However I think they were properly called "safety levers" At least by some selling them. Though the only thing safe about them was they did let you start braking sooner. If you wanted to stop quickly however you needed to change hand position on the bars to grab the proper brake levers.

The "new" Schwinn Varsity should have a more proper... but older style STI on it. So one should either be on the hoods or the drops and not the bar or the drops as we were in the time before STI's or whatever the other brands called them.

rsbob 

Ineffective. I guess they had 75% less efficiency than the regular brake levers they would press. Don’t ask for an exact amount since I seriously doubt stats exist. That was MY impression.

Koyote, see Iride01 above too

Koyote

Eh. They worked fine, for their intended use, since they were mechanically connected to the brake levers -- in fact, pulling up on the safety levers just pushed the actual brake levers inward. If there was a limitation, it was due to leverage...But that was hardly the Varsity's biggest problem.

venturi95

On the Schwinn Varsity the safety levers did not pull the real brake lever all the way to the bars.

aliasfox

I presume you're referring to the ~$250 Wally World special Schwinn Varsity that's available today, rather than the old Varsity of two generations ago?

I don't see detailed specs, or even close up pictures, but having worked at bike shops in the past, and handled a fair amount of entry level machinery, here's my two cents: An entry level bike, be it a $250 big box bike or a $300 bike shop bike, is likely to have fairly similar componentry (GMC Denali's weird handlebar notwithstanding). One big difference is the level of care in assembly once it arrives to the store. If you're able to do your own wrenching on the gears, brakes, etc, you can assemble a perfectly serviceable around-town bike:
- Make sure you tighten down all the bolts - even crank bolts sometimes show up loose, and big box stores won't take the time to check
- Wheels might be poorly tensioned - hit a curb the wrong way and you could taco a lot more easily than you'd expect. So have a spoke wrench handy.
- Be prepared for alignment/facing to be less than optimal - your wheels may have to be a tiny bit cockeyed in their dropouts to run straight. If this happened at the shop, we'd straighten the frame with a big rod.

Assuming you can build up a boxed bike reasonably, and there's no insanely poor component choices, then my last recommendation would be to swap in some half-decent kevlar bead tires. My wife's REI hybrid came with 40mm wire bead Kendas that were nearly 900g per tire - the bike was much more enjoyable when I swapped those out to ~300g 32mm Panaracers. Even comparably sized Kevlar bead tires would have saved 400g per wheel, but my wife doesn't really leave the pavement.

Bob Ross

Same here, except mine was a yellow 1970 Varsity Sport that I rode until 1983. And I probably would have ridden it longer, except that Stephen Herrick (my drummer's roommate) "borrowed" it one night and never returned it. :angryface: FU, Steve.

Deal4Fuji

This is what a big box (Pacific) Varsity looked like around 2015 - Flat bar aluminum with probably Shimano Tourney shifters.

bblair

I rode my first century in 1974 on a used Varsity. Stripped it down and had it painted at Earl Scheib when they had a car already being painted in my chosen color. I called it the Competition model. I wore a T shirt and jean cutoff shorts.

rsbob 

Ah yes, I too rode wearing cutoffs and a T shirt. I stripped mine down for paint and due to some issue with the seat post or the seat, it never got reassembled.

RCMoeur 

My Bike Friday uses a similar system with the separate left & right bar segments held with a long sleeve compressed by the stem. Never had a bit of problem with it, but the sleeve is longer than that on the Denali.

At the co-op, we were dissecting a dessicated Denali and were curious if the twist shifters would fit standard road bars. Alas, the Denali used the 22.2 flat bar diameter in a road bar bend, so nope.

RCMoeur 

I did my first century in 1980 on a Varsity whose frame was 2" too tall for me. But it was the only bike I had at the time, so I rode it.

Not long after, I was drafting a city bus with the Varsity and forgot to brake. That big sombrero-wearing Phoenix Transit logo was smiling as I smashed into the rear of the bus just below the logo. Fortunately, the bus was not destroyed. The Varsity, of course, was unscathed.

Not long after that I put my first 'real' road bicycle (a Centurion Super Elite) on layaway. But I had to ride that dang Varsity for several months while I made the payments on the Centurion.

veganbikes

If the choice is between a Denali or modern varsity whatever that might be run don't walk to the nearest exit while screaming fire. I would never put money towards a used BSO unless scrap metal prices were so through the roof that I could really make some bank on it.

rsbob 

What I used to say about myVarsity is that it was so stout it would out live me.

roccobike

I wrench for a local bicycle charity group. We give bikes to needy people locally and we're the local collection point for Bikes For The World. Needless to say, we see several late model Varsity and Denali bikes come to us via our donations and I've worked on most of them. The items to check to see if it's a better model include the brakes, the fork and shifters/handlebars. The nicer riding models have a steel fork not aluminum. Sadly, Schwinn and Denali have resurrected the old design single pivot caliper brakes, and they're not the quality Shimano would have turned out back in the 80s. The better models have ProMax or generic dual pivot brakes. While a new owner might have to toe in the pads, these brakes are substantially better, especially under hard braking. This is a serious safety factor not to be taken lightly. Finally, there's the shifter/handlebar situation. The Rev shifters used on some of these bikes can not be laced onto a drop bar. So the manufacturer uses a steel, two part bars with a sleeve to keep them from separating during a ride. Other than the obvious weight penalty, there's not much difference between these shifters and the SIS stem shifters found on the bikes that don't use Rev shifters.
As was said before, go over any Schwinn Varsity or Denali road bike you're thinking of riding. Tighten all bolts and check the wheels, crank and headset for tightness.